The full preview should be ready to go later this week, but I got access to it yesterday. Didn't take long to download, and although there isn't much in it, it's looking pretty cool so far.

Twitter and facebook are in their own sub-dashboards and move just as quick as the regular dashboard. The Zune stuff is also pretty fast (I'm waiting til later in the week to try it out though.)

Far's I can tell, they're still accepting sign-ups in case anyone else isn't registered yet. There's no guarantee of being accepted, but hey, who wouldn't want to use all that social networking on their XBox?

Quick question, just to satisfy my curiosity, when it gets fully released, will you need to be a Gold or Silver member to make use of it?


Also I don't get the whole big deal, you've been able to do Twitter and FB on the PS3 and Wii since like they came out.

Even the wee DSi does Facebook and has direct Facebook pic upload

You need to be Gold for the Zune, but I'm not sure about Twitter and FB. The main difference between them and PS3/Wii is the fact that this is connected through the system rather than having to go in through a browser.

I'm still waiting to find someone else who has it so I can see how it interacts, but I think it's an official and automatic way of updating your news feeds when you log in/start playing/join a party etc.

Even if it's through the system, on the PS3 and Wii just bookmark the pages, it's just as easy. Microsoft are making this whole huge song and dance about the social interaction thing and it's not really that big a deal imo.

True, it's not that big a deal, but the Zune/movie-streaming (Netflix in the US) capabilities and the last.fm interaction are interesting, even if you're not that impressed with them. It's just MS trying to move the XBox more into the area of "entertainment" than just "gaming" in a much-more customised capacity than either of the other two have really managed yet.

I guess but still *shrugs* not too exciting lol. I certainly am not hooking it up to the net just for fb and Twitter . I have about 5 other devices for that . Although the Ability to post like chris just earned this achievement as a status update live in game would be sweet

Well the live-updating of achievements is where it's headed, though obviously you'd need to be connected for it to work. Though, like with FB/Twitter on your PS3/Wii, it's a service that Raptr already does (and XBoxTweets) so it's a bit redundant if you already use that. But I'm pretty sure that's the point: you're on twitter, see a friend is playing X game (as updated by the XBox) so you jump in and join.

Def not looking forward to this. I've never used facebook nor twitter before, not interested in starting it on my box now.

Its free for everyone as far as i know except for Last.fm

Oooh, isn't Last.fm simply marvellous on the Xbox? I've never really bothered with it before but today I had a go and put it a Lithuanian artist (fave of mine) in the Tag Radio box and it brought up a load of other similar ones who I'd never heard of before. What a fantastical way of expanding one's library.

And last.fm is so good for parties and getting going out tunes on.

last.fm is awesome, but everything else they've added is wank.

Hark! Why are you all dissing Facebook and Twitter? I don't use said software but I thought the vast majority would like it?

Well while it is integrated in to the dashboard much more I don't have a chat pad or a keyboard so to be honest it's a fucking waste of time. It's an update that needs more hardware and I'm not spending any more dollar on MS branded stuff.

I can be on Facebook within 30 seconds on my DSi. Wouldn't bother putting the Xbox on for it and actually, I use my laptop as a wireless bridge for the Xbox anyway haha so it's kinda pointless for me.