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Xbox 360 Gets Big Update

by Tim Stevens on April 9, 2007 at 12:45 PM



Like a fine wine, the Xbox 360 just keeps getting better with age. Microsoft has announced that the next set of Xbox 360 improvements will show up just over a month from now on May 7th. The biggest addition is the inclusion of Windows Live Messenger into the 360's Dashboard, enabling you to not only chat with your Xbox Live buddies, but also with your PC-based ones. Since typing via the on-screen keyboard is a drag for anything more than a quick "yo," Microsoft is addressing this issue with a new mini-keyboard add-on for the standard Xbox 360 controller. It'll plug into the headphone jack, pictured, so your thumbs can do the typing on its condensed QWERTY buttons.

A raft of other minor improvements will also be included, such as a new in-game popup that gives more information about unlocked achievements, the ability to quickly track your friends' high scores in the Xbox Live Arcade, better controls for watching videos and, finally, an option to automatically shut down your 360 after your current set of downloads has completed. None of these updates on their own would be anything to get too excited about, but combine them and you have a nice improvement for the low-low price of free.

Xbox 360 Dashboard Update


Tags: Dashboard, Messenger, Xbox 360, Xbox360

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