Today Netflix announced a plan change to their incredibly popular movie rental service, splitting the ability to watch instantly and physical DVD rentals into two different packages. While the initial reaction has been negative (and understandably so, adding around $5 to a typical user’s monthy bill) I do believe they know what they are doing. Hear me out. (more…)
Major Nelson posted more details on the previously mentioned dashboard. Some exciting new features coming down the pipe.
Play from the hard drive: The ability to copy your game to the hard drive on your Xbox. Play right from the drive and save your disk. You will have to insert the disk to confirm ownership though (of course).
Web Access to LIVE Marketplace: Buy downloads from the web and have it download automagically to your console. New maps, TV and movies or even arcade games.
Xbox LIVE Party System: Create a party of up to 8 friends and hang out! Play games together, watch Netflix together (sweet!) or share personal photos. And finally, chat with more than 2 people!
Avatars: Mentioned earlier, this is your personally created character. You can play games with your avatar as well. We’ll have to wait to see more on what that is about.
and new display support: If you use a widescreen LCD computer monitor, you know what I mean when I say “sweet! 1440X900 support!” That’s right, Xbox 360 will do 16×10 aspect ratio. Awesome.
Microsoft Xbox 360 FTW!
E3 is well underway and Microsoft came out swinging today. With the announcement of the new fall dashboard Xbox users will have the fun of customizing their own avatars!
Looking somewhat like the Mii that Wii users are familiar with, the Xbox 360 Avatar is your representation of yourself to the world. Customize your character, form a party with your friends and play avatar friendly games together. Best of all, you can form a party and then watch some Netflix Watch Now together. Sweet!