New Xbox 360 2011 dashboard update is now live!

The new Xbox 360 dashboard is now live! I personally like the dashboard of the 360 more than the Playstation 3 but its hard to navigate to find what you really need. This dashboard update fixes seems to fix that and added features that will make any Xbox 360 owner happy.

My Xbox 360 is already updated so I've tried the new dashboard myself. Off the bat, it's definitely easier to navigate compared to the old one. I remember taking awhile finding a specific content in the games marketplace because of how cluttered the content was. Now, everything feels simplified and compact. The overall layout of the dashboard design was definitely made for people with Kinect though, but the reason why I think this dashboard will work overall is because this layout is still friendly to users navigating with a controller.

If you don't like the new layout maybe the new feature will make you appreciate the latest update. The first one is my favorite.

Cloud Save

Yes! This is a great addition. A place to put your save files as either backup or if you'd like to play your save in a friend's house. This feature gives each Xbox Live gold member 500+MB of storage space to put your player profile and game files. The files saved on your cloud save will be accessible in any Xbox 360 console when you log into your account. While I don't see myself going to a friend's house to play with my save file, at least I won't be in a complete lose if something happened to my Hard Disk. I just love the fact that you have an option to place game files on Xbox Live for back-up. Back up is so important.

Beacons and Activity

I really like this idea. So usually you join a group or send a message asking if they want to play  some Call of Duty or any type of game. With Beacons and Activity, it makes it easier for people to find who's up to play a specific game in your friends list or Facebook account. Adding a beacon lets you state that your up for a specific game. When you set the beacon up, your friends will be notified that your up for that type of game, even though your seen playing Skyrim for 10 hours straight. You also have the option to sync your Facebook account and say that you want to play this game with friends. Beacons and Activity also records you and your friends currently gaming activity. It pretty much records what you've played recently and for how long.

Bing Search engine

Like I said, easier to navigate through Xbox Live. Bing is Microsoft's search engine and gives you yet another way to navigate through all of Xbox Live's content with ease. Put something like Fable in the search, and the search result will organize all content related to fable. Its pretty darn fast when searching too. I also appreciate that its first in the line of categories so I can go straight to what I need to see.

Xbox Live is really growing on me. I appreciate how easy it now is to navigate and the fact that it feels smooth and fast during its release day. So far no issue. This is not the end of what I'd like to call 360 Dashboard 2011. They say that they will be integrating youtube, the promised UFC application, and more before 2011 ends.