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Xbox 360 'New Dashboard' captured on video, Kinect and all
We had a chance to check out Microsoft's new New Xbox Experience – being simply called the "New Dashboard" this time around – last month, but the slick Metro UI was curiously camera shy. However, when plied with the the romance of the French language, Microsoft somehow let a video of the new UI leak into the always open arms of the internet. Above, you'll find over two minutes of furtive, french footage full of features, including full Kinect support of the UI – no more Kinect Hub, thankyouverymuch! Although the much-vaunted voice search is absent, it's worth noting that the video is muted, so not only would a tour of the new dash's voice search feature be worthless, it would also be in french. "Xbox, Bing Le Batman." What does that even mean?
Bloomberg: Xbox Live getting Comcast, Verizon access; expects HBO, Crackle, Bravo, Syfy, Lovefilm, and more
A report earlier this month said that Microsoft's upcoming "Live TV" service -- part of the Xbox 360's upcoming Dashboard refresh -- would feature pay television service from the likes of Comcast and Verizon, who have 22.5 million and 3.8 million TV subscribers, respectively. Now, the far more reputable Bloomberg is reporting the same, citing "people with knowledge of the situation." "Microsoft [...] is in talks with almost two dozen providers of music, sports, movies and TV shows in the U.S. and Europe, and may announce an expanded Xbox Live streaming service as soon as next week, said one of the people, who weren't authorized to speak publicly," Bloomberg reports. But it's not just Comcast and Verizon. Microsoft also "expects to sign deals with Time Warner Inc. (TWX)'s HBO cable channel, Sony Pictures Entertainment's Crackle streaming service, NBC Universal's Bravo and Syfy channels and Lovefilm UK, a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)," one of Bloomberg's sources says. Overall, Microsoft is "in talks with almost two dozen providers of music, sports, movies and TV shows in the U.S. and Europe" and it could announce the fruits of those negotiations "as soon as next week." Two of Bloomberg's sources say that existing customers of both Comcast and Verizon will only need to prove they are pay-TV customers to gain access to the services on the Xbox.
Xbox's David Dennis on July NPDs, Kinect growth, and the 'new dash'
In July 2010, on the back of the newly redesigned Xbox 360 and shelf-clearing sales on the old model, Microsoft enjoyed one of its strongest months of non-holiday console sales ever. So while the Xbox 360 managed to best its console counterparts this July, it was also "the first month that the Xbox 360 saw a year-over-year decline since December 2009." That fact doesn't bother Microsoft product manager David Dennis, who told Joystiq, "If you actually jump back two years and look at what the typical run-rate is in the middle of the summer, it's pretty close. We're actually a little above where it was." Considering the first Xbox console only enjoyed a four-year lifespan before the Xbox 360 arrived on the scene, Microsoft doesn't have a lot of institutional knowledge to rest on when it comes to maintaining a vibrant platform late in a console's lifecycle. But six years in, and the Xbox 360 has managed to reinvent itself thanks to Kinect. "Console transitions are expensive," Dennis said. "They're expensive for platform companies like ourselves and they're expensive for the third parties that have to learn new programming languages and learn new architectures."
