E3: 360 getting Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm News
Xbox 360 News by Dan Pearson
Microsoft has announced Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm for Xbox 360 and talked up the new instant-on, 1080p Zune Marketplace. The new services will all launch this autumn.
Facebook allows you to view friends, photos and profiles on the dashboard, and of course post status updates, while a new Facebook Connect feature allows you to post screenshots to your profile and will work with Tiger Woods PGA Tour and other games.
Last.fm allows users to 'scrobble' listening habits in its current internet incarnation, building up a profile of what you listen to in order to serve you a tailored radio service on demand. With over 30 million listeners worldwide, it's a well-established service already, but the Live service will apparently feature 'special interface' options to enhance the experience.
After the conference, Microsoft said that Last.fm for Xbox 360 could be sampled free by all Xbox Live members and the full service would be available to Gold subscribers, and people with Last.fm membership and Gold would "gain even more terrific personalisation features".
Meanwhile, Zune Marketplace will be the new branding for the Video Store, films will be upgraded to 1080p, and the number of countries where it's available is going up from eight to 18, adding Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
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Comments: 1-27 of 27 in total
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citizenHUNTER
01/06/09 @ 19:22
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agree for the web browser comment. Lol, with Natal and this... things really looking rather skillful as far as 360 goes atm. Liking it. A lot. If it all qworks as well as promised/one hopes. :D
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The_Programmer
01/06/09 @ 19:42
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The Wii is much cheaper than the 360
What planet do you live on. The Xbox 360 Arcade RRP is £129.99, the 360 with 60GB HDD RRP is £169.99 & the WII RRP is £179.99. The WII is the second most expensive console after the PS3. |
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GamesProgrammer
01/06/09 @ 20:05
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Weird thing to boast about my ps3, psp and wii launched with access to these sites, and a few billion others.
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Yay!! Video-store in Sweden. Will be interesting to see what kind of content we are getting there. Maybe this will get Apple to finally get some licensing deals done and offer the same in iTunes here.
As for webbrowser. I'm not rally fan of webrowsing on the Wii etc. so I personally rather take good GUI:s for the services on the 360. It's a bit like on the iPhone. Yes, I can use the browser for stuff like Facebook, Twitter etc. but I still rather use the apps that bring a good frontend to the services tailormade for my iPhone. |
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technofranki
01/06/09 @ 20:27
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Oh. Facebook and Twitter might come handy, so will Last.FM. And I like that Norway finaly can rent movies on Xbox. Been waiting for that for a long time.
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SeesThroughAll
01/06/09 @ 20:33
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@ Widge
...hehehehe... Right on the spot there, mate ;) On topic: I think this is really cool though, I like it, it's making me consider a 360 myself. If Sony wants to step up their game, maybe they should think about interfacing the PSN with the new Google Wave protocol somehow... Aren't they supposed to have some sort of "partnership" with Google?
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 01/06/09 @ 21:34
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SeesThroughAll
01/06/09 @ 20:55
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Partly...
It is a crappy netfront browser, after all... but I've checked email and Facebook there before, yes. |
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Vice.Destroyer
01/06/09 @ 21:54
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@Milky. Read swedbears comment. It is just such a perfect riposte to 'but this is so lame, the PS3 can do this already comment', that I am going to paste it every time someone says it. Which will probably be once every 20 minutes until it finally comes out.
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The Bodybuilder
01/06/09 @ 22:37
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This is a brilliant move by MS.
Sky On-Demand, last.fm, facebook (I don't care for twitter), and all exclusive to gold. Value is what matters, and making these things exclusive to gold makes it even more valuable. Its an absolutely fantastic move. |
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Mentalist(air)
01/06/09 @ 22:53
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The Wii is much cheaper than the 360, yet offers wireless access straight from the box and is internet-browsing enabled.
Also, unless you got it before June 2007, you have to pay extra for the Wii's web browser. Perhaps once they've got this Minory Report doohicky out, it might be worth having a 360 webbrowser, but until then it's going to be as awkward as web browsing on a non-touchscreen mobile phone. |
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wellzy4eva
06/06/09 @ 13:48
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for me, it depends how well integrated it all becomes, and how many options you can turn on and off, I don't want people facebook instant messaging me in the middle of a game, but messages wouldn't bother me and so on
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Comments: 1-27 of 27 in total
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