Autumn 360 update tomorrow

Microsoft has announced that the Autumn system update for the Xbox 360 dashboard will launch tomorrow morning (Tuesday, 31st October), including support for native 1080p games, making a few improvements to Live Arcade and adding more movie playback options.

There will be 85 new features and enhancements in total, a full list of which is set to appear on www.xbox.com/live soon. In the meantime, here are some highlights Microsoft's cherry-picked for its press release:

• You'll be able to stream WMV videos from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Connect.
• You'll be able to play video files from data CDs and DVDs, USB 2.0 flash drives, and Xbox 360 Memory Units.
• Xbox 360 will support 50Hz HDTV display modes.
• There'll be an option to automatically download new Xbox Live Arcade trial versions as they're released.
• The Live Arcade menus will load almost instantly, instead of taking a while like they currently do, with "Recently Played" and "By Category" sorting options.
• Expanded Live Arcade Friends leaderboards will allow you to compare yourself to friends, with a top-ten friends list too.
• An expanded Achievements View will add more detail to achievements lists for Arcade games, including descriptions, icons, allotted Gamerscore and more.
• Selecting "Play Now" when you finish downloading a Live Arcade game will bypass the Live Arcade menu and launch it immediately.
• A "Tell A Friend" feature will allow you to send a message to a friend quickly alerting them to a new Arcade game.
• And, as XNA Game Studio Express launches, you'll be able to test and play games created using it on Xbox 360.

You don't have to do much to take advantage of the system update either - just log in to Xbox Live tomorrow and it will prompt you to download it automatically, and upon rebooting all the new functionality will be in place.