Medic Media

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has been running strong since it’s release in late 2005.  The console has seen a major update every 6 months that have added new features, fixed known problems, and made the overall experience that much better.  This time we’re getting a complete overhaul, Microsoft will be trashing the current “dashboard” for something a little more user friendly.  How will it work out exactly?  Lucky for you Microsoft has allowed people to install the update early using a flash drive.

Gizmondo has already posted a review of the update, thankfully it is mostly positive.

Gizmondo.com review of NXE

I’ve also been lurking through the Gamespot.com forums to see what some people are saying about this update.  One of the most popular and most talked about of the new features is the ability to download your games onto your Xbox 360’s hard drive to reduce load times and strain on the console.  However, it appears that you’re going to need a hefty chunk of digital space if you plan on doing this with your game collection.  Apparently the games are averaging sizes of about 6 or 7 gigabytes, which can fill up a 20GB hard drive fairly quickly.  On a side note the games seem to download quickly with most users quoting times of 5 to 10 minutes.

Now for those of you with gigs to spare you may also like to get acquainted with the new NetFlix feature.  This feature will allow NetFlix subscribers to stream HD movies straight from NetFlix in a matter of seconds.  And yes, I did say HD as this update is also the debut of HD streaming from NetFlix.

Hopefully Microsoft is able to make the transition to this new setup a smooth one as the millions of users log on tomorrow to experience it.  I’ll be here to post an update with my own impressions of the revamped service and all of it’s features.