Coming to Xbox 360... E3 Announcements round up (pt1)

Now, I know I’m a little late out of the gate here but as I’m sure most of you are aware E3 happened recently and Microsoft have announced some amazing feature coming to the Xbox 360 and Xbox live. Here’s my run down of what’s in the pipeline.

1st off Xbox announced their answer to the ever evolving world of social networking. They are teamed up with two of the big hitters in this space, Twitter and Facebook, to bring these services right into your Xbox 360 gaming experience through Xbox live.

Facebook– This addition to Xbox live will mean you will always be connected to you friends any time, any where, any couch. But this service wont only be limited to updating your status or sharing pictures. Through Facebook’s service ‘facebook connect‘ you will also be given the ability to share your in game glory monents by posting updates and screen shots directly to your account.I can’t wait to start posting pic’s of my plasma grenades going off in my buddies face!

Twitter– The guys from Twitter can add yet another Twitter client to their, already massive, list of 3rd part apps to leverage their service. Right from your 360 you’ll be able to post status’s, read all the updates from the people you are already following and reply to any direct messages you may have, meaning you’ll always have your finger on the pulse without even having to leave your arm chair.

Last.Fm –In an unexpected, but welcome, announcement the Last.Fm service will be coming to Xbox Live’s Gold members. Many of you Iphone users will be familiar with this service but this will be the 1st time its been used in such a way that it could be an integral part of your day to day entertainment. This service provides its users the ability to create personalised radio stations based on your musical taste and then music is streamed to the user, thus meaning you will have unlimited access to more music than you could ever actually listen too…sweet. All you illegal downloaders who have a guilty conscience can sleep easy knowing you have a LEGAL alternative (*you know who you are).Did I mention the best bit? this service is all free! *don’t forget you need to be a gold member of xbox live.

Movies –All you movie fans out there haven’t been left out in the cold either. Instant on movies will be available, no need for any discs or lengthy downloads, movies will simply be streamed straight to your console. All this viewing goodness will all be available in high definition, 1080p and 5.1 surround sound no less! In addition live party for movies was announced giving the ability to watch your favorite films with your xbox live friends in a party.

Personally I can’t wait to see these services come to my 360, I’m an avid user of all things in the social networking space and I find it fascinating all the ways creative ways designers bring all these different service together to make one big happy family… awe (blurr, pass the sick bag). Post your comments bellow, let me know what you think about these service, too much? clouding what the 360 is all about? great? one more excuse to pick an xbox over other consoles? Stay tuned for next part of my e3 run down coming soon…

P.s. Once these services are launched i’ll try to do a full run down of exactly what you can and can’t do with them.

Facebook 3.0 Update for Iphone Coming soon. Push coming later.

ook like face book are about to release an update for their Iphone app. Unfortunately push wont be included this time round.

It would have been nice for Facebook to have had push ready for the 3.0 launch last month… oh well thems the breaks!

Article take from theIphone blog website

Whether the idea of push notification for the iPhone Facebook app makes you want to do a happy dance, or just run screaming for the delete button, according to a recently published note, you won’t be getting it in the 98% completed Facebook 3.0 anyway:

Push Notifications, is in development but it won’t make it into 3.0. You can expect it in a 3.1 update later this summer.

So what will Facebook 3.0 bring? The “new” news feed, ability to “like” status, events with rsvp, notes, pages, better photo management and browsing, a new home screen, fixed comment notifications, SMS and call from friends screen, and auto-save so incoming calls don’t kill your unfinished messages.

New Facebook Privacy controls take on twitter

Facebook are making plans improve their service to better twitter. An article posted on PCworld.com, talks about how Facebook are planning to change privacy options which will bring greater control over messages posted by its users, specifically who gets to see them on a post by post basis. See original article here

In a move that may actually pass without a huge uproar, Facebook has begun testing new privacy options that will make the service pretty much just like Twitter, but only if you want it to be. Or so they say.

If these changes pass without a big user protest it would mark something of a return to normalcy for the service, which in the recent past has become globally-recognized for its ability to tiff users at seemingly every turn.

Once the changes–now in beta and not yet final–are complete, users will be able to decide who can see their Facebook posts on a post-by-post basis. The sounds like a chore, and may be if not implemented properly, but it also makes Facebook potentially much more flexible and useful than Twitter.

With the enhanced privacy controls, described by Facebook execs here and here, users will be able to select quite specifically–from everyone on the planet down to a single friend–who sees which posts.

Twitter makes no such allowances. Once you’ve accepted a follower, they see everything you Tweet. That aspect is part of what makes Twitter more like a news or announcements service and less a way to share information with only your close friends. That, and the 140-character message limitation, which Facebook lacks.

The new Facebook controls, as I understand them, would allow me to post links to blog posts like this one for everyone to see, while items of interest only to my ham radio friends would be visible only to a group of people that I’ve specifically selected.

Create enough groups and you could make Facebook publishing a pretty granular thing, while still maintaining a public face by posting to everyone. This could become complex, but only if you want to add lots of groups and sometimes forget to select the proper setting before sharing.

Reading Facebook’s description of the planned changes, which include getting rid of the oh-so-useless regional networks, I can’t find anything that makes the hair on the back of my neck rise. That is an unusual experience with Facebook lately, so I’ll have to go back and reread a few times.

Still, with the addition of friendly URLs (I am www.facebook.com/coursey), and the forthcoming privacy changes, Facebook may become a better Twitter than Twitter as well as a better Facebook than Facebook is today.

Finally, a Facebook change I may not have to vote against.

David Coursey, who has been called “cranky” in some blog circles, points out that this post is almost warm and cuddly. He tweets as techinciter and can be reached directly using the form at www.coursey.com/contact.

So, what are your thoughts, good thing or bad thing? Post your comments bellow