According to Xbox Live's Major Nelson, Microsoft will begin systematically rolling out the Xbox Live Dashboard update this morning sometime between 5am EST/2am PST and 9am EST/6am PST. For those wondering, as per the Major, there is no way to force the download to begin - you just have to wait for Live to select you as ready for the update.
"While the update is being released at 0200 PT not everyone will receive it immediately. It can take up to four hours for a user to be prompted to receive this update, so please be patient. There is no way to speed up the process, every Xbox 360 will receive the prompt to upgrade sometime between 0200 and 0600 (or the next time you sign in to Xbox Live.) " - Major Nelson
To be clear, this is the big Dashboard update everyone has been talking about for the last few weeks, not the upcoming backwards compatibility update. Looking over the list of new features, I've got to say the following are the ones I find most exciting;
New Features
- “Download manager” - Marketplace items now download in the background, queue up to six pieces of content.
- “Boot to Dashboard” setting will bypass the loading of any disc in the drive and open directly to Dashboard during power-on
- “All Arcade Games” added as a selection in the Xbox Live Arcade area
- Personal gamer pictures allowed as Gamertiles – displayed only to those on your Friends List
DVD Playback
- Improved visual quality
- Improved playback smoothness
- Repaired playback stutter during certain films
Memory Area Improvements
- Improved overall performance, allowing quicker access to content
Miscellaneous Improvements
- Show “Last Played Game” selection in Xbox Live Arcade first before enumerating all games (when Arcade game was last game played)
- Improved download performance for popular content being downloaded through Marketplace
- Total USB keyboard support
Looks like MS is hoping to keep people on the straight and narrow as far as gamer pictures go by restricting custom pics to people on your friends list. Not a bad idea, but I still see them getting complaints from people who may have a lot of people on thier friends list that they don't really know well.
While the above list may seem huge on it's own, it's only the tip of the iceberg. You can check out the full list of changes to the Dashboard here and the full text of the Major's message here.
