XBox 360 Spring Dashboard Update: Yawn
Major Nelson released some info on the Spring 2007 Dashboard Update for the XBox 360's firmware, and basically it's a big yawn. A couple of nice little touches, like being able to see the name of an achievement you've just earned without having to hit the guide button, and MSN Messenger integration, but where are the cool new features?
The Wii added the Everybody Votes channel not that long ago, and the PS3 is promising Home. Both of those consoles have the Opera web browser available.
Now, I suppose you could say that Microsoft is focusing on gaming, and that would be a pretty reasonable thing to do - XBox Live's gaming features make a lot more sense than what Home is going to offer - but part of the reason for the updates is to keep it fresh. Add some new toys to get people to dust off the 360 if they've not been using it lately. Create a little buzz.
There is so much Microsoft could do. How about streaming video from Soapbox? A map browser tied into Virtual Earth? Anything?
The disappointing thing is that now that we know what's coming for Spring 2007, the next update is ~7 months away. No new toys until then.