One of my top 10 criticisms of the Xbox 360 dashboard last year was that you couldn't preview themes before buying. Your only recourse was to wait until some Web jockey at Xbox.com got around to posting the images, usually two weeks to a month after the theme was released. No more. DashboardThemes.com (not run by Microsoft!) has a comprehensive catalog of the Xbox Live Marketplace theme previews, shown as they would (more or less) on your Xbox 360. While far from complete, the site is a vast improvement over Microsoft's meager offering.In related news, I'm working on a follow-up to that Xbox 360 dashboard review, as well as a similar treatise on the Wii's interface. What are your thoughts - has Microsoft improved the Xbox 360 dashboard enough, or is there still a ways to go? Can third parties fill the void? How do you think Wii compares?
Comments (1)
I’m a big fan of the Dashboard myself. It still has things to improve upon, but just the fact that Microsoft left the option open for updates and improvements in the first place is fantastic.
I think it is great to be able to turn on my console and actually have lots to do without even putting a game into the system. My PS2, Original Xbox and Gamecube all appear to boring now whenever I turn them on.
I spend lots of time listening to music (the visualizer looks pretty nice on my HDTV too, and a great thing to have on in the background when entertaining friends in a dinner party/get-together), I love streaming pictures from my computer and watching them in a slide show with music playing in the back ground (I have an 8 pixel, digital SLR camera and the pics look glorious on my HDTV), I like watching DL’d trailers or game videos, playing game demos, Live Arcade (although I only really enjoy a handful of games so far), and the Marketplace (although prices and in-game content is getting a little out of control).
Overall, I think it is a fantastic user-interface. It looks great, is customizable, and offers a lot of options. Far more than we’ve had for a console in the past. And it will only continue to get better.
Here’s hoping for a web-browser.
Posted by tanis38 | January 3, 2007 9:03 AM
Posted on January 3, 2007 09:03