Yesterday, Microsoft accidentally revealed that it was accepting beta testers for the new Xbox Live dashboard. It was taken offline only a few hours later, only to reappear again today. This time, it is official. The new dashboard offers numerous new features, as well as a new Metro user interface.
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Looks like Microsoft is finally accepting beta testers for the new Xbox Live Dashboard, which offers a Metro UI look and feel, as well as more integrated Kinect voice and gesture controls, Facebook sharing, cloud storage for game saves and Xbox LIVE profiles, and a new social broadcasting feature called Beacons.
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In addition, we will see Bing search integrated into the dashboard and support for YouTube. Microsoft is hoping to make it easy for users to do voice searches via the addition of Bing and Kinect integration. Users can search for movies, music, and other content on their Xbox using the new dashboard. A Marketplace will also likely be introduced to offer applications created for the console.
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Yesterday, Microsoft posted that it was accepting new users into the Xbox Live beta program. Fast forward a few hours later on Microsoft Connect, the company issued a short statement stating that, “at this time we are not currently accepting registrations for the public preview program.. stay tuned for future updates when the registration process begins.” When asked about the update that went live “accidentally”, Microsoft replied by saying, “unfortunately we don’t have any details to share at this time.”
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You can sign up to become a beta tester here.
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