Facebook, Twitter, Movies On Demand Hit Aussie Xbox 360s Nov. 17
Australians will be able to access Facebook and Twitter on their Xbox 360 consoles at the same time as the rest of the world, starting Tuesday. We’ll also see the long-awaited launch of the Movies On Demand channel.
Facebook and Twitter are, as you might expect, cut-down versions of the social networks, tweaked to cater for the console interface. One nice feature of the Facebook integration is the ability to merge your Facebook and Xbox Live friends lists.
Movies On Demand brings streaming and downloadable movie rentals to the console, with titles available in HD and SD. But be warned: you’ll need a nippy connection to stream in 1080p. Around 100 movies are currently available in the preview, so expect a similar number for the public launch next week.
“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our members,” said Andrew Jenkins, product manager for Xbox LIVE Australia. “The difference for Xbox LIVE has always been our community and we’ve already seen a tremendous response to these features in our public preview. It’s the community that drives us forward and allows us to pioneer new ways of connecting people through the entertainment they love.”
One thing we will be missing out on is Last.fm, the music-streaming service launching in other territories as part of this dashboard update. Microsoft has yet to comment on why Last.fm will not be available in Australia.
Comments
who cares untill we scrap our archaic internet system (i.e data cap’s) no video on demand or music on demand service will be viable here
I agree. Unless it’s on freezone, it just wouldn’t be practical to anyone with a monthly data allowance. Especially the HD stuff!
However, seeing iinet offer freezone metering for xbox live, i wonder if movies on demand will count as “xbox live” or if it registers as an “xbox live application” before it gets back to the service provider
From iiNet’s Xbox Freezone page:
(excludes all paid for content such as movies etc)
Annoying. I can understand them being unwilling to help subsidise something that MS collect moneys for, but a) it should cost them very little, assuming MS cache locally, and b) MS could kick a little % in their direction.
No quota-free streaming will basically double the cost of a 1080p movie (depending mostly on your ISP plan).
Pretty sad that it seems to take Sony releasing PlayTV for Microsoft to push this stuff out here.
I’d hardly call it a coincidence.
If Sony had pushed out their music service, I’d venture a bet and say we would seeing LastFM along with this update.
Luckily the market is competitive.
Didn’t sony only just announce PlayTV for Australia? I may be wrong, though, I haven’t kept a close eye on it.
You can blame the music companies for not getting access to last.fm. They hold all the licensing rights for each territory any wont give companies like last.fm or pandora worldwide access.
Thanks to iiNet, I’ll look forward to giving movies on demand a go. But I’ll probably fall back to Video Ezy simply out of habit and range.
Actually Tom, the movies aren’t included in Freezone
Video on demand with iiNet is not quota free. FYI.
I hit iinet up about if the movies would be unmetered and they said they wouldnt be.. so watch you data limit :)
The iiNet Freezone doesn’t cover paid services (except the multiplayer), so downloaded movies don’t count.
You may want to double check with iiNet though.
It might be worth giving iinet a call regarding movies on demand. I’m currently with optus (cable) and get great speeds but the download limit would vanish quickly if I streamed a few HD films. As I’m about to move house I thought I’d check out the competition. When I rang iinet (after waiting on hold for 25mins) the man I spoke to (while admittedly was no so bright) seemed pretty certain that movies on demand would not count towards their ‘freezone’.
Maybe I just spoke to a poopoo customer service rep, but you might want to check it out.
iiNet confirmed they’re not quota free on whirlpool.net.au
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1303307&p=3#r43
Just to clear anything up. I hope they do secure it though, it would really make me use this service quite a bit.
“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our American members,”
fixed.
I’m not sure the movies are covered by iinet that way.
There’s nothing particularly interesting about this update – facebook etc are totally who-cares and unsuited to the platform anyway, and the movies aren’t going to function in most of Australia anyway and badly where it does work. There’s just that bit more reason to hope the feds succeed in breaking up the Telstra monopoly and delivering genuinely competitive internet service.
I’ve had it for a few weeks now in the preview thng. It’s fun. but silly me in a capped net plan wasted half my net steaming a movie!
Aren’t I silly?
Facebook & Twitters fun…useless, but fun if you desperately need to say something while on the Dashboard.
Anybody know the cost of Movies on Demand?
Tom. Actually if you check out iinet’s section on Xbox qouta free gaming it says this (excludes all paid for content such as movies etc). So unless you have a very big download qouta, a video store still may be your best bet.
I used Zune Marketplace to watch The Bourne Supremacy tonight (SD, can’t take on a 7.1 gig HD download). Pretty nice service. A little pricey, but good if you can’t be arsed popping down the video store.