One potentially cool feature of Microsoft's much trumpeted New Xbox Experience dashboard revamp was the ability to share your NetFlix movies with other gamers.

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Speaking to a gathering of journalists earlier this week at the Tokyo Game Show, John "Crazy Days" Schappert seemed unwilling to say that the Xbox 360 would return to the once comforting twice a year release schedule for its updates.

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RPG-TV got a briefing last week on the Xbox Live Experience and was told that the Fall dashboard update would be hitting in November, i.e. this fall. Makes sense to me. Before I start sounding too glib, while the spring update has routinely landed in November, an update of this size could have theoretically been pushed back to later in the year. So it is nice to have Microsoft telling some on the record that we can expect our sexy new look and deeper features in three months or so. Preview of New Xbox Experience + LIPS [RPG-TV]

Tipster Larry B. pointed us to the above video, uploaded today, showing how installing games to your 360 hard drive will work. The process produces faster load times for you, but you still need to put the game in the tray (see the end of the video) to satisfy DRM protection.

Whomever is doing this isn't logged in, so no fleeting glances of avatars or anything like that. It sounds like this is running on a bona fide 360, because the familiar whine kicks in right when it starts downloading Grand Theft Auto IV.

New Xbox Experience: Game Installation Process [YouTube]

You've seen images, but for the dim-witted, images may not be enough to get across just how the 360's new dash update is going to work. So here's a couple of videos, showcasing not only what it looks like in motion, but what Microsoft's Larry Hryb looks like in a snappy Xbox 360 track-top. There's another longer, drier, more informative clip after the jump if sitting through Microsoft's own special brand of miscued lifestyle commercials isn't for you.

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The rumoured Xbox 360 Spring Update might not have hit yet, but we know something big is in the works for the console's dashboard.

How big? Well besides the gi-normous list of rumoured updates we posted about back in May we're now hearing from a number of sources that the Live dashboard is going to be getting a second interface option, one that will use the yet-to-be announced motion controller to navigate.

This new user interface, we've been told, will recreate the increasingly cluttered dashboard "blade" system in a 3D environment that will be something more akin to the Minority Report than a filing cabinet. The motion controls will allow users to sort of slide through the different levels of this floating menu system.

Sounds like a fantastic idea, if it can be implemented correctly.

Dear. Microsoft,
I love the 360. Even though it breaks, and mine is currently making sounds that can best be verbalised as R2D2 getting raped, I'm enjoying the console.

But about those dashboard themes. Yes, I'll pay for them. You knew it all along, so congrats. What I want to know is: why can't I update my Marketplace blade? Because I'll be wasting time tabbing back and forth, experiencing the sybaritic joy of Earth tones combined with the dashboard's oceanic swooshing effect, and BAM! BRIGHT ORANGE!

Please fix. I'm sure that a Smackdown Vs. Raw background on Marketplace will not hinder my consumerism.
Sincerely, Love, Waiting in angst,
Mark Wilson