The most common Fall update questions answered

by Dustin Burg on Sep 11th 2008 5:15PM

If you're totally clueless in regards to all the "New Xbox Experience" talk, confused to no end and just want some of your basic questions answered, then TechRadar's "everything you need to know" article is just for you.

Have New Xbox Experience n00b questions like "what is it?", "why is this happening?", "what's an Avatar" or (our favorite) "what if I don't want the new dashboard?" Then their helpful guide can help and give you easy to digest answers. We'll even give you a freebie: Even if you don't want the new dashboard, you're out of luck, because it's one of those mandatory Live updates. Then again, why wouldn't you want it and all of its hotness?

Source

Tags: avatars, dashboard-update, fall-update, new-xbox-experience

Reader Comments (56)

What about being able to talk to friends and such while playing a Xbox 1 game?

Link doesn't work btw.

i have a question: Why does the link give me a "502 Bad Gateway"?

What about being able to show your private bits to other players in Uno? Or will that somehow be compromised by the advent of Avatars?

Oh wow. Let's hope not.

When will it be released? Can i haz specific date?

Nov 26

November 26th? That's not anywhere here, there's no confirmation of an actual release date that *I* know of, so it seems like you're completely pulling that date out of your proverbial rear :)

anytime now to Oct. 28 because scene it 2 comes at Oct. 28 in it uses the avators

Your questions are quite noobish, I got better ones! :p

1)Will the new dash let me add songs to the HDD via usb? I mean I got this awesome playlist I wanna try on LIVE.

2)Will I be able to add my own Gamerpic from my own collection of pics. I know you can use the live camera, but its too much work.

Software wise, thats about it lol.

Link's down for me :S

502'd!!!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/adfoajwe4tou

Silly TechRadar, working links aren't for you.

I dont want this new dashboard.
It looks really stupid, I like the current one a lot more.

The look is ehhhh.

BUT, the functionality is much better.

Look > function (I think I did that right!)

no, look > functionality means that look is better than functionality. Good try, though!

But >/< fail!

@flameofdoom

think you mean Function>Look

I'm looking forward to this update, I like change. Don't know if i'll make use of the installing games to my HDD feature, but I probably would if i had the Elite (I only have the 20GB). Really looking forward to the Avatars though, i love anything like that.

I keep getting "502 Bad Gateway" as well

How many games can I install on my 360 Premium with the new update?

Does it only install the bits that need to be run from HDD, or does it simply copy everything regardless of if it helps to speed the game up?

i think it copies every bit of data over. so for a 20gb 360 (which only has at most 11gb) it can hold about 2-3 games.

unlike a PS3, it copies the entire game so it only requires one spin of the disc to check that you actually own the game. every thing else is read from the hdd.

With support for 16 x 10 monitors, will I still get the black bars from widescreen movies when I watch them?

Yes, unless you zoom.

it copies the whole disc onto the HDD - essentially just dumping the whole ISO onto the Hard Drive.
the copy/dump feature decreases game loading by approximately 30%

a 20GB would be quite useless to copy games onto - you would need a
60/120GB HDD.
i'd say, each game is around 7.5GB - so you could copy 7 games onto a
60GB and 14 games onto a 120GB : )

scratch that. make it 1-2 games for 11gb.

also a game like Lost Odyssey will have to require individual disc installs and individual disc reads to check for ownership.

@ ryan :)

Pumped for new DB update.

Fail. linky no worky

It's soooooo Web 2.0!

What if I don't want the new Dashboard?

''Tough luck.''

F*ck that!

Link worked fine for me. Unfortunately, there's no info there that we didn't already know. (We've heard about gamerpics worn on the avatars' t-shirts before, yes?)

A couple things that are bothering me right now:
* Only being able to see half your wallpaper (although that's only in principle, since I don't use wallpaper anyway :/ )
* Not being able to see where everything is (options below and to your left are off-screen), which is going to make finding things very difficult for the first while until we've had a chance to get used to where everything is. (I remember in the E3 reveal demo wondering what happened to the gamercard, as it didn't appear anywhere until the presenter just happened to scroll down and all the way left.)

They keep saying it's "not finished yet", so I'm hoping it'll be better on release; but I'm bracing myself for the worst. X(

So on my profile, I have 2 distinct gamerpics. Will the update do anything about this (like allow me to only have 1 gamerpic) or am I doomed to walk the earth with 2 distinct gamerpics.

Gamerpics don't go away, and since a lot of existing games support and expect them (including expecting that you have a public and a friends-only pic), then I would almost guarantee that you'll still be able to manage them at some place in the new dash.

Don't quote me on that, though...

@cybernight - i figure that, but I mean if I want to go from 2 to just 1... there's no way to currently do that.

Uhh.. You could just make them both the same!! WTF!?

I don't understand why you wouldn't want it.

you don't want more features?

Exactly, just goes to show you stupid closed minded people will bitch about anything. It doesn't matter that they haven't even used it yet. Unplug from live if you don't want any new features.

I am stoked for this update. I am tired of the dash after 3 years. navigating the marketplace blows. Anything new and fancy with improved functionality is welcome here. Avatars could be cool, a fun way to horse around with friends.

Unlike most people (apparently), I'm quite the fan of the blades UI. (Maybe it's just the Castle Crashers theme I'm using) That said, I love the loading games to hdd feature, but hate pretty much everything else. The rows of screens look more clunky than blades were.

Last, don't even get me started on the avatars. If i wanted cutsey happy fun-time hour, I'd use a Wii. I'll be happy if there's an option to completely skip avatars and use gamerpics instead, but i'm skeptical that'll happen.

@EdgeZephyr:

Avatars are NOT mandatory.

The blades aren't terrible, but this new UI isn't that far off from what we've got now; instead now, the blades move in four directions (U+D+L+R) instead of two (L+R) but don't slide across the entire screen.

I am 99.99 percent positive if you dont like the avatars you are not being forced to make one. FIRST POST EVER ON THE WEBSITE !!!!!

I guess wanting to know when the update will go live slipped the minds of TechRadar. I don't expect to hit soon anyway.

What I want to know is if you can turn off viewing of other peoples avatars? I mean its kinda a pointless to turn yours off just to see your floating gamerpic next to a party full of avatars...

Please do.

Yep, 'cause that Home thing will have none of that avatar nonsense! No sir!

Your not forced to use home on the ps3, here you are forced to download the fall update. not that i own a ps3 anymore anyway...just stating my distaste for this update.

I got to agree with you on the avatars, they are kiddy and lame, but I definitely do not prefer the PS3. I don't need to go on.

Blech.
Some of us already got sick of gratuitous 3D effects and folder-stacking back when Vista started doing it, let alone Apple's "album view" (which is actually slightly less obnoxious than Vista or the new "experience") and now this.
It may be because I've only had my 360 for a few months, and I'd be sick of the dashboard looking at it for 3 years, but I really wish they'd give the option to keep the dashboard. It may have screamed "Xbox 360!" but at least it had more personality than a floating slideshow (just like Vista, just because you have the power to render all this stuff seemlessly in the background, doesn't mean you should)

I think people need to stop bitching about something they have yet to use. Try it and bitch about it later. It's people like you who are scared of change and dont let technology move forward. Personally, I love my 360 but im tired of the blades. They got old and boring fast. Im looking forward to the new dashboard. Avatars are whatever but Im willing to give them a try.

if you dont like the new dashboard use the "Guide".. the live button pulls up the new guide and it looks like an upgraded blade system.. its supposed to do almost everything you can do from the dashboard..

im glad theyre keeping the custom gamerpic a friends only option.. if you're not my friend you dont see the real me and i dont see you (any part of you)..

How can you say you hate it or dont like it? Its not even out yet. Reserve you judgment until you actually use it.

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The most common Fall update questions answered

Reader Comments (56)

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