[OFFICIAL] Xbox LIVE Preview Program: Zune, Facebook and Twitter


Recommended Posts

got my sign up confirmed, just need to wait for the update to get to me anyone in the uk got it sorted? also is there halo waypoint in this update? i read on major nelson twitter that it was to be included

Somebody obviously doesn't understand how complex a process it is get media based services out in the rest of the world. Media content owners/distributors are ****ing ######.

I do agree that $60US for Live should not immediately mean 60Euro but Microsoft is hardly the only company that does that.

I know how hard it is, but it doesn't matter anyway i ran last.fm using an American account and was really disappointed bye the state its in.

Honestly i was just a bit ****ed off that we got the shaft again, and started to rant :laugh:

got my sign up confirmed, just need to wait for the update to get to me anyone in the uk got it sorted? also is there halo waypoint in this update? i read on major nelson twitter that it was to be included

halo waypoint is coming next week

http://twitter.com/majornelson/status/5085542508

What the hell is Halo Waypoint?
Microsoft's announcement of Halo Waypoint, the Halo "destination" coming to Xbox Live this Fall, was light on details, overshadowed by the reveal of the Halo Legends anime series. Fortunately, 343 Industries' Frank O'Connor was at Comic-Con to clear things up. Waypoint will offer Halo enthusiasts access to audio and video content in addition to community features and the option to follow your "Halo career." O'Connor explained that Waypoint will track the Halo games you play, the achievements you unlock and other aspects not directly tied to "Halo 3, Halo Wars, and Halo games ongoing."

O'Connor says that Waypoint, accessed from the Xbox 360 dashboard, and likely from the My Xbox section, will be a "really good place for you to interact with other people."

"There's a lot more to Waypoint than just watching movies and listening to podcasts," he said, saying that fans of the series are underserved on their Xboxes.

"Maybe you just want to see a really old Halo trailer from E3," he explained, saying that fans shouldn't need to leave their consoles to see that kind of content. "We're going to aggregate everything that you would want to watch from the Halo universe on that site. But it's a lot more ambitious than that. It's going to evolve in features and functionality to make it the prime destination for the Halo fan."

As far as pricing, O'Connor says that Microsoft is still figuring out whether Xbox Live Silver members will need to pay to access the product.

"Certainly, if you're a Gold member you're going to get access to all of that experience," he said. "We want everyone to have this same experience, but the question is, if there's multiplayer features that are technically connected to Gold, it's easier to deal with. There's a lot of reasons that [tying it to] Gold makes sense."

Halo Waypoint will also be the first place fans will have the chance to see episodes of Halo Legends, the series of shorts developed by Japanese animation studios. They'll be available to viewers for a limited time, debuting on Xbox Live as "events," not just dropped on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

"You'll be able to see episodes in their entirety via Waypoint in a staggered schedule," O'Connor explained. "Those events will be global?it will be in every Xbox territory?and we'll make those things sort of 'come participate' events."

Those events won't necessarily be debuting as if they were broadcast on television?you won't need to be at home at 8 PM to get your first peHalo Legendsds. That would be tough if you have a life?or you live in distant time zone.

"We'll find a window to make it fit and adjust that accordingly around the world," O'Connor said.

Still, make plans to be near your Xbox if you want to watch the anime series before it's released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital distribution next year. Waypoint will let you see it a lot sooner.

Kotaku.com

Oh thanks, sounds pretty neat. Not to big into Halo anymore ODST was boring to me... What they need to fix is the current features and make them more accessible from sections like My Xbox or something and alot last.fm to be played during games and get rid of the ads.

tried the Facebook app last night , wasnt impressed, seemed laggy, and to many feeds ( the main feed with everything is the last feed for some reason )

tried the Facebook app last night , wasnt impressed, seemed laggy, and to many feeds ( the main feed with everything is the last feed for some reason )

yea facebook looks very cheap lol, twitter looks clean and interesting but I don't use it that often :pinch:

What a useless update, can't even use the features without gold subscription.

It honestly kills me how many people are expecting these updates without purchasing Gold.

It honestly kills me how many people are expecting these updates without purchasing Gold.

Considering nearly every single platform/device out there that has Facebook/Twitter/LastFM support has free applications or a web browser to access them I'm not really surprised.

MS do a good job of taking pretty basic applications/services and making you believe they should be premium.

LastFM apparently has a fair collection of ads as well? Why is that seen as a premium application when any working PC can download spotify for free and use it ad supported without a subscription?

Because Basic users get nothing. they get a gaming console.

gold users get all the extras.

Yeah but people find it annoying that MS have taken it upon themselves to define that someone that merely buys their console is basically a peasant and deserves nothing, only people that pay them further money in a subscription deserve any loyalty at all.

You've gotta love that someone that pays out hundreds of dollars or pounds is deemed not to be worth of anything, not even demos at the same time as everyone else.

Hey Lives awesome for gaming and all that jazz, but MS have a seriously overly harsh view of some pretty basic apps/services at times. The difficulty with gamer perception is they have most of the people on Gold believing what they believe, only Gold members deserve anything. Some of you guys act like MS have invented Facebook/LastFM/Twitter and Silver users should be laughed at for even asking for these things.

You don't have to be an online gaming nut to want to stream some music at a party when you're friends are over, there should be reasons for people on Silver to actually want to have their 360 hooked up to the internet.

On the other hand, Microsoft wants to convert as many Silver members as possible to Gold, and offering more Gold-only features sounds like a good plan to me.

Well obviously that's the reason but I'm just giving light to the other side of the argument, not everyone wants to play games online, or plays enough to pay to do so, that's just their preference of gaming. Very few people will shell out money every month only to use applications/services widely available on other devices (mainly their PC) for free, so one begs the question why does MS think these services are worthy of the premium tag?

I really doubt adding Facebook/LastFM/Twitter to the gold package is changing anyone's mind, the people who pay for gold will largely be those who pay it to play games online. Therefore Silver owners see it as an annoyance that MS won't throw them any new features, these people don't want to play games online and feel aggrieved for that preference. It's almost as if MS are saying unless you change your gaming taste you ain't getting **** peasant user :p

LastFM would be useful for everyone, and it's ad supported, don't see why it can't be for all 360 owners.

^^^The other side of the argument is bogus, especially after so many people complained that there wasn't enough of a difference between gold and silver to make it worth it to them to pay up. Well, now there is more of a difference.

-Spenser

^^^The other side of the argument is bogus, especially after so many people complained that there wasn't enough of a difference between gold and silver to make it worth it to them to pay up. Well, now there is more of a difference.

-Spenser

Yeah that's exactly what I'm talking about, people paying for Gold looking for services that wouldn't normally be branded as premium anywhere else become premium just to self-justify paying their subscription to MS and make them look superior to Silver.

It's a silly mindset to have, I don't see why any 360 owner, on Gold or Silver, wouldn't want to see these fairly basic web "plugins" be usable by everyone with an Xbox - They're completely unrelated to gaming and cmon, as I said above you pay for Gold to play online, if online became free I bet my house most of you would not carry on paying monthly for any of these applications :p

I can understand Netflix being Gold only, but not these services.

Edited by Audioboxer
Yeah that's exactly what I'm talking about, people paying for Gold looking for services that wouldn't normally be branded as premium anywhere else become premium just to self-justify paying their subscription to MS and make them look superior to Silver.

It's a silly mindset to have, I don't see why any 360 owner, on Gold or Silver, wouldn't want to see these fairly basic web "plugins" be usable by everyone with an Xbox - They're completely unrelated to gaming and cmon, as I said above you pay for Gold to play online, if online became free I bet my house most of you would not carry on paying monthly for any of these applications :p

I can understand Netflix being Gold only, but not these services.

To be honest, I don't understand why even Netflix is Gold only (I already pay for Netflix). But I see these as extras that comes with my XBL Gold. It's not like they increased annual fee after adding facebook etc.

At this rate, people will start bitching that they should get free games since they are already paid for XBL & Xbox.

Didn't Sony had something similar where you have to pay for watching some content? Just imagine this being the same. ;)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Helium Browser 0.13.4.1 by Razvan Serea Helium is a private, fast, and honest Chromium-based web browser — built for people, with love. It offers the best privacy by default, unbiased ad-blocking, and a clean experience free from bloat and noise. Proudly based on Ungoogled-Chromium, Helium removes Google’s clutter while keeping a fast, efficient development pipeline. With thoughtful touches like native !bangs and split view, Helium is a people-first, fully open-source browser that puts control back in your hands. Privacy, security, and control come first. Ads, trackers, and third-party cookies are blocked automatically, HTTPS is enforced everywhere, and all Chromium extensions work seamlessly — while Google can’t track your activity. Helium’s 13,000+ offline-ready !bangs let you jump straight to sites or AI tools like ChatGPT instantly. Open-source, people-first, and unbiased, Helium delivers a browsing experience that’s fast, secure, and free from noise, ads, and compromises. Helium Browser key features: Performance Fast, efficient, and lightweight — built on Chromium’s optimized engine. Energy-saving and consistent — stays fast over time without slowing down. No bloat — stripped of unnecessary components for maximum speed. Minimalist interface — compact, clean, and distraction-free. Customizable toolbar — hide elements you don’t need. Smooth and stable — no flicker, lag, or animation glitches. Comfort-focused experience — intuitive and unobtrusive. Privacy & Security Best privacy by default — blocks ads, trackers, phishing, and third-party cookies. Unbiased ad-blocking — powered by community filters and uBlock Origin. No telemetry or analytics — zero background web requests on first launch. Strict HTTPS enforcement — warns for insecure sites. Passkeys supported — modern authentication made simple. No built-in password manager or cloud sync — your data stays yours. Extension Compatibility Full Chromium extension support — including MV2 extensions. Anonymized Chrome Web Store requests — Google can’t track extension installs. Extended MV2 support — maintained for as long as possible. Smart Features Native !bangs — browse faster using 13,000+ offline-ready shortcuts. AI integration — use !chatgpt and others directly from the address bar. Offline functionality — bangs work without an Internet connection. Philosophy People-first design — open source, transparent, and community-driven. No ads, no noise, no bias — privacy and honesty over profit. Helium Browser 0.13.4.1 changelog: 0a4f1149 revision: bump to 4 (#1969) 4848de1f helium/core: enable the chromium screenshot feature (#1968) e0dec3f5 onboarding: integrate strings to i18n system (#1948) 417fa5bc i18n: fix newline parsing for onboarding 7a339b39 i18n: add foraged translations for onboarding 4f090cff i18n/generate: add handling for onboarding strings bfe48d58 i18n_apply: manually override parent grd logic for onboarding strings ab214e3c onboarding: bump in deps, wire up grdp afa6a059 helium/core: disable pdf infobar feature (#1965) eba585e7 helium/ui/vertical: fix new tab button alignment and icon size (#1964) 6ecfc9e0 helium/ui/tabs: fix horizontal tab hover background color (#1963) 3db87dc0 helium/ui/tabs: fix new tab button hover/press colors (#1962) 6bbdcc3e helium/ui: improve tab group UI in all layouts (#1961) 53deb314 helium/ui/tabs: enable tab group hover cards e93aece7 helium/ui/vertical: fix tab group appearance, prevent line overlap 629f5495 helium/ui/tabs: restore solid group header colors, enable new colors 961c962e helium/ui/tabs: move horiz tab group underline to bottom, make it thick c96deab6 merge: update to chromium 149.0.7827.155 (#1959) 36db56b4 i18n: update source.gen.json 5ce006ae patches: refresh for chromium 149.0.7827.155 b4c1ea62 merge: update ungoogled-chromium to 149.0.7827.155 4e5e8671 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.155 08a3e7da helium/ui/layout: disable mute on collapsed vertical tabs (#1778) a0a5bbaf helium/core: simplify context menu and prevent huge widths (#1951) c4732aac devutils/i18n: add forage command (#1944) 11d16986 devutils/i18n: add an option to translate using local CLI tools (#1942) d820c3a2 i18n/prompt: tighten translation rules to prevent common errors (#1940) cf827007 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.114 6e3d5164 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.102 Download: Helium 64-bit | Portable 64-bit |~100.0 MB (Open Source) Download: Helium ARM64 | Portable ARM64 Links: Helium Home Page | macOS | Linux | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Glow 26.10 by Razvan Serea Glow provides detailed reporting on every hardware component in your computer, saving you valuable time typically spent searching for CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics card, and other stats. With Glow, all the information is conveniently presented in one clean interface, allowing you to easily access and review the comprehensive hardware details of your system. Glow provides detailed information on various system aspects, including OS, motherboard, processor, memory, graphics card, storage, network, battery, drivers, and services. The well-organized format ensures easy access to the required information. You can export all the gathered data to a plain text file, facilitating sharing with others for troubleshooting purposes. No installation needed. Just decompress the archive, launch the executable, and access computer-related information. Glow runs on Windows 11 and Windows 10 64-bit versions. Glow 26.10 changelog: New Features The bootstrapping algorithm has been completely redesigned. The software can now launch directly without requiring TS Preloader. As part of this change, the startup splash screen displayed during initialization has been removed. In addition, spikes in CPU usage have been eliminated, resulting in a more stable architecture with significantly lower memory consumption. The Microsoft Office detection infrastructure within the Operating System section has been enhanced. Additional detection support has been added for Office C2R (Click-to-Run) installations. Furthermore, the license status evaluation system has been improved, and the priority order has been revised as follows: Licensed > Grace Period > Other (NOTIFICATIONS, EVALUATION, etc.). Glow now includes preliminary support for Wi-Fi 8 technology, allowing more detailed information to be displayed for Wi-Fi 8-compatible network adapters. Glow now provides full support for Bluetooth 6.2. Adapters supporting Bluetooth 6.2 can be analyzed in greater detail and with improved accuracy. The disk distribution view in the Disk section has been modernized, replacing the traditional table layout with a new 2×2 card-based design. The TS Custom Controls module has been updated to v26.7. Thanks to the new custom controls, all Türkaysoft applications now offer a more modern and consistent user interface aligned with Windows 11 design standards. Bug Fixes Potential line-ending handling issues in the Office detection code within the Operating System section have been resolved. Additionally, the output format has been standardized to UTF-8 to prevent character encoding issues and ensure consistent data processing. Several stability and file management issues within the Debugging infrastructure have been addressed. Problems that prevented new log files from being created after Debugging was disabled, as well as issues causing debug records to be lost, have been fixed. File deletion and reaccess issues that occurred after file locks were released have also been resolved. In addition, a bug that caused newly recreated log files to remain locked after deletion has been eliminated. Unnecessary blank lines within debug logs and the extra empty line that could appear at the end of log files have also been corrected. A shortcut key conflict caused by assigning identical hotkeys to both the DNS Test Tool and the Donation page has been fixed. The DNS Test Tool can now be accessed using CTRL + Shift + D, while the Donation page is available via CTRL + Alt + D. Changes The service responsible for providing the Public IP Address and Internet Service Provider information in the Network section has been updated to use the ipinfo.io infrastructure. This change improves the accuracy and consistency of the displayed data. (No external requests are made while Hiding Mode is enabled.) Some terms in the Dutch and Korean language files have been updated to make them clearer and more user-friendly. [TS Updater] Before the update process begins, users are now prompted to choose whether they would like to view the release notes. Note: Always unzip the program before using it. Otherwise you may get an error. Download: Glow 26.10 | 1.8 MB (Open Source) Links: Glow Homepage | Screenshot | Github Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Maradona if hydration breaks had existed in Mexico 86.
    • The quantum search for Time's origin had an equally mind-boggling conclusion by Sayan Sen Image by Steve Johnson via Pexels A theoretical study from researchers at the University of Surrey suggested that the direction of time may not be fundamentally fixed in certain quantum systems. The work, published in Scientific Reports, examined how the “arrow of time” could emerge from microscopic physics and found that time-reversal symmetry can remain intact even in models used to describe processes such as energy loss and thermalisation. The arrow of time refers to the observed one-way direction from past to future in everyday life. In macroscopic processes, this is easy to see. Spilled milk spreads across a table and does not gather back into a glass, and heat flows from hotter objects to colder ones. These processes shape the common sense idea that time moves in a single direction. However, at the level of fundamental physics, many equations do not prefer a direction of time. Time-reversal symmetry means that the same physical laws can describe a system whether time moves forward or backward. This has made it difficult to explain why irreversible behaviour appears in the large-scale world even when the underlying rules do not require it. Dr Andrea Rocco, Associate Professor in Physics and Mathematical Biology at the University of Surrey, described this contrast: "One way to explain this is when you look at a process like spilt milk spreading across a table, it's clear that time is moving forward. But if you were to play that in reverse, like a movie, you'd immediately know something was wrong – it would be hard to believe milk could just gather back into a glass. However, there are processes, such as the motion of a pendulum, that look just as believable in reverse. The puzzle is that, at the most fundamental level, the laws of physics resemble the pendulum; they do not account for irreversible processes. Our findings suggest that while our common experience tells us that time only moves one way, we are just unaware that the opposite direction would have been equally possible." The study focused on open quantum systems, which are quantum systems that interact with a surrounding environment. This environment, often described as a heat bath, can exchange energy and information with the system. The researchers used this framework to study how a direction of time might appear even when the underlying physics does not enforce one. A key part of the analysis involved the Markov approximation. This is a simplification used in many models where the system is assumed not to retain memory of its past states. The idea is that changes depend only on the current state, not on earlier history. This is commonly used when studying thermalisation, which is the process where a system settles into equilibrium with its environment. The study also used concepts such as master equations, including the Lindblad and Pauli equations, which describe how probabilities of different quantum states change over time. Another related model discussed was quantum Brownian motion, which describes the random-like movement of a quantum particle interacting continuously with its environment. In these descriptions, a “memory kernel” can appear, which is a mathematical term that accounts for how past states influence current behaviour. The researchers found that applying the Markov approximation did not break time-reversal symmetry. Even when the system interacted with an effectively infinite heat bath, the resulting equations of motion remained symmetric in time. This meant that the same mathematical description could, in principle, run forward or backward in time without contradiction. The study further showed that standard frameworks used in open quantum systems, including quantum Brownian motion and master equations like the Lindblad and Pauli forms, could be written in a time-symmetric way. These equations are typically used to describe processes that look irreversible, such as dissipation and thermalisation, but the results suggested they can also be interpreted as allowing evolution in both time directions. Thomas Guff, Research Fellow in Quantum Thermodynamics, said: "The surprising part of this project was that even after making the standard simplifying assumption to our equations describing open quantum systems, the equations still behaved the same way whether the system was moving forwards or backwards in time. When we carefully worked through the maths, we found that this behaviour had to be the case because a key part of the equation, the "memory kernel," is symmetrical in time. We also found a small but important detail which is usually overlooked – a time discontinuous factor emerged that kept the time-symmetry property intact. It’s unusual to see such a mathematical mechanism in a physics equation because it's not continuous, and it was very surprising to see it appear so naturally." The researchers also noted that deriving a one-way arrow of time from time-reversal symmetric microscopic dynamics remains an open problem across fields such as thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, particle physics, and cosmology. Their results suggested that some standard descriptions of irreversible behaviour in open quantum systems may be better understood using a time-symmetric formulation of Markovianity. According to the study, processes such as thermalisation, which are usually treated as irreversible, could in theory be described in a way that allows evolution in either time direction under the same rules. This does not imply that time reversal occurs in everyday life, but rather that the underlying equations do not strictly enforce a single direction. Overall, the findings suggested that the perceived direction of time may emerge from how physical systems are modelled and approximated, rather than from a fundamental asymmetry in the laws themselves. The researchers noted that this perspective could have implications for ongoing work in quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and cosmology on the origin of time’s arrow. Source: University of Surrey, Nature This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Huge Trailer earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      Classifyskilleducation earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      eurospharma62 earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      581
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      182
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      75
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      73
    5. 5
      neufuse
      64
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!