Xbox Live Update Coming Next Week

Testers will have the new Xbox dashboard firmware next week, according to Winrumours, including full access to new search fuctions, Kinect support and that pretty awesome new look.

No mention as to when it'll be going live to the general public but November 15th has been touted in the past.

As you can see in the video above, the new dashboard contains a slew of new features designed to make your life that much easier. Without any hands on time, I can't say whether it's successful at doing so or not but I will say that it looks much, much better. No huge icons, no overly obvious advertisments (unless you count Fast Five in the video) – it's stylish without losing what makes it look like the Xbox.

On top of the new dashboard features, the video above shows off the Windows phone companion, a way of controlling the 360 dashboard via Windows phone. The example in the video (using Fast Five, generally good film, mean that sincerely, etc) shows how easy it is to get into a film using the Windows phone companion, simply Bing search and hit the appropriate service. While in the film, you can use the phone as a remote, giving another option as to how to control your experience.

Everything about this update seems pretty awesome, no wonder considering we're coming quite rapidly up to the Xbox's 10th anniversary.