A lot of new features are on the way to Xbox Live later this year: a redesigned dashboard, enhanced Kinect support, Bing voice search, and a UFC app are just some of the new features you can expect. An Xbox 360 update released earlier today doesn’t provide any of those new features. In fact, as far as you’re concerned as an end-user, it doesn’t do anything — though that doesn’t mean you won’t get an earlier look at those new features than expected.
The Microsoft Connect site has an area set up for interested Xbox 360 owners to apply to become a beta tester for the new dashboard update. Earlier today it was accepting users, but as Joystiq reports, the site has been altered to note that registrations are not being accepted at the moment. That’s likely because this went public sooner than expected and Microsoft isn’t ready to begin soliciting users for testers. The good news is that some 360 users won’t have to wait until the update is out to try out some of the new functionality.
We’re still without an exact date for when the update is coming. The UFC app has been dated for December 1, ahead of the December 10 PPV that can be ordered through it. Presumably the dashboard update itself will be out before then; November 15 was reportedly a date being eyed, as indicated by an internal PayPal email. More recently, GigaOM reported that the update is based on Microsoft’s Silverlight and that a release on Black Friday — November 25 — is instead being targeted.
