Xbox 360 2012 Beta Dashboard Review

Lets take a look at the 2012 Beta Dashboard, due out in the fall of 2012 and highly anticipated from opinions so far.

As you may know, people are not really supposed to speak about this, so we have used Tizlar's account to post it, as he and Microsoft aren't exactly pals so its a safe account to discuss on. Here is Tizlar's opinion and lets just say 'impressive'.

[dskvskilz]

nice post, cant wait for the update

[nukeitall]

I can't wait for it either, but I don't have access to my Xbox 360 at the moment. :(

[Dlacy13g]

How can you review a beta? I mean its not final code yet so things may change for good or bad?

Lastly...umm...NDA?

[neildee250]

Gives you an insight, the point is, its hardly likely to get worse than the beta, least thats the way it usually goes with bug fixes etc.

[Mustang300C2012]

So you should be screaming your lungs off since Neogaf has been posting discussing so openly since day one.

[Dlacy13g]

Fair enough...Neogaf is a different world anyway. It's this exclusive club that frowns on trolling their forums yet they troll the industry constantly. I have a love / hate relationship with Neogaf much like I do N4G...it can be great and totally infuriating at the same time.

[neildee250]

I don't deal with neo anyone man whats the point of the comment?

[Dlacy13g]

@neildee250... I wasnt replying to you...Redhemi brought up Neogaf which I was responding to.

[digitaleraser]

Exactly...you can't review a Beta, it should say "preview."

[GhostHero333]

I still like the first dashboard when you would press the xbox button on the controller and an easy to view menu came from the side.

[Mustang300C2012]

Uh it still does that.

[bobrowski]

uhh nope. the guide pops up in the middle smart one

[Mustang300C2012]

A pop up menu comes up in the middle vs the side. Big whoop where the location of the two is. Your getting more functionality with the "middle" pop up than you are with the "side".

[ALLWRONG]

You see the old dash every time you hit the guide button, just smaller.

[NightMystic]

Shouldn't this be a preview instead of a review?

[Legion]

Semantics at best. They are Reviewing the Beta... not Previewing the actual Dashboard. The difference is that a Preview will have detailed information on known options. While the review of the Beta is simply that, a review of a Beta that might have different options when it comes out of Beta stage.

[Captain Qwark 9]

sounds good but no way it can be a ten if you cant watch videos on the internet explorer. im tired of using the porn machine 3's browser, i would have liked to turn my 360 into a porn machine as well

i automatically knock off a point. 9/10

[Dfooster]

The iPhone doesn't have flash and I've been viewing certain **cough** sites for years on there. Plenty of YouTube-a-like websites to cater to a certain type of gentleman (or lady)

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

youtube apps? ugh..
Also taking away flash is a good way to make sure you can't get free mini games.

[Hufandpuf]

no flash in the browser? What's the point then?

Everything else sounds awesome though

[JBSleek]

HTML is the new standard. Flash themselves are moving away from it to have HTML5.

[Pekolie]

Does the ps3 browser use flash? Just wondering if some of the sites I got to on the ps3 for videos will work on the 360's browser.

[bolbgt]

Because you don't need flash for Youtube, games and flash based sites aren't meant to be controlled with a controller. The only thing you really miss out on is streaming from the sites that don't upload their stuff to Youtube, copyrighted stuff or porn.

[Hufandpuf]

there are a LOT of sites that still use flash.

[dark-hollow]

^^^^^^^^^^^

And neither the wii or ps3 have browsers that aren't complete crap to enjoy the flash content

[bolbgt]

There are a lot of sites that use flash ads. Nobody really uses flash for their core layout anymore. Most flash oriented sites are video sites or games sites and like I said you shouldn't be playing flash games on your TV and YouTube has everything except the illegal stuff or porn.

[ALLWRONG]

Who the hell still uses flash? Why don't we load up Netscape browsers and chat on Compuserve.

[Trenta27]

This whole article is stupid. Oh hey everyone! We want hits on our site so we are going to break the law!

[Trenta27]

And that is nobody will ever take you seriously.

[DarthJay]

I agree that it is dumb to break a Non Disclosure Agreement, but an NDA does not equal law.

If you are going to criticize anything about the article, it should be how amateur it looks. Capitalization is brutal. "microsoft?" Really?

[AngelicIceDiamond]

I really can't wait now. Still can't believe MS did the beta so early though? Probably means it'll get launch in, maybe early October? Either way it sounds like MS has the best version for an internet browser in there console.

[nukeitall]

MS has a history of releasing solid dashboard updates every single time and I expect no less of this one. Looking forward to trying out the browser, but it has to be damn good for me to bother using it.

It's hard to beat the keyboard and mouse. The tablet browser experience is a great except typing in stuff is slow.

[ChunkyLover53]

I'm in the beta, I thought about doing a little article or video of it, but I don't want Microsoft to find out about it. I've been included in every Microsoft beta and I'd like to keep it that way.

Even got my free copy of Halo Reach when I tested the new disk format for them. Internet Explorer works better on the Xbox 360 than it does on my laptop. Cant say enough good things about it.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

That's tite, so can you actually surf anything you absolutely want on the brower?

[ChunkyLover53]

Almost every post I've made in the last week on N4G has been from the browser. I have been testing it out on everything. It fully supports HTML5, which is the next big thing. There is no slow down or issues that I've come up with yet.

Trust me, I've been putting it through the paces because I want the best browser it can be, I fully participate in the beta process and leave my feedback.

Everything loads faster with the new dash, its larger and it makes things easier to find. You can pin things to your menu and it makes for the experience the last dashboard should have been.

[Oh_Yeah]

can you watch porn and other content though? thats the question. that content is best ran from a console which cant get viruses (unless designed for it, which no one does) is why i ask. if you cant run it then whats the point? your paying 60$, plus your web content is restricted? lol

[Hanuman]

Just wait for Halo 4. That's more porn than you've ever wanted..

[ChunkyLover53]

There are at least two porn sites that work with it right now. Probably going to have to test some of the others later on, but mostly I've just been making sure the thing works well and reporting back to Microsoft any issues, because I want it to be a great browser for all the 360 owners out there.

[Dlacy13g]

One thing I would like to see is the new Xbox Music service allow for podcast downloading. The real Zune Marketplace player allows it but the Xbox version only has paid content...

[kma2k]

I know this has nothing to do with the update but talking about improvements & brnging things back, dammit ign bring back Stragize!

[no_more_heroes]

Name your xbox is useless, you say? Now I can officially name my Jasper xbox 360 "Gogmagog"!

On a more serious note, very interested in seeing IE. This and everything else I've heard about it has surprisingly been nothing but positive.

[AO1JMM]

Running the beta right now it it is damn smooth. none of that pop in that the previous version had. IE run pretty damn good as well.

[Sidology]

Whoa, whoa. Excuse me, didn't you read the NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT?

I'm in the beta, too, and as a journalist, THAT STUFF IS REALLY IMPORTANT.

[Nelly_Nel_713]

Is the Internet Explorer still for the Kinect only or will MS change that?

[Godz Kastro]

I dont think MS ever said it was a Kinect Only browser; that would severely limit their user base.

[RmanX1000]

At E3 they kind of played it off as a Kinect only browser. So i can see why he may have been confused about it. Lets say its Kinect friendly.

[DigitalRaptor]

Internet Explorer is the worst high-profile browser I've ever used, and the strange thing is that most people are still actually using an older version of it cause they don't think to upgrade or switch to something much better like Chrome, or Firefox.

Let's hope this browser runs better than Sony's attempt.

[SpecialK]

Sounds good =)

To think how navigation on the 360 started all those years ago, those few slides, so something this visually impressive is brilliant.

I think most people are happy with how it is right now but to see its still being improved and kept fresh is amazing.

I always wished sony would update the ps3's UI, it works fine though I never understood the way the in game menu is handled. Guess its something for next gen.

[Droid Control]

Hopefully I can make my xbox all about the games now. And actually FIND them.

[sandman224]

When is it suppose to release?

[cedaridge]

Look COOL to me!psn: cedaridge / xbl: cedar4Thunder

[wages of sin]

I guess people don't care about violating NDA agreements. You're not supposed to be writing/blogging/reporting on the beta if you're in it. Rules are rules and it doesn't matter that others may have done it, you signed the NDA.

I can't stand it when people do that kind of stuff.

[nik666uk]

So Google Street won't work on this either(doesn't work on PS3) Can't believe Microsoft didn't put a browser in it from the beginning