Tuesday 16 October 2012

Xbox 360 Latest update: Using internet explorer and more

Can you surf the internet on an Xbox 360? Now you can thanks to this October's latest Xbox 360 update. Bringing overall better functionality and an easier to use layout the new 360 UI comes with a lot of tricks up its sleeve.

What are the features of the newest Xbox 360 Update?
Aside from the excitement generated by those whose only web access is via console MS has also put a lot of thought into a new Zune replacement: Xbox Music and introduced  the first 360 free-to-play game Happy Wars. Let's look at some of the pros and cons of the new update.

Best bits of latest Xbox 360 Update
An improved My Pins feature, that kets you cut out searching and browsing for the content by adding each app to a menu that pops up on the home screen just below the window that shows you what game you’ve got in your 360 at the time. Adding and removing apps is very quick, making it easy to change what you want to use.
This function works well with the new IE browser and favourite websites can be pinned too. One of the best side effects of this is speedier access to Netflix, Hulu and YouTube.

Some features we could do without

Back up emails and such like forming a new authentication system are a good idea but does slow down log in times.
Is Internet Explorer usable on Xbox 360?
The good news is that unlike the Wii and PS3 browsers it seems that more web content can be displayed by the Xbox browser with Flash Player or equivalents supported. When Smart Glass comes out it will be a great second screen to view web content.

The Internet Explorer app does work fairly well, and if you have your 360 hooked up via a wired Internet connection, it’s also quite reliable; unfortunately only available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

2 comments:

  1. yes this stuff is all nice and alll but what about playing games off this app
    why cant we play flash drive stuff why in the first place was that made.Now because of that. People like me can't play any of my computer games online wich any one can say would be the best thing if xbox could play games on the internet that would be nice(cause all i could do is sarch stuff but not wach r play). and its the same for the wii and a little for PS3 only cause its so dang easy to hak.But now the fact that this is not being consderd is making a lot of people mad >why in the first place put this app on the xbox360 if u cant even play ur internet games[none doownlouldabule]Lets just say im not that amazd by ths app.

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  2. They've definitely missed out by not having support for Flash players, the good news is that HTML 5 games are supported, and as it seems that Flash is being phased out by most platforms including Android this might not be a bad thing for the future. The fact that many sites support HTML 5 videos to make them compatible with iOS and Android devices-those being the most used devices to surf the net nowadays -means that if videos aren't supported in the 360 browser it might be another reason other than lack of flash support. As a sidenote it was actually a drive by Adobe themselves to phase out Flash as they too are heading toward a HTML 5 standard.

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