Facebook/Twitter Preview finally arrives

Having just gotten the Facebook/Twitter/Zune/Last.fm Update Public Preview, I must say that I am impressed. The features are interesting, and well done. While there are some things I wish I could do with the update, there is still plenty to explore. Here’s a quick look at some of the things in the Public Preview.

The Facebook update lets gamers check their friend’s status updates, post their own updates and view pictures. Also, gamers using the facebook update will get a spiffy new icon displaying their gamertag to thier friends. You can invite your xbox friends to become your facebook friends, and vice-versa. The features seemed a little bare-bones, but it’s not like we were expecting apps or anything. If you expect to frequent the Facebook channel, be sure to get a USB keyboard or controller messaging keypad, because typing updates with a controller get old real fast.

The Twitter update does all you expect it to do. You can tweet, and read your friend’s tweets. Nothing new or really notably special. Same as the Facebook channel, you’re gonna want a USB keyboard.

The Zune video and music marketplaces were some of the more interesting features, and completely replaced the old video marketplace. Gamers can now buy videos and instead of waiting hours for them to download, the videos are streamed to your Xbox instantly. The music marketplace lets players do the same with music videos and also lets you search for music game add-ons (i.e. new songs) by game, instead of scouring the game marketplace for one song.

The Last.FM update brings the online radio sensation to Xbox. The radio offers countless hours of songs, and players can listen to different stations, or search for theirown. The stationsare organized by genre, artist, decade, and more. There are ads, which play every time you switch stations, or every 4-5 songs. The ads are short, and little more than a minor nuisance. New bands are recommended to you, and will play often. For instance, if you listen to the Beatles station, you might hear the Plastic Ono band, or Wings, as both have former Beatles members. Also, should you listen to The Misfits, you might hear the Adicts, or the Clash as they are also 80s punk bands. Some of the recommendations seemed ridiculous, like listening to Megadeth and getting some Green Day thrown in. Mostly, though, the recommendations are well placed and let most listeners expand their musical horizons. One thing that was strange was that should you go to an artist station, don’t expect to hear that band right away, as you might have to skip through some recommended bands. You can also only listen to the songs when in the Last.FM channel, which was disappointing, but understandable.

All in all, the features are interesting, and certainly make the wait seem worthwhile. The Official Update still doesn’t have a final release date, but the new features only seem to need some last minute polishing before being widely available. It’s certainly exciting that Microsoft is bringing together all these incredible Social Networks and other big names to Xbox.