As anyone who has turned on their Xbox 360 since Tuesday is most-likely aware of, Xbox Live has new features. Just like Felicia Day showed during E3 this past summer, Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm have arrived. But are they worth your time?
Facebook: Facebook is the one that most people probably already have. Microsoft is just introducing another way to check friends updates and update your own status (as if computers, iPhones, etc. weren’t enough). Even though this is making Facebook seem a little more inescapable, the ability to add a friend on your Facebook friends-list to your XBL friends-list is great and worth this feature by itself. Pictures also look great on your TV, assuming your not already using your TV as your PC monitor. I just can’t see many people using this to update their status and communicate with friends, it’s just too awkward to type anything on it (unless you own a chat-pad).
Bottom Line: Add Xbox Live friends, then don’t waste your time
Twitter: I’m going to cut to the chase here; for the exact same reasons as above, I don’t think Twitter on XBL is going to take over people’s lives. Typing is just too awkward and not really worth the time. They’re are also way too many good Twitter clients for computers and phones for this to even try and compete.
Bottom Line: There are much better ways to use Twitter
Last.fm: The best of the three is probably the least known. For those that don’t yet know, Last.fm tracks what you listen to and recommends music based on that. It’s kind of like Pandora, but it recommends music based on tracks you already own (there’s also stations that stream songs). I personally had something like twelve-thousand tracks I had listened to before it came to XBL. I’ve listened to music on my computer rarely as of late though. Last.fm on Xbox has allowed me to ‘rediscover’ it. I spent around four hours the first night just sitting there listening to music and watching the slideshow of that artist. I even subscribed to the service the next day to have access to the ‘Loved Tracks’ playlist.
Bottom Line: If you’re really into music and your computer and TV are in different rooms, this is a must-use.
There you go, if you’re a Facebook/Twitter addict don’t throw away your computers.
I know they added Zune Martketplace as well. I don’t have a Zune, nor do I really know anyone who does, so I can’t tell you how it is.
