Users of Xbox LIVE will start seeing a new overhauled Xbox LIVE dashboard starting on Tuesday.
The updated dashboard will have new features like Internet Explorer for Xbox, genre search, the extension of voice search for the YouTube app, and many more.
This update will be gradual. Initially, it will feature in three million consoles and will reach the rest in a couple of weeks, Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) Director of Programming, Xbox Live said in his blog post. He explained that the Xbox SmartGlass will be launched, but only after Windows 8 is released on Oct. 26.
What's new:
* Refreshed Xbox 360 Dashboard: UI has been updated with a few things, including an updated layout with more tiles, a combined TV & Movies channel and, in the U.S., a Sports destination.
* Internet Explorer for Xbox: With Internet Explorer on Xbox, you can easily find and view Internet content on the biggest screen in the house, including HTML5 videos.
* Recommendations and Ratings: Recommendations will allow you to discover new favorites, generated based on a number of variables including the content you previously viewed, what your friends are consuming and what is most relevant and popular with our Xbox community. You can now rate content yourself and also see Rotten Tomatoes ratings.
* Pinning: Pinning lets you personalize the dashboard by saving your favorite movies, TV shows, games, music, videos and websites right to the home screen. It's as easy as opening an app or a favorite movie and clicking "pin."
* Xbox Video: Formerly called Zune Video Marketplace, Xbox Video offers hundreds of thousands of TV shows and movies for buying or renting in instant HD streaming.
*Recent: Previously called Quick Play, the Recent view gives you a list of movies, games, apps or other types of content that you most recently accessed on the console.
* Enhanced Search: The last Xbox LIVE update has brought Bing voice search to Xbox so you could use voice to search for movies, TV shows, actors, directors and artists. This year, Xbox LIVE has added genre search to the list, so now you can search for action, comedy, romance, drama or sci-fi. Bing voice search now includes results for video across the Web, including YouTube.
* International Expansion of Voice Search: You get a Kinect voice search capabilities to 9 new countries - Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Ireland.
Along with the dashboard update, the new streaming service Xbox Music is also being rolled out Tuesday.
