Neowin
Earlier this week, Microsoft opened up the floodgates and let Xbox 360 owners sign up to beta test the next major Xbox dashboard update. Microsoft later cut off the registration process after a few hours. Today, some users found that the beta was already available to download.
Neowin has now received some screenshots showing off this first version of the Xbox dashboard beta. They include the new Internet Explorer feature, which Microsoft first announced was coming to the Xbox 360 at E3 2012. As you can see in the screenshot above, the IE interface falls in line with the Metro UI design that Microsoft is putting into many of its current and upcoming products. IE can be accessed by an Xbox 360 controller or with voice and/or gesture commends via the Kinect add-on device.
Also included in the beta is Xbox Music, the new music download store that's replacing the soon-to-be-defunct Zune service.
The beta also has a function that will allow users to access the Xbox SmartGlass features, which was again announced during E3 2012. This is supposed to allow iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 devices to access a number of features on the Xbox 360 console. So far, Xbox SmartGlass support seems to be just a placeholder in this version of the beta.
Microsoft will likely launch the new Xbox Live dashboard updates later this fall.
