2009 Xbox LIVE Update Preview

My 360 told me Congratulations! You’ve been accepted to the 2009 Xbox LIVE Update Preview. Welcome, and we are glad that you are on board!

This morning my Xbox signed me out and updated it's self than. I was honored with the new Live update. I will be chronicling my experiences from now until it comes out to the public.

First I will go over what is in the Preview than I will go over what is missing.

What is part of the update?

• Avatar Marketplace is great. I love that you can buy toys for your avatar. (160 MP is high though)
• Netflix now lets you add to your queue. I tried it and it works instantly
• User Ratings for movies, shows, games and content will be helpful when everyone has it
• Games on demand are faster than most movie downloads and works well (tired with Halo)
• Solutions. It’s a new blade that has well...tips and solutions to help you with the 360
• Your gametag now has a number that represents how long you have been a member
• I have not tried Parties yet but it’s said to be streamlined
• You can now watch previews of games before you download a demo

What I am still waiting for

• Twitter (I was really looking forward to that after E3)
• Facebook (read what I said above)

Yeah that's it. Closing thoughts the blades are a lot faster. I am sure I will find more...

PocketTwit vs. Twikini

If you own a Windows Mobile Device and you love twitter chances are that you have a mobile twitting program. There are two that are at the top of the pile that I will briefly review today.

Right off the bat both offer a rich graphical interface that is a welcome change from Twittday.
After using both of these great products I think that PocketTwit takes in terms of options that are offered to the user.

PocketTwit allows you to have multiple users. Check the timeline of anyone using Twitter, set up groups to send Twitts to, follow or unfollow right from the program. The speed is very fast but with the intensive graphic use I recommend an unlimited data plan.

Twukini starts up very fast and allows for updating the AIP at set amount of times. Some features that I think are a must that were missing were from Twikini was that you have no control over how much cache you want to store and where to save it. There is also no option for auto scroll it get real annoying scrolling to the top to read new tweets. PocketTwitt has these features and much more. So for me it’s a better fit but if you are not a power Twitter go with Twukini.

Why upgrade to Windows 7?

Microsoft aims to put Vista troubles far behind its self. That is the real only reason it is coming about with a new system. You would think after ME that it would have learned its lesson. Microsoft might and could stop Vista as soon as Windows 7 is released. Not a good move.What if you’re just fine with your copy of Vista and you don't want to upgrade to a new OS? Richard Francis, general manager and Windows client business group lead at Microsoft Asia-Pacific, in an e-mail said an enterprise customer that purchases a PC with Windows 7 pre-installed is allowed to downgrade to Vista should they desire, similar to what we have today on Vista to XP. If you’re not an enterprise customer you’re out of luck. How about support? Microsoft will stop supporting all versions of Vista in April 2012, Francis said. Humm maybe that is what Nostradamus saw. Microsoft had high hopes for Vista, but the OS sluggish on all but the fastest computers and permission prompts required for almost every task was annoying. Dissatisfaction with Vista kept user demand high for Windows XP from the business and customer side alike. There were some brave souls like early adaptors that used Vista anyway. Eastman Chemical and Continental Airlines were listed on Microsoft's Web site -- decided to roll out Vista within their organizations. "It's been a long time since we've had a version of Windows that will actually run better [than the previous version] on the hardware that most customers have," said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the Windows product management group at Microsoft, during a conference call with reporters.

I have been using some form of Windows 7 for about a year now and I must say that I am very impressed. At first glance you might think Microsoft is trying to pull a fast one on you. The OS looks almost just like Vista but once you start using it you find that it is nothing like it. There are still prompts that need attention to allow task but now you can customize them. IE upgrade is welcome to compete with Chrome and Firefox but still has compatibility problems with some web sites. There are now libraries instead of folders. All in all it is a great upgrade and worth the buy.