So I just got selected to try out new xbox live features including Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm integration. Here is a review.

Facebook:

This was by far the feature I wanted the most, and it paid off well. You can view your profile feeds with individual entries on their own square and comment, like, or see what others have said about posts. You can also view photo albums on your big screen which is a nice feature to me. I use Twitter to update my status on Facebook, but to be honest, I could see a lot of people putting their status updates through this console. Another feature that is the end-all-be-all feature (which has yet to be fully implemented) is to connect with other gamers’ Xbox Live via Facebook. For instance, I KNOW I have fraternity brothers on Xbox Live who I haven’t added, but I don’t know thier gamer ID, so we go unconnected. (Collin and Corey, I’m thinking of you two specifically!)

Twitter

Other than having an amazing splash page to enter your status updates, it is basically a shell with all the functionality of Twitter.com’s main page.

Last.fm

If you didn’t know what last.fm was, I’d bet you have used Pandora.com and others like it. Basically you create a “channel” based on musical tastes and it streams music through your Xbox. It also displays the artist’s mug as the wallpaper TV. I’ve been listening to the Elton John channel I created and it has served up everything from The Beatles to Don Henley and Journey. I can see me using this more and more as the bots learn what my tastes are in music.

Basically, if you have an Xbox, you have a lot to look forward to, and if you don’t, what the heck is wrong with you?! The Elite model is only $300 now, so stop being a slacker and join the hive! I got mine recently, so no disrespect to late adopters. The time has come, this is more than a console. It is what I believe all future media boxes will be built off of and I’m glad to be a part of beta testing for it.