Always dug the metro interface since I tried the first iterations on Zune. Glad to see it's becoming a standard with Microsoft. Definitely one of the more elegant and intuitive interfaces out there (although the tiles on WP7 are regrettably ugly).
I have to agree. But it is weird, the original zunes and the zund HD was the best IMO. but the new windows phone 7, i dunno it is just so different I like it. I feel that vaity is the spic of life. granted working from solaris to linux to osx to win7 has its pros and cons... but I have to applaud Microsoft for always trying something new. at least microsoft eats its own dogfood in the regards that they usually go gun-ho on things. Also We must love to see companies that 6 years later still put resources into products.
For a huge display like a TV, it's still to oversized and cludgy, but better than the previous version with like 3 items per page. Most people are on HD. Why can't they give you more than 8 tiles per screen? Even with a remote control or xbox controller, it's easy to pick through more options than that. Someone at microsoft has serious vision problems and wants everything scaled 4x. Example: now they changed the installed game picking page from a vertical text list to a single scrolling row of gigantic tiles (maybe 5 per screen). I've got about 30 demos installed on a 60gb drive and it's already a pain to scroll through all those giganto tiles to find one, imagine people with 250GB drives.
Metro at its core is very short sighted. Every iteration I've ever used (WP7, Xbox, Win8 preview) has the same very basic fundamental problem -- it cannot handle large volumes of content. The design seems to be based on the premise that people will never want to do that much on their PC/phone/game system, therefore it's optimized to a small number of tiles. But as Apple had to admit with iOS and the addition of folders, people DO want to install hundreds of things on their phone/pc/system.
If you hop from console to console like I often do (play at a friends house and want to actually KEEP your achievements etc), the main advantage is being able to store your profile in the cloud. No more Account Recovery, no memory stick needed.
But yes, 500MB is a good start and will typically hold quite a few saved games. They could certainly expand it later, uh, maybe after HDD prices come back down to earth. :)
If you're paying $60/year, you're doing it wrong. 1yr cards routinely go on ebay for $40 or less.
Also, game saves generally don't take up all that much space. There are some exceptions (I hear Skyrim saves are big), but most are a few MB. Honestly, given the speed of most home internet connections on the upload side, you don't WANT to try to put super-massive stuff into the cloud.
Not saying that this makes any sense WRT their size - 512MB is a bit of a joke when I can put a 16 GB USB stick in there... but for all we know they may increase the space down the road anyway. I am already using a USB drive for my profile and saves (I have 3 xboxen in my house and need portability), but this is kind of a neat idea I suppose.
"if you're paying $60 per year for xbox live and the only benefit you derive from it is online save game space, you are a fool"
Exactly. The price is for online gaming. The new 512mb is just a value added. Not something you'd pay for by itself. Its nice to have it for those of us that already have a live account.
What else do you need the Cloud Saves space for other than saves?
Everything else on Live can always be downloaded again, with the exception of a few old arcade games that weren't that popular. And these are listed in your download history tied to your account for easy access. So you've always had "the cloud" for everything BUT saves.
And the average save file is like a few hundred KB. You would need like 1000 games saves to fill it up. And at that point, I think you have bigger problems.
The only thing you can't download is the game installs, which wouldn't make sense since you need the disc anyways and reading the disc for an install is going to be faster than any Internet connection downloading 6-7GB.
Oh, and if you already bought those "unpopular" arcade games, they will also appear in your DL history, and can be downloaded. You just can't buy those games anymore.
Personally, I find the PS3 interface a bit of a pain to navigate through. Especially in menus containing many items, you've got a lot of vertical scrolling to do, and particularly in the system settings menu I find myself having to constantly drill down into a few of them before I find what I'm looking for.
Sony's XMB is a striking, minimalist interface, but it doesn't make the best use of all the pixels available to it, and it hasn't been refined much over the last six years (to say nothing of the constant updates and, for non-PlayStation Plus subscribers, the lack of an auto-update feature).
I can look at anyone's windows desktop and easily pick out program shortcuts, different types of files, etc. within milliseconds of glancing at it. Can you do the same with text tiles? Maybe the tiles that have unique graphics on them and not just a solid color, but isn't that just an icon?
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mepenete - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
Always dug the metro interface since I tried the first iterations on Zune. Glad to see it's becoming a standard with Microsoft. Definitely one of the more elegant and intuitive interfaces out there (although the tiles on WP7 are regrettably ugly).MGSsancho - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
I have to agree. But it is weird, the original zunes and the zund HD was the best IMO. but the new windows phone 7, i dunno it is just so different I like it. I feel that vaity is the spic of life. granted working from solaris to linux to osx to win7 has its pros and cons... but I have to applaud Microsoft for always trying something new. at least microsoft eats its own dogfood in the regards that they usually go gun-ho on things. Also We must love to see companies that 6 years later still put resources into products.Exodite - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
For a huge display, such as a TV, using a clunky navigation system, such as a controller, it makes sense.I'm just not at all sold upon the interface when it comes to an actual computer.
Of course I personally dislike the style in its entirety but disregarding that it's quite functional for the XBOX.
augiem - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
For a huge display like a TV, it's still to oversized and cludgy, but better than the previous version with like 3 items per page. Most people are on HD. Why can't they give you more than 8 tiles per screen? Even with a remote control or xbox controller, it's easy to pick through more options than that. Someone at microsoft has serious vision problems and wants everything scaled 4x. Example: now they changed the installed game picking page from a vertical text list to a single scrolling row of gigantic tiles (maybe 5 per screen). I've got about 30 demos installed on a 60gb drive and it's already a pain to scroll through all those giganto tiles to find one, imagine people with 250GB drives.Metro at its core is very short sighted. Every iteration I've ever used (WP7, Xbox, Win8 preview) has the same very basic fundamental problem -- it cannot handle large volumes of content. The design seems to be based on the premise that people will never want to do that much on their PC/phone/game system, therefore it's optimized to a small number of tiles. But as Apple had to admit with iOS and the addition of folders, people DO want to install hundreds of things on their phone/pc/system.
Arsynic - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
What kind of shit is this? I pay $60 a year and I only get 512 MB, yet a free Sky Drive account allows me 2 GB.Xbox Live subscribers definitely have Stockholm syndrome.
FITCamaro - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
There's a lot more users of Xbox Live than Sky Drive. But how much save game space do you need?Alexvrb - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
If you hop from console to console like I often do (play at a friends house and want to actually KEEP your achievements etc), the main advantage is being able to store your profile in the cloud. No more Account Recovery, no memory stick needed.But yes, 500MB is a good start and will typically hold quite a few saved games. They could certainly expand it later, uh, maybe after HDD prices come back down to earth. :)
ZPrime - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
If you're paying $60/year, you're doing it wrong. 1yr cards routinely go on ebay for $40 or less.Also, game saves generally don't take up all that much space. There are some exceptions (I hear Skyrim saves are big), but most are a few MB. Honestly, given the speed of most home internet connections on the upload side, you don't WANT to try to put super-massive stuff into the cloud.
Not saying that this makes any sense WRT their size - 512MB is a bit of a joke when I can put a 16 GB USB stick in there... but for all we know they may increase the space down the road anyway. I am already using a USB drive for my profile and saves (I have 3 xboxen in my house and need portability), but this is kind of a neat idea I suppose.
artemicion - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
if you're paying $60 per year for xbox live and the only benefit you derive from it is online save game space, you are a fool.retrospooty - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
"if you're paying $60 per year for xbox live and the only benefit you derive from it is online save game space, you are a fool"Exactly. The price is for online gaming. The new 512mb is just a value added. Not something you'd pay for by itself. Its nice to have it for those of us that already have a live account.
THizzle7XU - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
What else do you need the Cloud Saves space for other than saves?Everything else on Live can always be downloaded again, with the exception of a few old arcade games that weren't that popular. And these are listed in your download history tied to your account for easy access. So you've always had "the cloud" for everything BUT saves.
And the average save file is like a few hundred KB. You would need like 1000 games saves to fill it up. And at that point, I think you have bigger problems.
The only thing you can't download is the game installs, which wouldn't make sense since you need the disc anyways and reading the disc for an install is going to be faster than any Internet connection downloading 6-7GB.
You're complaint is completely moot.
THizzle7XU - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
Oh, and if you already bought those "unpopular" arcade games, they will also appear in your DL history, and can be downloaded. You just can't buy those games anymore.piroroadkill - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
Where does it say you need to pay for it?Spivonious - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
Looks like a mix of Zune and Windows 8 to me.Golgatha - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
it looks a lot like the PS3 interface with an XBox skin. The only difference is you have rectangular boxes of content instead of a scroll down menu.GoSharks - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
Microsoft has been working on this interface for far longer than the PS3 has been out. See: Portable Media Center (If not Media Center)Andrew.a.cunningham - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
Personally, I find the PS3 interface a bit of a pain to navigate through. Especially in menus containing many items, you've got a lot of vertical scrolling to do, and particularly in the system settings menu I find myself having to constantly drill down into a few of them before I find what I'm looking for.Sony's XMB is a striking, minimalist interface, but it doesn't make the best use of all the pixels available to it, and it hasn't been refined much over the last six years (to say nothing of the constant updates and, for non-PlayStation Plus subscribers, the lack of an auto-update feature).
gevorg - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
Metro is awesome! Time to stop using that ancient Xerox technology with lifeless 2D icons.eman17j - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
Hello that is an flat rectangle which is 2 dimensionalaugiem - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
Icons = recognizability.I can look at anyone's windows desktop and easily pick out program shortcuts, different types of files, etc. within milliseconds of glancing at it. Can you do the same with text tiles? Maybe the tiles that have unique graphics on them and not just a solid color, but isn't that just an icon?
RallyMaster - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
Anyone try this yet? I'm wondering if I should boot up my 360 and get that mess updated.raskren - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
No, it's not out yet. It was supposed to be released at 10 AM Eastern today but that didn't happen. No word on when the rollout will take place.http://t.co/qq8AUPAs
psaus - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
exactly... why AnandTech didn't know this before posting this article is beyond me. Nice one guys...Andrew.a.cunningham - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - link
Leads with "At some point today..."Ends with "should be available soon, if it isn't already."
eman17j - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
I hate windows 8 it is ugly and looks like building blocks for retarded kids. Now they are going to pollute my xbox with that crap?iamkyle - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
...new dashboard fixes the choppy startup splash!jabber - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
Cant say I'm that impressed. MS have never seem to get the navigation right for the 360.It's still all over the place.