Wii-sixty

Yesterday Microsoft unrolled the new "Xbox 360" experience. While I haven't completely made up my mind about it, I will let you in on my thoughts so far.

First off, I guess it's true what they say; imitation is the truest form of flattery. The "dashboard" (which is a conglomerate of pregame menus) has been reformatted to look almost exactly like the Wii. You first select an avatar (exactly like the Wii), which you then customize to look like yourself. Once you have done this, you are then let into the dashboard to explore.

Each submenu is setup similar to what Vista looks like. You have a series of floating windows lined up in a row that you can easily cycle through. There is a menu at the top of the page that allows you to to cycle to different content areas.

One thing I love is the added functionality they have built into the big middle "X" button. You can access the marketplace and other user friendly tools that were a bit combersome to get to previously.

As I mentioned, I have yet to make up my mind about the new look and feel. It seems as though Microsoft tried to dumb things down for those who weren't comfortable with technology, while trying to make things seem "hip" by churching up the interface. We'll see what happens.