LIVE Spring Update…

The guys over at Kotaku just spoke with some Microsoft employees about the contents of the update thats on the way. Here’s the list of what is being changed and updated:

• Xbox Live Marketplace
  The Xbox Live Marketplace blade is getting a make-over making it easier to sort through the increasingly bloated offerings that can be found through Live.
• Background Download Manager
  Active Download will allow you to download games in the background as you do other stuff. Yes that means you can play retail games, or any other “full Xbox experience” during a download. The download manager will pause downloads automatically during multiplayer experiences. You will be able to rack up, up to six downloads at a time. Once one is completed it will go to the next. And you can see where everything stands with the Background Download Manager.
• Control Marketplace Videos
  The Marketplace video you download can now be rewound or fast forwarded at 2 to 16 times normal speed. You can do this with a controller or the Xbox remote control.
• Enhanced Photo Viewing
  This will allow you to preserve folders on memory cards when you transfer to your 360 and also tweaks the slidesow.
• Music Player and DVD Playback Improvements
  On the DVD front, the upgrade will add a feature called DVD Bookmarking, which will allow your 360 to remember where you stopped watching a movie and automatically jump back to it when you slap it back in after a few hours of GRAW. You can even turn off the console or unplug it. They’ve also tweaked overall DVD performance.
  On the music side of things, the 360 will now remember where you were while browsing through your music. Also, now when you launch your music in the background, it will continue to play no matter what you are doing, even launching a new game or hopping around through the blades.
• Dashboard Boot-Up
  Finally, the update will add an option that you can set-up to allow you to boot up straight into the Xbox Dashboard instead of jumping to whatever CD, DVD or game happens to be in the console’s tray when you start it up.
• Friends Status Update
  Now, like instant messenger, if you’re away and your screensaver turns on (usually after 15 minutes), your Friends status will show you are away. It also will show how long you’ve been away.
• Xbox Live Vision
  Msoft will also be loading camera setting to the 360 so the Xbox 360 camera will be fully supported when it hits in September. You might notice some stuff in the menus you can’t use, but it’s there because it’s embedded in the update, you might notice things like a video chat option and the ability to take your picture and use it as your Gamertag image. Woo Hoo!

For the full breakdown check out Kotaku’s post