briannaisle: Microsoft's new Xbox 360 UI has Bing voice search across Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and live TV

Monday, June 6, 2011

Microsoft's new Xbox 360 UI has Bing voice search across Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and live TV

Quick refreshing of Microsoft's E3 landing page has apparently revealed some of the things it will be announcing within a couple of hours at its E3 press conference, including new features for Xbox Live like Voice Search and new look for the service. With the explosive popularity of the Kinect add-on, it looks like the system is being refashioned with support built in from the ground up as opposed to the current menu system that's more of an afterthought. Also mentioned on the page are Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports Season 2 and most importantly, two new Halo games. One is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which appears to be the HD (& possibly 3D) remake leaked by Joystiq previously, while the other is Halo 4 -- no explanation needed. We'll surely find out everything when the press conference kicks off live at 12:30 p.m. Eastern and of course we'll be covering all of the news live right here.

Update: Microsoft's just confirmed some of the leaked information onstage at its E3 keynote, with demonstrations of a deeply integrated voice command setup powered by Kinect. YouTube has been announced as an Xbox Live partner, while Bing is coming to the console to let users search across Netflix, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Hulu all at once.That universal search also extends to new live TV partnerships with Sky, Canal+ and Foxtel.

Update 2: Want a better look at the revamped Xbox 360 UI that blends in more of a Metro look with the old Kinect UI elements? Look no further than the gallery below.

Gallery: New Xbox 360 UI