TeamXbox wrote:

Xbox 360 Dashboard Update Imminent, Features Leaked By: César A. Berardini - "Cesar" May. 25th, 2006 5:05 am Over the last few weeks, various Microsoft employees around the world confirmed that an update to the Xbox 360 dashboard was in the works but it wasn’t until yesterday that an official confirmation was released. Early in the morning, the Microsoft Knowledge Base was updated with info about the new update but soon after these support pages were deleted. Later in the day, the Xbox Marketing team confirmed that indeed a Spring Xbox 360 update is about to be released and asked gamers to look for more info in the coming week. Apparently, the update was scheduled for roll out on May 23 but for some reason it has been delayed. The support pages at the Microsoft KB confirmed that a boot-to-dashboard option will finally be incorporated and they also revealed some other features including “Active Download” and some tweaks to the Xbox 360’s DVD playback capabilities. Here are some excerpts: Active Download This article describes the Active Download feature that is available in the Xbox Live Marketplace. With the spring auto-update of the Xbox Live service scheduled for May 23, 2006, you will have access to the Active Download feature in the Xbox Live Marketplace. With an active downloads list, you receive the following benefits: Each item that you download is downloaded separately in the background. This lets you continue to use the console while you download an item. You can stream music, play DVDs or CDs, play arcade titles, and play games while you download an item from the marketplace. If you start to play an online game, the download is automatically paused while you play the game to help prevent game lag because of network congestion. This helps you receive the best online gaming experience that the network can provide. All downloads are associated with your profile. If a download is paused or if the download is interrupted, the download will resume the next time that you connect to Xbox Live. You can add items to the active downloads list at any time by selecting more items from the marketplace. You will receive a notification in the Xbox Guide when an item starts to download and when the download is completed. You will also receive a notification if the download fails. DVD Playback This article describes how to play DVD movies on an Xbox 360 console. You do not require any special software downloads or hardware attachments to play DVDs on an Xbox 360 console. You can play DVDs on an Xbox 360 console immediately. The Xbox 360 console uses a “bookmark” feature. The bookmark feature enables the console to remember the point where you stopped and ejected the last DVD movie that you played. Therefore, when you re-insert and then restart the DVD, the DVD will continue from that bookmark point. To clear the bookmark for a particular DVD, insert a different DVD. Note: You cannot turn off the bookmark feature.