Discussion about
the dashboard sucks come on man!
Yeah, I agree. This is something that I've always been frustrated with Sony about. The PS3 has always had so much power and potential as the center of a home theater due to its ability to play Blu-ray discs and streaming media. But Sony is totally squandering it!
Look how far the Xbox 360 dashboard has come -- online streaming, Netflix, Facebook and Twitter integration, etc. It's pretty crazy! Meanwhile, we're back over here, using the same dashboard / intro screen we've been using since 2006. Woopity.
Look how far the Xbox 360 dashboard has come -- online streaming, Netflix, Facebook and Twitter integration, etc. It's pretty crazy! Meanwhile, we're back over here, using the same dashboard / intro screen we've been using since 2006. Woopity.
WOW, cannot disagree more guys. Sony's approach on their dashboard is clean and simple. Adding Facebook and Twitter, that's not efficient or clean, (it's also not needed, who browses Facebook with a controller?). As for netflix, the app is coming this fall. XMB is the BEST UI I have seen in any console.
It lets you see all of your games, in an order of your choosing, and grouping that makes sense, because come on, it's a Blu ray player and game system, and it's does all of that and more with ease. I have no idea why people hate this UI, it gets right to the point, and is impossible to get lost in the menus. What does the NXE have over the XMB that is so much better, honestly, what?
It lets you see all of your games, in an order of your choosing, and grouping that makes sense, because come on, it's a Blu ray player and game system, and it's does all of that and more with ease. I have no idea why people hate this UI, it gets right to the point, and is impossible to get lost in the menus. What does the NXE have over the XMB that is so much better, honestly, what?
I'm inclined to believe that your post may be a troll, but given your politeness at the start I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. So you want to know what's better.. well allow me to start by refuting some of your statements.
To address your points. Point One XMB is clean and simple.
I'm willing to give you clean, but not simple. The XMB is usually quite a clean interface, but trying to navigate towards any given setting has been far from intuitive for me. You end up in a weird thing where after going across to the settings list, then down to the category then across again to the sub category the place has turned into a complex mess.
This is compounded by the fact that to get all the functionality that NXE offers on a PS3 you are talking about more than the XMB. For instance getting stuff via XBL is integrated directly into NXE.. Everything is consistent. Not so on the PS3 you then have a new set of interface rules to learn for it.
Point Two Facebook and Twitter are not good on consoles.
I can only speak for myself here.. I thought I would use twitter on the xbox more than I do, it's pretty infrequent for me, (I think its because of the fact I can't click links) so I'll concur there. But I really enjoy browsing Facebook photos on the Xbox. It’s much better than the website (and doesn’t have invite spam all over the place). It's a lovely full screen slideshow.
Point Three XMB allows you to see your games in custom orders / grouping
I've not seen, or even looked for this functionality on either of my consoles. Nor have I found it a hindrance on my xbox. I'm so not really a problem that needs to be solved, but out of interest how do you do this?
Point Four XMB is impossible to get lost in
I touched on this back in point one. You really can. The big problem I have with the XMB is it doesn’t scale. It's fine if you only have a few items in a category, (eg 3 videos, or 3 games). At that point you are correct it IS impossible to get lost in. But if you crank up the numbers either you have a giant list, or a very complex tree going down then back to the right. This complex tree already happens within the settings list. But if you hook it up to a media server which has a whole library of data on it you'll quickly see what I mean.
The one thing you didn't mentioned that I have noticed that XBM does better than NXE for me is it has that it has a faster bootup time. That may just be lag for the XBL sign in, so may not be the same everywhere. but faster is faster here.
I like the NXE better than the XMB for several reasons.
1) The same interface is everywhere. You don't have a big relearn for every application and plugin. 2) The streaming media is streets ahead. Browsing media servers on the PS3 is a horrible pain.
3) My biggest problem can be summed up in two word "Percentage Bars".
Some days I feel I spend more time waiting for my PS3 than playing with it.
Let me run you through this:
Purchase game on XBL (wait for download in background) Get notification, Play game.
Purchase game on PS Store (wait for download in background) get notification, select install (wait for install percentage bar to complete), open game, notified of required update (wait for percentage bar of download that cannot be placed in backgroud) play game.
Time watching percentage bars on NXE none.
Time watching percentage bars on XMB install time, and "patch" time. I've noted that patches for PS Store titles are often the same size as the origial downloads.
How about 'Purchase Game in store'
xbox Purchase game, Place in drive, possibly (and this is important) a quick update. Play game.
PS3 Purchase Game, Place in drive, probably (wait for percentage bar installer), possibly (wait for very slow patch) play game.
I literally fell asleep waiting for the PS3 game I purchased on Sunday to be ready to play. (Saboteur if you must know).
In by comparison to xbox/NXE the whole XBM/PS3 experience lacks a lot of polish.
To address your points. Point One XMB is clean and simple.
I'm willing to give you clean, but not simple. The XMB is usually quite a clean interface, but trying to navigate towards any given setting has been far from intuitive for me. You end up in a weird thing where after going across to the settings list, then down to the category then across again to the sub category the place has turned into a complex mess.
This is compounded by the fact that to get all the functionality that NXE offers on a PS3 you are talking about more than the XMB. For instance getting stuff via XBL is integrated directly into NXE.. Everything is consistent. Not so on the PS3 you then have a new set of interface rules to learn for it.
Point Two Facebook and Twitter are not good on consoles.
I can only speak for myself here.. I thought I would use twitter on the xbox more than I do, it's pretty infrequent for me, (I think its because of the fact I can't click links) so I'll concur there. But I really enjoy browsing Facebook photos on the Xbox. It’s much better than the website (and doesn’t have invite spam all over the place). It's a lovely full screen slideshow.
Point Three XMB allows you to see your games in custom orders / grouping
I've not seen, or even looked for this functionality on either of my consoles. Nor have I found it a hindrance on my xbox. I'm so not really a problem that needs to be solved, but out of interest how do you do this?
Point Four XMB is impossible to get lost in
I touched on this back in point one. You really can. The big problem I have with the XMB is it doesn’t scale. It's fine if you only have a few items in a category, (eg 3 videos, or 3 games). At that point you are correct it IS impossible to get lost in. But if you crank up the numbers either you have a giant list, or a very complex tree going down then back to the right. This complex tree already happens within the settings list. But if you hook it up to a media server which has a whole library of data on it you'll quickly see what I mean.
The one thing you didn't mentioned that I have noticed that XBM does better than NXE for me is it has that it has a faster bootup time. That may just be lag for the XBL sign in, so may not be the same everywhere. but faster is faster here.
I like the NXE better than the XMB for several reasons.
1) The same interface is everywhere. You don't have a big relearn for every application and plugin. 2) The streaming media is streets ahead. Browsing media servers on the PS3 is a horrible pain.
3) My biggest problem can be summed up in two word "Percentage Bars".
Some days I feel I spend more time waiting for my PS3 than playing with it.
Let me run you through this:
Purchase game on XBL (wait for download in background) Get notification, Play game.
Purchase game on PS Store (wait for download in background) get notification, select install (wait for install percentage bar to complete), open game, notified of required update (wait for percentage bar of download that cannot be placed in backgroud) play game.
Time watching percentage bars on NXE none.
Time watching percentage bars on XMB install time, and "patch" time. I've noted that patches for PS Store titles are often the same size as the origial downloads.
How about 'Purchase Game in store'
xbox Purchase game, Place in drive, possibly (and this is important) a quick update. Play game.
PS3 Purchase Game, Place in drive, probably (wait for percentage bar installer), possibly (wait for very slow patch) play game.
I literally fell asleep waiting for the PS3 game I purchased on Sunday to be ready to play. (Saboteur if you must know).
In by comparison to xbox/NXE the whole XBM/PS3 experience lacks a lot of polish.
DAMMIT, what's with all the good points man, how do I disagree?? No, but, seriously, I do agree. It does seem that Sony's interface needs to be 'learned' every update, and the settings are inefficient at best.
You asked how to sort your games, all you need to do is press square when in the games folder, and it sorts them according to date, size, or recently played, or you can just custom label every title anything you like. I find it a lot easier to get the games I like at the moment compared to NXE.
And about the facebook and twitters, I can agree that viewing pics on the big screen is a plus, i just don't like looking at pictures of other people, feels a little creepy. But all in all, good points, and no, I never troll, I try to disagree as polite as possible, because if I full out yelled at people for being stupid for not agreeing, it would only serve to their point that the opposing opinion is full of 'trolls'.
You asked how to sort your games, all you need to do is press square when in the games folder, and it sorts them according to date, size, or recently played, or you can just custom label every title anything you like. I find it a lot easier to get the games I like at the moment compared to NXE.
And about the facebook and twitters, I can agree that viewing pics on the big screen is a plus, i just don't like looking at pictures of other people, feels a little creepy. But all in all, good points, and no, I never troll, I try to disagree as polite as possible, because if I full out yelled at people for being stupid for not agreeing, it would only serve to their point that the opposing opinion is full of 'trolls'.
Perhaps full friend list support...you know video conferencing...party chats, ability to make a party anywhere and take them from you from app, to game, to movie, and back. It also has a way better achievement record compared to the playstation 3's trophy room.u
The NXE also has a WAY better marketplace than the Sony Store does.
Also, with the Sony Store, you have to download a demo, install it, update it (if need it) and then play it, compared to XBOX, download and play.
The only thing the Playstation has over the xbox is the browser, but I mean, who uses their browser with a controller? ;)
The NXE also has a WAY better marketplace than the Sony Store does.
Also, with the Sony Store, you have to download a demo, install it, update it (if need it) and then play it, compared to XBOX, download and play.
The only thing the Playstation has over the xbox is the browser, but I mean, who uses their browser with a controller? ;)
Right again, I honestly do not see the reason why Sony doesn't force developers to bake in that support. Honestly, some fighting games wont allow you to play music, COME ON!
Dammit, your right. I guess I don't use trophies and video chat, so I am fine with the XMB, but yeah, I can see exactly what you are talking about. I really disagreed with Dave on the 'apps', the apps aren't what make NXE, it's what you just touched on.
"I really disagreed with Dave on the 'apps', the apps aren't what make NXE, it's what you just touched on."
That's fair. In my haste to post yesterday, I only mentioned Twitter and Facebook and I admit those are probably bad examples. Those actually aren't really things I use on the Xbox anyway!
Mainly, I was making the point that the Xbox at least has some sort of extensibility with these pseudo-apps -- Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM (which I do use and is nice to have), Pandora, etc. Both have Netflix integration, which I hope is a sign of things to come for the PS3 side of things!
Sony wants the PS3 to be the center of your home entertainment system. Like I said earlier, the PS3 has always had so much potential, they just need to apply themselves a bit more.
That's fair. In my haste to post yesterday, I only mentioned Twitter and Facebook and I admit those are probably bad examples. Those actually aren't really things I use on the Xbox anyway!
Mainly, I was making the point that the Xbox at least has some sort of extensibility with these pseudo-apps -- Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM (which I do use and is nice to have), Pandora, etc. Both have Netflix integration, which I hope is a sign of things to come for the PS3 side of things!
Sony wants the PS3 to be the center of your home entertainment system. Like I said earlier, the PS3 has always had so much potential, they just need to apply themselves a bit more.
Yeah, absolutely. Since Sony bills their PS3 as a home entertainment system it would at least make sense to include a Netflix and Last FM app as soon as possible. When I heard last year that the Netflix app was coming late 2010, I was in disbelief that it would take that long, and it really was on Sony's shoulder for not pushing for a sooner release date. BUT, we can all agree on something, THE NXE DOES NOT HAVE SPARKLES LIKE THE XMB!
The Xbox dashboard is improved like a shattered scapula heals over time, with pins and screws in it, and you'll never play the violin. The original interface was a mess of buttons and dialogs, and it was impossible to guess where pressing down would take you. The 'new' interface is just a bad ripoff of Sony's, except with shiny flashy pictures to distract the Halo crowd. Even "NXE" sounds like a lame ripoff of "XMB". And don't even get me started on Facebook and Twitter.
I'm glad I never owned an Xbox until last year. Even then I dread having to trudge through the layer upon layer of screens and menus to get to what I want.
I'm glad I never owned an Xbox until last year. Even then I dread having to trudge through the layer upon layer of screens and menus to get to what I want.
Yep, what he said. But some features are still missing from XMB, but at least Sony can fix that with an update, it'd take months for Xbox to 'fix' their clunky mess.
It might not be as pretty and some of the features that are missing is pretty stupid (eg: universal music playback) but compared to the 360, anyone who's picked up a controller to use it in my house has been able to do what they wanted (launch a movie, cd etc) rather than get lost in the NXE maze.
So I wont say it "sucks" but there are a lot of things they can improve on.
Btw, does gdgt have a folding@home group like the old engadget one?
So I wont say it "sucks" but there are a lot of things they can improve on.
Btw, does gdgt have a folding@home group like the old engadget one?
We do, though it's not very active:
folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s...
folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s...
My mind has just been blown. Your thought provoking insight to the dashboard's suckage has moved me in ways word cannot describe; and your call to man, and men around the world has riled my fighting spirit.
Please spare my brain next time and use less detail and fewer words to describe your point in the future.
Please spare my brain next time and use less detail and fewer words to describe your point in the future.
