134w ago - According to several people on X-S (linked above), new XBox 360 protection appears to have been implemented in the leaked 12606 and Fall 2010 Dashboard.

The new security against piracy and video game backups is reported in Kinect and the Beta XBox 360 Firmware along with Fable 3 thus far.

I have condensed the information to avoid being too technical, and some of the information has been taken from other people's posts from some high rated members, some not.

• In a new XBox 360 Beta firmware that leaked to the Internet, Microsoft has appears to have added new checks to see if a disc is legit inside the disc drive.

• One of the games that has been found to be giving problems is the release of Fable III. Right now it's unclear which games, DVD models and/or modified FWs are exactly affected.

• The software appears to run some checks on the disc in a way not thought before, with responses that can cause your console to be perma-banned, due to failing "Failed AP25 Challenge", OFFLINE!

• Here's some details from Logic-Sunrise, to quote: "We told you about here is now some time reports a rumor of a new integrated protection in Dashboard...

162w ago - Somebody at Microsoft appears to have flicked a switch a little early, with an advertisement appearing on the Xbox 360 dashboard tonight for Gears of War 3.

There's the trademark Gears of War logo, and a tagline that reads "The epic story concludes April 2011".

To quote: The ad appears to have jumped the proverbial gun, with the official reveal of the game not expected to have taken place until an appearance from Epic's Cliff Bleszinski on the Jimmy Fallon show on Monday night.

He of course was supposed to have been on the show, well, last night, but his appearance was pulled at the last minute. Guess somebody forgot to pass that onto the Xbox 360's ad team!

Despite the lack of an official reveal, it's already been rumoured that the third game in the Xbox 360 shooter series will feature franchise firsts like like underwater combat and mech suits.

166w ago - Update: According to JoyStiq, the XBox 360 may also gain USB storage support in the upcoming 2010 update!

Today GamingBolt.com (linked above) is reporting that they have received an image of a new XBox 360 dashboard update on the way, namely version 2.0.9195.0.

Aside from the picture below there is no other evidence to support this claim, but many users feel it indeed looks legitimate so only time will tell for sure.

To quote: "Gamingbolt has been tipped off that a new XBox 360 dashboard update is coming soon, as we have a photo to prove it.

An image was sent in which appears to show a new XBox 360 dashboard.

The update appears to have been accidentally added by Microsoft after a console repair. Judging by the screenshot we can guess that the next dashboard update will be 2.0.9195.0."

242w ago - The new Xbox 360 Dashboard OS update is coming soon and it is going to be one of the biggest changes to the Xbox 360 since the system hit the market.

It is going to include the first complete redesign of the Xbox interface called the NXE by all the cool kids. The New Xbox Experience (NXE) is going to be the best thing to hit the Xbox and it is going to completely redefine how we use it.

One of the niftiest things at Penny Arcade Expo 08 was seeing the new Xbox dashboard. Xbox Live's own Major Nelson showed it off. He made sure to stress that it is still a work in progress and that there was an army of programmers over in Redmond that were cranking out code and testing it as he gave the demo.

As a side note if you ever go to a game expo or press event and Major Nelson asks you not to film something in the presentation and you do it anyway and then go on and keep on filming after he notices you and calls you out and you don't stop it then you are a total schmuck.

I've always thought that Microsoft's biggest advantage in their fight with Sony and Nintendo was software innovation. Let me tell you why:

New Interface
So far the new user interface design looks well designed, clean and very efficient. It sort of resembles Windows Media Center and the Zune...

252w ago - As part of E3 2008, Larry Hryb, otherwise known as Major Nelson, gave a demonstration of the new XBox 360 Dashboard.

The video caption simply reads: "Major Nelson shows off the new 360 Dashboard."

Courtesy of GameTrailers, the video is available below.

Enjoy all!