Big Update Day - Xbox Live, Twitter and Apple - June 16th

People all around the world are being subject to service interruptions due to big updates. On the day that the Digital Britain report was released, which promises massive digital upgrades in the coming years in return for a small tax, all the major digital companies in the world are preparing to roll out their new generation technology.

First off is Microsoft's 24 hour Xbox Live update. No update specifics have been completely released, as usual, but we do know this update is all about getting Xbox Live ready for the new features that were announced at E3. If you thought it was cool to have Facebook, Twitter and MSN all on your computer, think again. Microsoft has teamed up with Facebook , Twitter and Sky News to bring all of these services to you directly through your Xbox 360. (MSN is already part of the Xbox Live experience). It seems that Microsoft is extending it's monopoly over access to services, which to many people are a necessity of modern day life.

Microsoft has also extended it's monopoly in terms of Windows 7 and IE8. For some bizarre reason, the EU has said that Microsoft is not allowed to ship IE8 with Windows 7. Obviously Microsoft has complied to this, knowing full well that people need IE8 to actually get hold of any other browser. I highly doubt that Mozilla, Opera, Netscape and Google are going to print CD's of their browsers, an option which Microsoft is doing...and also charging us for it. The EU really has no idea how this stuff works.

Now onto the second big update of June 16th. Following on from the whole social networking thing, Twitter is down for maintenance. Just like Xbox Live, it could be down for up to 24 hours. I expect that a million emo kids will be ripping their collective hair out right now because they can't update people on their suicidal thoughts from the comfort of their iPod.

Which brings us to our next major update. Although it's not technically going to be on the 16th, Apple is finally releasing the iPod Touch 3.0 Update... for $9.99. Which is about £7. I'm not sure what good it will do and I haven't seen anything about Google Street View being packaged in, but we'll see once its all released. Expect a review on it soon.

Final Thought Byte : All the big gaming companies are getting over the post-E3 hype and are starting to implement their promises. The UK Government is also starting to get a grip on the digital world, but as usual my thoughts tend to be rather critical. Some old Lord from somewhere posh will never understand the Internet in it's entirety. I doubt that Gordon Brown even knows what Twitter is. Regardless of this, June is going to be a very hectic month indeed. With E3 at the beginning, updates halfway through and Transformers 2 coming out at the end alongside FUEL on PC...it may just be historical

Tags : Microsoft, Xbox Live, Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Transformers 2