So I got the...

NXE update from MS a day early, as I had signed up for the Preview Program After spending about an hour with it, here's what I've got.


Likes (in increasing order or likeness):

• Guide access via the Guide Button, is a nice way of having the old way in the new style, and I'll probably use it most often, as it's just quicker.
  
• Streamed video from my MacBook and it automagically resizes to full screen (didn't before)
  
• Netflix streaming works well. Actually, I'm pretty impressed. Quality is equal to or better than the DivX/XviD files I download, while FF and Chapter Skipping takes ~10 seconds to buffer. Definitely going to be exploiting all the Netflix capabilities.
  
• I was able to make an avatar that, scarily, looks a lot like me.
  
• Party Chat, FINALLY!!!! The ability to have more than 2 people in a VOIP session.
  
• The interface is really snappy, moves right along, and the bumper page navigation helps in long lists.
  

Dislikes (in decreasing order or annoyance):

• Menu items don't wrap, so browsing leaves me with a sense of everything being on the left side of the screen. Just feels unbalanced.
  
• Interface sounds are annoying, but then again, I rarely have system sounds enabled for anything
  
• Avatar clothing saves are listed as game saves under Avatar Editor, not quite intuitive, but I don't think I could suggest a better alternative
  
• Had to re-install media update to play DivX files; meh, hardly a gripe.
  

So far I only have one suggestion:

Higher-res downloadable gamer pic.

I want to be able to download something a bit better than the 64x64 pixel headshot graphic. I already changed my Facebook and myspace pictures to the small graphic, but one at 128x128 would be great to have. Maybe in the next update? or sooner? I think I know someone who knows someone.