That said, I was interested in seeing how Facebook would work on the 360. The layout is awkward, but workable, though it does kind of show that the sliding rows of small boxes isn't really that intuitive of a layout more often than not. The real issue I had was that you can slide side to side and read your friends' status updates and news feed items, but if there are comments, you can only see the first line of the comment. You have to actually click on the comment to open a new window to read the whole comment. Which means that you have to press B to go back to the original post in order to move down to the next comment. And if that's more than one line, you'll have to go through the whole process again. Annoying. Photos look pretty good, even blown up onto your big screen HDTV, although they're obviously not high quality. But if somebody's posted a wall photo on their news feed, you can't actually view the photo full-screen from that post. You'll have to go into their photo album.

Naturally, Facebook doesn't allow you to view videos of any kind, and there's no chat feature. You also can't send or read messages. On the plus side, it's easy enough to set up. Quick download, and then you just enter in your ID and password once, and it retains it for you so logging in is as easy as selecting the Facebook window. But with such a limited range of features, I don't see myself using it that often. Sure, you can check your friends' updates and post your own, but I feel like I'd only use it if my boyfriend was already on the computer and I had just booted up my 360 or was finishing a game and wanted to check Facebook before shutting it off. The main thing I feel that's missing is some way to link Facebook and your Xbox 360 profile. There are a couple Facebook apps that claim to link your Xbox LIVE ID with your Facebook account, but none of them seem to work terribly well. Hopefully this is a feature they're adding soon, because I would love it if every time I got an Achievement, it posted a status update.

As for Last.fm, I think I love it. I've never tried it or Pandora before, but I love the idea of selecting a musical artist and then after listening to one of their songs, having a series of similar artists cycled through for your enjoyment. And what's terrific is that because Last.fm originated in the UK, they have all my favorite Britpop acts. I mean, I thought it was great to start off with Kylie Minogue and have them offer me Rachel Stevens and Holly Valance, or select Steps and end up listening to Liberty X, but to type in Eurovision and listen to nothing but awesomely cheesy Eurovision winners and contestants? Brilliant. Love.

It retains what you've listened to and creates recommendations for you based on what you enjoy. You can also ban songs that you don't like so they don't pop up again, and choose to like specific songs so that if you feel like subscribing to the premium service, you can listen to playlists of just your favorite tunes. But I'm already discovering new songs that I love, which is a lot of fun. Last.fm on the Xbox also links to the website, so whatever you listen to and enjoy on the computer will be reflected on your 360, which is great. When you're listening to the music, photos of the artist appear and scroll around the screen, which hopefully will help avoid burn-in if you listen for a while, although I fear the logo may be an issue. And the photos look crystal clear on your TV — way better than on the website. My only issue with Last.fm is that you can't listen to your playlist while browsing Xbox LIVE. I mean, I can understand not being able to listen to it while playing a game, but why can't I still enjoy the Spice Girls while I go check some Facebook status updates?

All in all, it's not a bad update. I feel like there needs to be more Facebook/Xbox LIVE integration, but I'm kind of in love with Last.fm. Even though there does seem to be some hiccups here and there with buffering the music that makes some songs end almost as soon as they've begun. Now can someone explain to me why Microsoft hasn't plopped Internet Explorer on the 360? Why is the Xbox the only console without a web browser?