Here's a roundup of announcements today.  I was off playing with the family on Bainbridge Island otherwise I would have posted earlier.

• Xbox 360 is getting a totally new Dashboard (Engadget) complete with Avatars. This is one of the many cool things being cooked up but haven't been announced/released yet.  The funny thing is a few months ago, having James Cameron on stage at the Advance conference talking about his upcoming movie project, "Avatar" caused a few heart palpitations in
• Xbox Live gold members to get NetFlix on-demand, complete with shared viewing experience with your friends.  Now if only you could record your own RiffTrax ala MST3K.  There's an idea Lance!
• Xbox Live Party System.  Friends stick with you- watch a movie together, share a slideshow, go from game to game etc.   Finally- make it a game night with your buddies!
• Improvements to how Xbox 360 works overall.  Improvements include running games from HDD - no more whirring during games, 16:10 output via VGA or HDMI for those of us connected to 16:10 displays (vs. 16:9) and you'll be able to make Xbox 360 purchases over the Web.
• Mark Whitten details it all in an email that went around our group like wildfire later today. 

More details and video at www.gamerscoreblog.com and www.majornelson.com.  There's even more goodness waiting in the wings which I can't talk about.  But for now, off to go play with new package that just arrived under embargo. More on that later ;)