Level Up has got its hands on the upcoming Xbox Dashboard update that will launch on August 11, touting the eagerly-awaited Avatar Marketplace and Games-On-Demand service. Our preview lacks the full features of the final update - Games-On-Demand is there in name only, and the Facebook and Twitter updates won’t arrive until later this year but it gives us a good idea of what to expect next month. Here are the main features:
Avatar Marketplace: You can now purchase clothing and props for your avatar with Microsoft Points. There are some rather unimpressive Halo t-shirts, but you could grab a full pirate outfit and some funky steampunk goggles to slap on your avatar. The Monkey Island store had the best offerings, including a 'Chicken with Pully' and a 'Giant Cotton Swob'. (Check out all of these in the gallery below.)
Prices start at 80 points for clothing, 160 points for props, and a whopping 360 points for special items, including the remote-controlled Warthog. (That you can’t actually play with.) For those too tight to purchase anything, 'Awards' provide free clothing and props from games in the near future.
Games-On-Demand: Although lacking in our preview, you’ll soon be able to download full retail titles to your hard drive. Manuals will be available on the Xbox website, and they will be all tied to your Gamertag in the event you happen to delete it. Although prices haven't been mentioned, you can buy games with real money as well as Microsoft Points.
Achievement Browser: Achievements are no longer displayed in a list, hidden behind laborious clicking and searching. They are now tiled in rows with the achievement details listed across the top of the screen.
User Ratings: Everything on the Marketplace can be rated with a five-star system, found on the opening page of the game’s menu. A new menu field displays the highest rated content, which will be essential for the hundreds of Live Arcade and Indie Games out there
Faster Navigation: What took ten seconds to log into a Gamertag and around five seconds to navigate your Games Collection now takes just a couple of seconds. There are also added shortcut links here and there.
Xbox Live Indie Games: The Community Games service will be rebranded, with games available at lower prices and to include avatar support.
There are also plenty of little housekeeping tweaks that can be easily missed:
Lost party members are now reconnected if dropped by accident.
Gold Members now have a number next to their name to indicate how long they’ve been a member.
You can now check how long you’ve got until your Xbox Live subscriptions run out.
Account Recovery is a faster process.
Display functionality for HDMI and DVI connections has been improved, with more options available.
You can sort friends by activity, Gamertag and online status.
Saved items in the Memory section have a time stamp.
You’ll be alerted when you try to record a voice message when a microphone isn’t detected.
For North American users, you can now queue movies in Netflix.
Generally, the update seems to just fix the navigation issues brought with the NXE released last year. The Avatar Marketplace seems pricey but will no doubt be a hit, and we can’t wait to see the Games-On-Demand service up and running.
The update will available for all Xbox Live users on August 11. Are you looking forward to it? 
