Microsoft has confirmed that the New! Improved! Metro-powered! Xbox dashboard update will be going live on 6 December, just when you finally got used to the last dashboard update.

Perhaps most significantly, the new dashboard includes a new cloud storage service for saves and gamertags (exclusive to Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers, nyah, nyah), as well as new voice control options for Kinect, an integrated Bing search function across all channels, a YouTube channel, and a megaload of new TV and film channel apps that won’t be supported locally.

There’s also the new social networking “Beacons” feature which has already launched on Xbox.com, and lets users flag games they’re looking to play online, posts notifications to Facebook, and probably a bunch of other things that nobody is ever actually going to use but look nice on a press release.

Don’t worry – the most important thing is that you’ll still be able to switch it on, put in a disc, and play a game.

Source: Team Xbox