Facebook on XBL: You can use it sooner than you think.

Xbox Live icon Major Nelson has unvealed plans for a beta sweep for XBL's upcoming features (Zune, Facebook and Twitter). In his blog, he announced that users who had an Xbox Live account and regular access to an internet connection for their console could apply for the beta dubbed the "Xbox Live Update Preview Program".

For those who don't know, the Zune project will allow instant streaming 1080P High Definition movie content straight to subscribers at the literal click of a button. Expected to be fully availiable this fall, Microsoft upped the countries they'll give movie and TV content to from eight to eighteen (the newcomers being Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Belgium).

Facebook and Twitter are both set to be integrated into the Xbox Experience as well, allowing users to post tweets, send messages through the respective social services, and even issue Game Achievement challenges to friends on Facebook. As Microsoft's John Schappert put it:

"By bringing Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm to Xbox 360, we're not only extending the walls of your living room beyond your home to your friends all over the world, we're creating the definitive social network, uniting more than 300 million people to share thoughts on music, play games and tweet."

Users will have to visit the Microsoft Live Update Page to apply for the Preview Beta. Major Nelson already said that they were accepting thousands, and most who apply will probably get through. If all three features are implented wisely, I think it'll be another great addition to the Xbox Live service. And since betas are free, certainly worth a try right now if you've got an Xbox.

What do you think of the new features coming out for the Xbox 360?

Source: Major Nelson