Rumor: Fall Update adds new family timer

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Rumor: Fall Update adds new family timer

Posted Nov 3rd 2007 1:30PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News, Rumors

Ahh yes, we finally get a Fall Update feature out in the open, exposed and bared to all! Or we should say an "alleged" feature. We should also say we don't think it's the most exciting Fall feature ever implemented, but it's Fall Update news so we shall divulge.

According to a post made by JasonX1 over on the Xbox.com forums, he spotted some potential Fall Update facts on the back of his recently purchased Guitar Hero III keychain. More specifically, the keychain text hints at a new family timer and reads ...

Family Timer
- A simple tool that lets you manage how much time your kids spend on their Xbox 360.
- Manage time in daily or weekly increments. Easy for parent to suspend or add time.
- Available in December 2007 only through Xbox Live.

As you can see, the text doesn't solely mention family timer options for GHIII and instead uses the broad "Xbox 360" label. Interesting stuff. Oh, and don't count your Fall Update releasing in November chickens just yet, we have a feeling our update eggs will hatch this December.

[Thanks, Hector]

Tags: dashboard-update, fall, fall-update, famiy-timer, update

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Reader Comments

(Page 2)

21. The Wii keeps track of how much time you play each game and leaves a report. You can't limit the time, but it's good to be able to see at a glance. And you can't turn it off.

Posted at 10:52PM on Nov 3rd 2007 by Gemini Ace

22. Great, yet another feature that parents won't use to keep their 10 year old little brats off of Halo 3 at 3am in the morning (Setting it to block M should have done the job nicely. But not only do parents not know how, they buy their kid the game anyway.)

When I was a kid, I was against keeping kids off of violent video games. When I was a kid though, I couldn't get online with Mortal Kombat (for instance) and ruin the experience for the older, mature gamers that should actually be allowed to play.

I hope the fall update replaces the stupid "star" system of peer ranking, with a maturity meter, that would then allow me to filter out anybody that feels the need to shout the N word over and over again during the course of a 10 minute Halo 3 match (that you can't get out of without losing points).

/end runon sentence/rant

Posted at 11:10PM on Nov 3rd 2007 by BananaBoat

23. To those of you trashing this feature - you obviously have no kids. Being able to reward your kids for chores, good behavior, etc. with XBOX time is a wonderful thing. Most lIttle kids have no concept of time, so telling them "time's up!" after their allotment usually doesn't do much other than elicit a bad reaction. If they are able to see their minutes ticking away, they'll have a better sense of when time is up.

(And don't tell me I could just use an egg timer. You could also be playing solitaire or Monopoly.)

Posted at 1:37AM on Nov 4th 2007 by schiavonir

24. To really make this feature work well they need to make it so parents can control it from their PC's. This way they don't have to mess with setting up accounts on the console. Also every thing they set up for parental controls on there Vista PC's will transfer over to their child's 360 account.

Posted at 3:32AM on Nov 4th 2007 by Philip

25. I would like to see zune marketplace on my 360. Also the ability to download songs to the zune without going to my pc would be nice. or better yet, wireless music sync from the xbox 360.... I don't have a zune yet, but im getting one when the new version comes out in a few weeks...it looks pretty sweet. I spent hours comparing it to ipod touch, and hands down zune beats it except in the web browser department...im getting off topic sorry guys..heh

Posted at 11:39AM on Nov 4th 2007 by kastonie

26. The timer won't work simply because in todays day and age, children are generally more tech savvy than their parents.

Posted at 12:01PM on Nov 4th 2007 by Grant

27. @ 15 - Your assuming the parents are actually at home the whole time there kids are playing.
If you a single parent and you don't get off work till 8pm and you kid gets home from school at 3pm this is a good feature.

Posted at 1:12AM on Nov 5th 2007 by Odog4ever

28. @ 26 - You're probably right, for now. But these kids will be parents some day. I'm pretty damn tech-savvy and I'll be a parent (hopefully) in the next two years. It's important that this kind of feature be out there simply to set precedent. It might not get used very much right now, but MS will certainly market it, and over time it will become more accepted and more utilized as kids grow up and parents become more aware. It seems like a great tool for parents to have available to them and I'm sure it will sell some consoles, so it appears like a win-win to me.

Posted at 8:34AM on Nov 5th 2007 by Jomolungma

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