Today at Microsoft’s press conference, John Schappert, head of Xbox Live, announced a brand new dashboard interface for users who may have grown bored with the blades. This year’s Fall Update will feature a completely new user interface, completely replacing the blades of old.

The new system will feature several new tabs including "My Xbox," "Xbox Live Primetime," and "Community." My Xbox features all the games, movies, music and more that a user currently has stored on the console, while Community will allow you to invite up to eight friends to chat, share photos, or play games together; Primetime allows you to jump into Xbox Live game shows in an effort to win real prizes. The first title announced for Primetime is 1 vs. 100, a quiz show based on the television series that pits one player against a wall of strangers in an effort to prove who is smartest.

Of course, all these new features wouldn’t be much fun with the same old boring Gamerpics that have always represented Xbox Live users, so Microsoft also presented Avatars, their long-rumored answer to Miis. The Avatars, while slightly more realistic looking than Miis, share similar options to change hairstyles, facial features and clothes, and these digital doplegangers will be implemented into new games (the first announced retail title for Avatars is the new Scene It! Box Office Smash). While Microsoft won’t get points for originality on this one, it’s definitely a move to cater to a more casual crowd.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to note from the announcement of the new dashboard is how tepid the crowd response was. When Schappert exuberantly exclaimed, "Welcome to the new dashboard!" the audience sat quietly for a few moments until one person broke into halfhearted applause and the rest followed suit. I suppose, after the creation of the Wii Channel system and the PS3 implementation of the XMB, everyone just expected Microsoft to come up with a less clunky, more intuitive interface. The new community features actually look quite nice, and the way in which the interface streamlines the experience is welcome indeed, but this may not be the amazing new announcement Microsoft had anticipated it to be.