A Universal friends list.  Xbox and MSN, joined together, accessible from PC or Xbox.  It’d be pretty neat, hmm?

Or, how about an interface that doesn’t require 4 menu clicks to send a simple text message.  Or have the delay whenever that message pops up and in menu pop-up response times when responding to it.

Or, how about less than the dozen menu drill-downs you have to do to respond to a simple MSN message while on your Xbox.  Not to mention the lack of notification (forcing you to “exit conversation” each time in order to receive a pop-up in game).

Overall, the interface is severely lacking.  I thought they were going to help address this in the newest update.  After all, MSN Messanger integration was *the* big thing of last update; just to get it working.  You’d expect *some* improvement in the area.

There were rumors initially that video chat was to be added with NXE for MSN-to-xbox video conferencing.  I haven’t tested this; it is still pretty useless.  The point of the Chat/Messenger peripheral (which is now part of the standard Xbox Live Kit) is for quick messages.  This is currently impossible in this interface.

It is not nearly as fast and responsive as the trimmed down SMS messaging on cell phones, which is what it needs to emulate.  Quick thumb typing and quick, simple notes are key when you are in the middle of a multiplayer match, or just want to respond quickly and continue playing instead of sitting in a chat screen with your game paused.

This would be nice for both the MSN-to-Xbox interface, and the Xbox-to-Xbox interface.

Guess we’ll see if it happens next update.  Cross your fingers.