The next update for the Xbox 360's dashboard will be faster and feature "performance enhancements," according to vague remarks made by Microsoft's Major Nelson on the latest episode of his podcast.

Big surprise: Microsoft is working on an update for the Xbox 360 dashboard and they say it's going to be an improvement on the current incarnation. While it doesn't sound like the upcoming revision will be anywhere near as dramatic as the move from the Old Xbox Experience to the New Xbox Experience, Microsoft's Major Nelson says it'll pack plenty of goodies.

"We are making the guide faster," Nelson said on his last podcast. Faster is better, and a speed boost would certainly be welcome - I hate it when the dashboard chugs when I'm just trying to speed through to get to Netflix so I can watch Karate Kid II or Kickin It Old School. According to Nelson, the dashboard team has "done some really good stuff around making performance enhancements."

The next dashboard won't just be faster, though. "'Performance enhancements' doesn't sound right because it sounds like we're going to give the guide a little blue pill, and we're not doing that," Nelson said. "Whatever we call it (and it's not going to be called the NNXE), but whatever the next version of the dashboard is called, it's better with a lot of very cool new features."

We already know about some of those "cool new features" after E3: an on-demand games store, magical 1080p video streaming, Facebook/Twitter/Twitterbook/Faceter, and more. Hopefully Microsoft has some more surprises up its sleeve when the dashboard update comes out later this year.

[Via CVG]