In a Tuesday blog post, Microsoft's Larry Hryb - director of programming for the Xbox Live - has extended an invite to volunteers for testing out the next version of Xbox Live.

Asking interested testers to sign up quickly - via live. com - so as to avoid disappointment once the limited spots fill up, Hryb said that the volunteers who are accepted will get the Xbox Live update through an upgrade to the Xbox 360 console in the coming weeks.

With Microsoft earlier having put out the call for Xbox Live update beta testers last month, Hryb said that the number of beta testers that it is accepting this time is "far more" than what it had accepted in July.

According to Hryb's blog post, Microsoft has announced the `second open call' for volunteers to test out the updated Xbox Live beta program because of the "staggering" interest Xbox Live subscribers showed the last time round, in July.

With the beta to give the volunteers a peek at several new features - like Internet Explorer for Xbox, ratings and recommendations, improved category search and discovery features, as well as voice search in specific markets -, Microsoft has revealed that Xbox Live Update beta testers will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

About the consequences of violating the NDA, Hryb said that all such participants "will be removed from this beta and all Xbox betas moving forward, and will not have access to Xbox Live until the end of this beta program period."