For the last update, this was the big one for me.
Xbox LIVE Trial Subscriptions require a payment option and automatically renew into a paying subscription.
When someone signs up for an Xbox LIVE Silver membership, they will be offered the option to purchase an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription. If they choose to not purchase an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription, they will be offered an Xbox LIVE trial. If a user selects to move forward with that trial, the user will be prompted to add a payment option and will be set to auto renew into a monthly subscription at the end of the trial.
This aligns the Xbox LIVE subscription with the current Zune Music Pass subscription, in the trial sense.
I tested this with a few accounts myself.