Xbox 360 evangelist Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb has evidently ignited a firestorm of speculation with two icons that appeared on his Xbox LIVE gamer card today.

The two icons were called “LIVE Lab” and “Xbox Dashboard.” The “LIVE Lab” icon has three achievements associated with it, called “Mad 360 Scientist,” “Senior Research Analyst” and “Lab Technician.” All three of these achievements for Xbox LIVE Labs do not apparently have any actual achievement score associated with them at this time. The “Xbox Dashboard” icon has no achievements associated with it and it appears to just be a place holder that shows when you are in the Xbox dashboard.

The current speculation is that these icons are likely associated with the upcoming Xbox 360 Spring Update that is expected to be released later this spring. The icons could be a very positive sign that the dashboard update has entered internal testing within Microsoft, as we have seen Major Nelson’s game card show up with icons prior to an actual release.

Little is really known yet about what all might be in the Spring Update. Beyond the likelihood of Hulu Plus being added, the other thing that we suspect will be part of the update is the lifting of the Xbox Live Friend limit restriction (that will increase the number of Xbox Live friends that one can have) or a lifting of the cap completely. In addition, the update is said to also add the Kinect Avatar lobby that has been discussed previously.

It is expected that Microsoft will be making an announcement soon as to the exact details and plan for the roll out of the spring Update. Our sources claim that Microsoft has not yet decided when it will arrive, but they are still targeting a spring release.