Some new stuff about the OS features rolling out of TGS. You can tell this is based on Windows 8 as its doing much of the same stuff. (But what OS can't do much of this stuff at his point)
http://www.destructoid.com/xbox-one-interface-is-clean-uncluttered-262315.phtmlWorking with full production Xbox One hardware, we saw the UI running on what was essentially a final hardware unit. Content was being populated in real time from Microsoft HQ. They ran full test code in front of us, so no canned demos here.
Penella signed into the dash by just waving his hand. Actually, work went on to do so in the background before he even did that, as the Kinect was already seeing and trying to recognize everyone in the room. Waving was more of a confirmation that he was the one that wanted to sign in. From that confirmation, Xbox One pulls down all of Penella's settings, just as he had set up in Redmond, including all of his saved games, apps, and settings.
This seems to work pretty similarly to how it does in Windows 8. Just log into an account on a new Tablet/PC and it automatically brings down all of my data up to the layout of my tiles. Not really anything new since most OSes are attempting to do this these days but its convenient. I do like the idea of Xbox One being attuned to my image or Voice to log me in to my account.
Speaking of signing in, Xbox One is friendly to multiple users. The previous systems were not. Now, six users can sign in at one time. Kinect is always watching to know who is in the lead in this case. It sees who is holding the controller and recognizes your voice among others. You could be in a room with five other people logged in and call out to launch a game, and it would do so with your settings and saves intact.
The new dash is clean and simple. You have pins of your choosing, settings, and a home screen to pick from and interact with when scrolling from left to right. Gone are the second screens and guides and other nonsense. It's just one small set of simple black and green boxes that make up the dash, with everything you'd need right in front of your eyes. This is a UI for usefulness, not for flashiness. Bravo.
The home screen will populate with whatever Microsoft chooses to promote, which will usually be news for the platform as well as new store items. We did not have a chance to see how content will be navigated from this point. Here's hoping we'll see that soon
I wonder how the Xbox will be able to tell who each gamertag belongs too. But handling multiple accounts is a god send since the 360's way of handling it is awkward at best. Seems like the dashboard itself is customizable with the expectation of the Three side Tabs and the trending. As long as its ad's for content I want and not telling to join the military I'm pretty good.
The friends limit is now 1,000, up from the original 100 setting on the Xbox 360. But you can also have followers on the Xbox One, much like you would on Twitter. For this, you can have unlimited followers. This means you can follow someone's gaming activity without taking spots in your feed. You can imagine how neat it will be to follow game industry personalities or celebrities to see what they're up to.
A favorites list lets you pick your closest buddies to keep up with. They show up first, prioritizedby the system.
The Xbox One can run four apps at the same time in the background. Switching between them is not unlike how it would work on your mobile phone. It's instant. Hitting the X button on the controller takes you back to your home screen, where you'll see four boxes that represent the apps or games running. Pick from any of them to jump right in.
A move to Miiverse style followers is only welcome if there' a social networking part similar to Nintendo's service. (there seems to be it just hasn't been elaborated on yet.) Running four apps is good for a console and instant when using a controller or motion but has a ten second delay when using Voice commands. I'm more interested in how Microsoft plans to accolade resources too Multitasking. We know Xbox Music can be played in the background is that Api just for certain apps or can any app made for Xone but used in this way. Mostly because I would love to have a podcast app in the background while I play.
The apps you have loaded can be snapped to the side of the screen, keeping them visible while you do other things. Imagine having a FAQ pulled up in Internet Explorer while playing a dungeon crawler, or Xbox Music running while you check up on your friends list. For game capture, pinning will be especially handy.
Game capture is pretty slick. We saw a marble maze game get instant capture of the last 30 seconds of buffered frames from a simple voice command. Xbox One's Upload Studio had a 720p 30fps clip waiting immediately after. Users can quickly edit, save, or share this clip with further commands. Another voice command can have you back in the game just as quickly.
Penella says that these clips will only be able to be shared on Xbox Live at launch. They'll have social sites like YouTube and Facebook set up for sharing by next year.
Snaped apps are useful when on my Laptop or Tablet but I'm yet to be convinced of its merits when I'm on the TV. Game Capture sounds cool but it sucks a bit that Youtube and Facebook won't be until next year. (not that if matters to me as Twitch and Live should cover my wants). People have been complaining about that saying Microsoft isn't ready to launch but that doesn't seem to be the case. Despite being a small social network Miiverse is pretty awesome and has a dedicated fanbase and that's what Microsoft is trying to build on the outset by only having upload be related to the Live Platform. In fact I prefer it this way as my favorite social networks (Miiverse and Google+) started off pretty insular and are better for it.
The Kinect does neat things for living room connectivity. It acts as a IR blaster on steroids, sending out so many IR beams that it completely fills a room. These beams bounce off walls and other surfaces, reflecting back at any exposed device in the room. This means that your electronics on shelves, even behind glass, will be able to be controlled by the Xbox One.
IR Blaster's will never die will they?
A new Surface should be shown off today as well.
Topic: XboxOne ~News/Rumor/Speculation~ Biggest Console Released This Gen!! (Read 947915 times)
