Xbox One Announced
“Xbox on” turns on the hardware to power up an instant-on system with a new Home dashboard that is near-identical to Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. Voice commands let you navigate the system, with options to control live TV. A new Instant Switching feature lets you move between applications and live TV streams instantly. Microsoft has also built in a number of new gestures with Kinect, allowing players to navigate and close applications. Snap Mode follows a similar path to Windows 8, allow Xbox One owners to run multiple apps alongside each other. Microsoft demonstrated a method where an app, like Internet Explorer, can run side-by-side while a movie plays.
On the entertainment side, I am once again saddened that a ‘new generation’ set-top box can only achieve cable TV integration via HDMI passthroughs and IR blasters. There was also no explanation of how the Xbox will communicate with your cable service provider, to get information on your available channel selection and such.
In regard to the games, I don’t think I can make any sort of judgement in this field. I have no clue what portions of the shown footage was pre-rendered cut-scene material. My guess is that not much was actual gameplay content. Hopefully, E3 will shine more light on what next-generation games will actually look like.