As an average consumer, I like to play games. I also like to watch movies. I also like to listen to music. A few decades ago all of these things would have to be done separately, but now in the advancements in technology you can do all of that in one machine. Last November the two competing companies, Sony and Microsoft, released their major gaming consoles; the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One. Although both are primarily seen as gaming consoles, they can do much more than that. I will talk about the Xbox One for this since it provides more features other than gaming. For starters, the Xbox One is basically half a gaming console and half a TV. You can connect your Xbox One to your home theatre system and it will automatically be apart of it. For example, when you say "Xbox, turn on" the Kinect will recognize your voice and will be able to turn your Xbox, TV and sound system on. Similarly like Windows 8, the Xbox One has the ability to snap applications like Skype, Internet Explorer to the side where players can multitask. Players can play a game while chatting with their friends, listen to music or watch movies which can all be controlled manually or via voice control. The Kinect can do various things as well like scanning QR codes to redeem Xbox Live card codes. The system also has a feature called Xbox SmartGlass which allows devices like a Windows phone, Windows 8 or Android phones to be used as a 'second screen'. Also for the first time the Xbox One allows players to record their games straight from the Xbox and are even able to upload them or share streams with people so they can see each other play live. Xbox also sells their products (mostly games) online in their own marketplace called Xbox Live (which it might not be called that anymore) where you can digitally download movies or games on to the console. You can either use your credit card, or buy Microsoft Points in game stores, or even go to Amazon and buy them there and just input the codes on the Xbox. Like its older brother the Xbox One comes with an HDMI port and an ethernet cable in case your house does not have WiFi.
This is nothing new today but back then the Xbox was one of the first gaming consoles that allowed online access to things.
No comments:
Post a Comment