Last week was a long tough week and left me with no time to jump on to my Xbox One and enjoy a few games. Then, as we were preparing for the latest podcast, Shot O’ Games, I got a notification from Xbox One Smartglass on my Nokia 925 Windows Phone.
I had received a message on my Xbox One and the Smartglass app was the courier if you will. The message informed me to log on to my Xbox One, open that message again and bam- I was into the Preview program. I had read about some of the new features rolling out in this preview.
I’m most excited about the Media Player app that is coming soon. Why? I’m a media junky. Well, not quite but I do like having it all in one place. My recorded TV shows and video files go on my Cloud connected hard drive. It would appear that soon, I may be able to stream them directly to my Xbox One without much hassle such as re-encoding files like I occasionally had to do one the Xbox 360 and the PS3.
If we get the new Digital TV Tuner accessory released in the U.S. (currently only EU) I will certainly take advantage of the Stream TV to Smartglass. I’m one of many who does not need cable or satellite TV. Over the Air broadcasts are more than enough for me. If I want more I could always go with Netflix.
Next was the August update that I needed to download before I could get that message. The main thing in the august update is the ability to remotely buy and download games. We have been waiting for this since launch. With the more quality connection speeds AT&T offers in my area, this is a much needed update. Now I can purchase that new game while, say, at work and let it begin downloading. This means I have a greater chance of getting home and finding that download mostly complete. Okay, 8 hour work day- maybe it will be done, maybe.
A couple other news worthy things. Call of Duty Nemesis add on pack is available and it’s a blast. Pinball FX2 is now on Xbox One! Guess what else? Most of the tables you previously bought on Xbox 360 are available to download at no cost. Pretty sweet! I spent last night checking out both games and content including new Pinball tables Guardian of The Galaxy and Deadpool. We will talk about them more in next weeks Shot O’ Games podcast.
For now, let’s take a moment to take a deep breath and relax because our Xbox One experience just keeps getting better. Microsoft is truly listening to us and making changes that benefit all users. They are also doing the same with Windows 8.1 which is pretty cool.