It’s clearly the path that Microsoft is headed down. We heard about one Store for all devices. Universal apps that would run on PCs, tablets, phones, HoloLens, and Xbox. We got continuum for PCs first. It was the ability to put your PC in tablet mode. It’s pretty good.
Then we heard about continuum for phones. You can plug your phone into a monitor and turn it into a PC that actually runs the desktop version of universal apps.
Continue reading Xbox One Keyboard and Mouse Support Not Far Away
By Rich W Woods
We’ve been waiting for this. After all, it was just crazy. Last holiday season, Microsoft had a bunch of Xbox Music deals. I bought a ton of entire albums for just $0.99. Then, I went to my iPhone 6 to play them through the Xbox Music app and…sorry, this app requires an Xbox Music Pass.
Well no more! We knew it was coming, as the new Phone Companion app in Windows 10 showed it. The big feature here is that Xbox Music now plays the music you have stored in your OneDrive, so you can throw any MP3s in there that you want. It will play it.
Continue reading You No Longer Need an Xbox Music Pass to Use Xbox Music on iOS and Android
By Rich W Woods
You thought Microsoft could just rebrand one thing in a day? Oh, no no no. We all saw Satya Nadella’s infamous “Tough Choices” memo, where he laid out Microsoft’s age old mission, to make their brands as confusing for consumers as possible. It’s much easier to rebrand something than to actually lay out a clear and concise vision for a product and refine it until it’s amazing.
In the same blog post where Microsoft explains that they’re rebranding Xbox Music as Groove, they also explain that Xbox Video will be rebranded as Movies and TV.
By Rich W Woods
I always say to myself, “You know, Microsoft is too consistent. It’s too easy to understand Microsoft’s direction and branding.” I mean, Microsoft brands just stay the same for too long. You know what I mean. I have my database hosted on Windows Azure, my cloud backup is SkyDrive, and of course, I get all of my weather info from Bing Weather. Don’t forget about my favorite mobile OS, Windows Phone 9.
Luckily, Microsoft is making things just a bit more confusing for their users. Xbox Music is going to become Groove. This comes with a list of entertainment updates coming to Windows 9. Sorry, I mean Windows 10, but you know how it is. When something gets rebranded, it’s really hard for consumers to keep track of brands, especially when a single company rebrands everything frequently.
That’s OK. I’m sure that Microsoft’s transition from Xbox Music to Groove will go swimmingly.
By Rich W Woods
It’s late at night. I was about to fall asleep when my phone lit up. There was a new message from Xbox Live. I knew what the message was. I had been waiting for this message since I heard the news at E3 that there would be backward compatibility for the Xbox One, finally supporting Xbox 360 games. It would be the message that said the update is now available.
Of course that wasn’t the message. The message was for the Gears of War beta. Still, I checked for updates and sure enough, backward compatibility is officially here.
Here’s the official list of features:
Continue reading Xbox One Backward Compatibility Update Finally Arrives
By Rich W Woods
It looks like Microsoft is updating the Xbox One Dashboard. The tiles are gone and Cortana is here. Of course, you will need a Kinect to use Cortana.
There are lots of great Cortana features as well. You can say “Hey Cortana record the last minute and share it to my activity feed”, which is something I’m pretty sure you can already do, except instead of “Hey Cortana” it’s “Xbox”.
I’m curious to see how much functionality Cortana will actually add. Remember, Windows Phone 8 had a voice interface before Windows Phone 8.1 introduced Cortana.
Continue reading Introducing the New Tileless Xbox One Dashboard with Cortana
By Rich W Woods
Today at E3, Microsoft announced that starting today, users can stream their Xbox One games to their Windows 10 PCs. Not only that, but you can pretty much stream your whole Xbox One, accessing the home screen and such.
You won’t be able to use a keyboard and mouse with the feature. You’ll need to wire your Xbox One controller to your PC via micro USB.
Continue reading You Can Now Stream Xbox One Games to Windows 10
By Rich W Woods
Today was the E3 Xbox briefing for Microsoft. They showed off Halo 5, which was awesome. They bragged about bringing new features to the Xbox One through software updates.
Then they announced a new feature we’ve all been praying for. Backward compatibility for Xbox One. Preview members will be able to use the feature immediately but the public will have to wait until this holiday, whatever the hell that means.
Continue reading Microsoft Announces Xbox 360 Compatibility for Xbox One
By Rich W Woods
Microsoft has announced that they will be selling an Xbox One with 1 TB of storage for $399. Of course, this is not the first time they’ve sold a 1 TB Xbox One. The Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare bundle had 1 TB of storage and sold for $449.
If you choose to buy the new 1 TB model, you will also received Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Arguably the best game in the universe) and it will feature new wireless controllers which feature a headphone jack.
Don’t worry. If you’re really against awesomeness you can still grab the 500 GB model for $349.
By Rich W Woods
The day has come! If you bought Halo: The Master Chief Collection on day one, you felt the struggle. There were all kinds of matchmaking issues. Finally, we were promised a slew of rewards for our struggle, including a new Halo 2 multiplayer map, a month of Xbox Live Gold, and of course, Halo 3: ODST.
Well, your time has come. Assuming that you purchased your copy of Halo: The Master Chief Collection before December 14, 2014, there should be a message sitting in your inbox, as well as an Xbox Live message with a code to redeem Halo 3: ODST.
I feel really bad for anyone that bought it on December 15, 2014.