THE XBOX ONE
Like the PS4, the Xbox One plays games, Blu-ray movies and streamed or downloaded television shows, movies and music. The “One” part of the name signals an intent to be the conduit for all electronic entertainment. To that end, Microsoft’s new console can also serve as an intermediary between a cable box or any other device that traditionally plugs into a TV through an HDMI connection.
Microsoft’s proposition is that you’d rather watch cable TV that is funneled through an Xbox One, because, when it is, you can do more with your TV signal. You can use the Xbox One’s voice commands to change channels or use its “snap” feature to multitask. For instance, you can have the show that your cable box is emitting play in one corner of your screen while the rest of the space displays a video game or a Skype call or maybe a fitness app. This split-screen “snap” feature is the Xbox One’s best trick.
Unfortunately, the Xbox One may not entirely upgrade whatever signal is passing through it. When introduced to the public, the box will reduce any surround-sound signal coming from a cable box to stereo. Microsoft has included an option that enables full surround sound, though that setting remains a work in progress.
The Xbox One offers surprisingly effective, if optional, voice control, which is detected by a new generation of the visual and audio Kinect sensor. The Kinect must be placed above or below your television. When the sensor’s on, you can turn on the Xbox (and the television and cable box) by saying “Xbox On.” Voice commands also allow you to switch channels, shop for movies, start a Skype call and capture 30-second moments of games. When the TV volume is cranked, we found, you have to speak loudly to get the Kinect to respond, but, otherwise, a conversational tone will get the console’s attention. A tip to frustrated significant others everywhere: Say “Xbox turn off,” and then quickly say “Yes,” and that annoying game being played will be shut down right away.
Microsoft’s hub approach is appealing. Thankfully, in testing of a near-final version of the software, the console provided a smooth experience. It switched from a cable TV feed to a video game to Internet Explorer with little delay. Skype calls took longer to connect, making us fear that the caller would give up after so much ringing.
Microsoft’s hub approach is also presumptive. The company wagers that the television is still the screen around which people want to congregate and connect their entertainment. The rapid uptake of smartphones and tablets, however, has diminished the primacy of the TV screen. Time-shifted television viewing may also undermine the Xbox One’s potential for pairing apps to any live feeds coursing through it.
A console is only as good as its games, and to the extent that the Xbox One is still at its core a game machine, it now faces at least five years of ups and downs. The system’s first-day lineup, which we’ve experienced a half-hour here and a half-hour there, has visual stunners like Ryse and Forza MotorSport 5 but nothing with the magnetism of the simple, rapturous Wii Sports games for the 2006 Wii or the revelatory first-person-shooter Halo introduced with the original 2001 Xbox.
Games get better as a system ages. So, too, will Microsoft’s software, which starts impressively enough. The console is somewhat held back by its bulky industrial design: It is boxy and seems to resemble a VCR. With its power brick and the Kinect, it pushes three hunks of plastic and metal into a living room. The skinny PlayStation 4 and its tiny add-on camera feel invisible by comparison. What’s inside the box is still remarkable and potentially paradigm shifting in how we use our television sets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/15/a...ion-4-and-xbox-one.html?pagewanted=2&ref=arts
sounds like we have a winner