Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Unveils Xbox One
Today at a press conference leading up to E3, Microsoft unveiled its next-gen games/entertainment console, the Xbox One. Their stated goal for the Xbox One is to have a single device provide "all of your entertainment." One of the big changes is increased support for voice and and gesture input. You can turn the console on by voice, and it will recognize you and automatically login. Swiping to the side with your hand will browse through menu pages, and saying "Watch TV" will bring up the TV app very quickly. The same with music, internet, and movies. The new console also supports multitasking — for example, while watching a movie, you can bring up your web browser in a side panel and surf the web at the same time. There is also a built-in TV listings app that responds to channel names — saying "Watch CBS" will switch to CBS without giving it an actual channel number. By this point, you're probably asking: does it play games? Yes. Hardware specs: 8-core CPU/GPU, 8GB RAM, a Blu-ray drive, a 500GB HDD, USB 3.0, and Wi-fi Direct. (They didn't provide the CPU frequency, instead saying it had 5 billion transistors.) The Kinect sensor got an upgrade: 2Gbps of data capture has finer skeletal visibility, can detect minor orientation changes in hands and fingers, and can even calculate your balance and weight distribution. The new controller looks slightly bigger, and is designed to play well with Kinect. They've also updated Smartglass, the remote control software that runs on mobile devices, but they didn't explain much about it. The new Xbox Live will have 300,000 servers powering it, up from 15,000 this year — though, of course, no details were provided about server specs. The console will have native game capture and editing tools — essentially, a game DVR. Saved games will be stored in the cloud, and they have new matchmaking capabilities that operate in the background. Update: 05/21 17:50 GMT by S : Halo is getting its own live-action TV show, for some reason. They'll be collaborating with Steven Spielberg. Microsoft is also partnering with the NFL for live broadcasts and interactive experiences, such as split-screen Skype chats and fantasy league updates. Xbox One will be out "later this year." No price information. it will not be backward-compatible with Xbox 360 games.
Didn't that come out like 12 years ago?
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
I really hope this means every XBox will come with a Cablecard slot in the back, just so Microsoft can cause every Cable Company manager's head to explode at the same time when they announce the feature.
I read the internet for the articles.
So basically all the features I have been using for the last 3 years on XBMC + Steam, except for Voice and motion input(which i think are silly and I don't want).
-EL
Xbox customers are extremely loyal, to the point of sycophancy. Of all the Xbox owners I know, zero of them have just bought one Xbox 360. After they got RROD'd, they ALL went out and bought another at full price. One of my friends is now on his 13th one.
Plus there are legions of people who buy the special edition Xbox 360's, and just toss their old working one in a closet and forget about it or repurpose it for another room.
Specs like this? You say that like they are good specs. Some cheap-ass 4 core hyperthreaded CPU so they can say it technically has 8, like the PS4, a paltry 8GB of RAM, obsolete Blu-Ray drive and an absolutely tiny 500GB hard drive (why 500GB? why not AT LEAST 1TB?).
Nah. This thing will come out for $300-$400 and will be drastically underpowered compared to even a moderate range gaming PC, just like the PS4