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Dell Ad Says Windows 8.1 Apps Will Run On Xbox One

cold fjord writes "An article at DailyTech begins, 'While many people scoffed at or failed to recognized the significance of Microsoft Corp.'s talk of a "unified" development path for Windows, Xbox, and Windows Phone, the real world ramifications of that approach are now becoming clear — and they're significant. A pre-order page from Dell for the Xbox One "accidentally" (and, it appears, officially) revealed that Windows 8.1 apps will run on the Xbox.'" A Microsoft spokesperson told AllThingsD, 'The suggestion that all Windows 8 apps run on Xbox One is not accurate," but they didn't deny that there would be some cross-compatibility. PCWorld's article has words of caution: "It would certainly be interesting if the full-blown Windows Store landed on Xbox One. But don't hold your breath for it to be there at the console's launch, no matter what Dell's words vaguely imply."

30 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. No. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't want to turn my expensive PC into a console.

    And i don't want to turn my console into a half assed PC.

    1. Re:No. by icelator · · Score: 2

      too late they already are

    2. Re:No. by Minwee · · Score: 2

      I don't want to turn my expensive PC into a console.

      And i don't want to turn my console into a half assed PC.

      Don't worry, with Windows 8 your PC will always be fully assed.

  2. Viruses? Oh dear... by AtomicSymphonic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From my perspective, even though the Xbox One is limited in its capabilities as a full-on computer, malware could bring havoc upon the XBL community... This feels like opening a Pandora's Box, to me...

    1. Re:Viruses? Oh dear... by dbIII · · Score: 2

      There's already been malware on MS Windows based automatic teller machines. That wasn't a big enough wakeup call so here we go again.

    2. Re:Viruses? Oh dear... by Xest · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well it was never a problem for XBox Live Indie games so I don't see why it would be a problem now.

      The Windows Store is fairly well vetted much like Apple's app store, and Metro apps are fairly heavily restricted in what they can do much like XBox Live Indie Games were.

      I don't think viruses will be a problem therefore, and even if malicious software got on I think with Metro's restrictions there's really fuck all it could do of any interest anyway.

      The biggest concern I have is it's going to take a console, which should be a device for playing games in a simple manner and turn it into a computer which will be cluttered with all sorts of irrelevant shit. I don't want that. That's what my PC is for and to a lesser extent my tablet. All I want my console to do is be able to play games, and maybe play movies and music across my network.

      If I wanted a PC in my living room, I'd stick one there.

    3. Re:Viruses? Oh dear... by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      I'm more confused by the fact that they made it run only RT applications instead of full on desktop x86.

      Well, I understand the marketing. They all but slaughtered their desktop OS to get people make software for their shitty phone OS.

      Makes me wonder if we'll see x86 windows desktop hacks on XBone soon.

    4. Re:Viruses? Oh dear... by Your.Master · · Score: 2

      For all the flak Microsoft gets for their app store apps, that UI seems much more conducive to a controller + Kinect interface than the mouse & keyboard desktop was. I don't know why anybody would want that, unless they were plugging a mouse and keyboard into their xbox.

    5. Re:Viruses? Oh dear... by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 2

      But at least that sort of functionality has still been entertainment oriented.

      The point is that if you start to focus on general computing then you're detracting from the whole point of a console and doing a half-arsed job of something that PCs et. al. already do far better.

      The first megasuccess in console land was the NES, known in Japan as the Famicom, or "family computer", In Japan you could get all sorts of peripherals for it, but that didn't make Super Mario any less fun.

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    6. Re:Viruses? Oh dear... by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 2

      The day consoles converge to become general purpose PCs is the day they no longer have a market because they'll always be inferior at that than PCs which are always ahead in the hardware markets.

      You're missing one of the subtler points of this news: the Windows apps in question will be Metro apps, not traditional windowed desktop applications. Microsoft are looking to get mobile-style apps onto the XB1, so that the XB1 is not just a games console, but not a PC replacement. The stuff they're hoping to see on it will make it more like a set-top box, or a smart TV when you're not playing games. Convergence of games console and set-top box makes perfect sense, which is why all the last generation of consoles had multimedia capabilities, even down to the PS3 being the most popular living room Blu-Ray player for quite some time after its launch.

      This strategy is a very, very good one. For one thing, MS need to get people familiar with the Metro interface if they're ever going to shift any Windows Phone units in any serious numbers. For another, I've little doubt that they'd like to see Windows RT being picked up by the various smart TV manufacturers instead of their current Android and Linux-based roll-your-own jobs. In order to make it appealling to manufacturers, they need to get a critical mass of living room media apps in the app store, and the XB1's market share should draw in app developers. Being early into the Windows Marketplace is an opportunity to make a mark that isn't possible in the overcrowded iOS and Android app marketplaces.

      A laptop with a 3G or better internet connection is already the end result of convergence between desktop, mobile, and games but surprisingly, people don't just have laptops and nothing else

      I survived for years on a laptop and a dumbphone. The laptop can't replace a phone because it's not pocketable. But I haven't owned a desktop PC since the P2 days.

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  3. Please read the PCWORLD disclaimer by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you're too stupid to properly understand the quote, read the PC World disclaimer article before going apeshit.

    "With all your favorite Windows 8 apps..." does not mean everything will be portable - it doesn't automatically mean any app will even run as-is.

    It is standard marketing horseshit indicating that some of your apps won't be available, otherwise they would have shat ALL out with bold and different colors and a brass band and fluffers for all.

    I fully expect these to be a re-built subset of applications, not binary compatible but code compatible. Or if it is code compatible, then something like a "Windows CE" subset of targeted API so that certain apps will work and others won't. But I'm going with binary incompatibility for now.

    1. Re:Please read the PCWORLD disclaimer by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

      So, about the same as the Surface RT? If that's the bar they're setting, then this will doubtless be a huge success.

    2. Re:Please read the PCWORLD disclaimer by DavidD_CA · · Score: 2

      If they can build the Surface RT and have it run all the Windows RT apps, then what's to stop them from allowing the X-Box One from doing the same?

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      -David
    3. Re:Please read the PCWORLD disclaimer by dabadab · · Score: 2

      I fully expect these to be a re-built subset of applications, not binary compatible but code compatible.

      Actually they are most probably talking about the "Windows Store apps". These contain both x86 and ARM binaries, run sandboxed, fullscreen with the Metro UI, so I see no reason you could not run them on the X1. However I also do not see much reason to be excited by this functionality - only time will tell, but I do not see huge potential in running dumbed down, simple apps on a gaming console.

      --
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    4. Re:Please read the PCWORLD disclaimer by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 2

      However I also do not see much reason to be excited by this functionality - only time will tell, but I do not see huge potential in running dumbed down, simple apps on a gaming console.

      I think the primary goal will be in trapping the "smart TV" market sector. Having media consumption apps on a cross-platform system will give them advantages in terms of market share, and they'll be hoping that this snowballs. I suspect the end-goal is getting the TV makers to drop their own smart TV platforms and start using WinRT.

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  4. not a dumb idea actually by icelator · · Score: 3, Funny

    you know what if they actually did it and did it right it could get the windows 8 app store going, also letting people program apps for their xbox could be interesting as well.

  5. Welcome to last May by symbolset · · Score: 2

    This is not news. It's a PC. It's made by Microsoft. Why would it not run Windows apps?

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    1. Re:Welcome to last May by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
      Exactly, it's a Microsoft console.

      Windows apps will Play for Sure!

  6. of course this is going to happen by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why does anyone think it won't?

    Metro apps will be portable to Xbox One. Because Xbox One runs a variant of Windows 8/Windows Phone 8. It won't be hard.

    And MS will run the system as a trusted computing system meaning you can only get the apps from their app store. And thus they'll take 30%. And they'll have full approval over all the apps to be sold.

    Why did anyone think MS wasn't planning to do this? It's good business sense.

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    1. Re:of course this is going to happen by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 2

      Welcome to capitalism - if you don't like it, spend three decades making your own platform and marketing it hard enough to convince the vast majority who don't make decisions on technical merit.

  7. let me know when.. by issicus · · Score: 2

    the xbox will run windows games.

  8. Re:finally by davester666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can totally see how a single UI paradigm will give a top quality experience when the user has:

    -a mouse/trackpad, keyboard and small/medium/large non-touch screen
    -a trackpad, keyboard and small touchscreeen
    -a small touchscreen
    -a console game controller and a TV

    They totally have to complete the job and kill Windows Phone, and just ship Windows 8.2 RT for both tablets and phones.

    Finally, Microsoft Word for your phone. They will blow Android out of the water.

    --
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  9. It won't work because MS is MS by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A Unified development path? Oh please, if MS wanted one, they COULD have made ALL their games available for both their console AND windows AND their phones ALREADY! They don't because MS isn't a company it is a number of departments involved in century old feuds. I know MS isn't centuries old but there departments are sure feuding like their great-great-great grand-daddy's have done.

    MS can't do a unified approach because it is not a unified company. Just examine its countless position changes on whether Windows is or is not a gaming platform. In a way MS is even killing itself with it. The only thing I would need windows for is gaming. No windows games? Then I could just as well run Linux or a Mac. In fact, I do run Linux because more and more games are available on Linux or at least Linux friendly.

    And no, I don't own a x-box. But smart move MS, make your own platform less relevant. Oh wait, then there is Games for Windows. Oh then it is not. Why do you think Valve is going ahead with Steam OS? Because they like building a OS more then building games? No because they are fucking tired of being depended on a company that is schizophrenic about its own OS.

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  10. Horray! Metro Apps on XBoxOne! by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's all coming together.
    The programs interfaces you don't want to use on the console you don't want to own!

  11. Re:finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even if they do get it right, it would take years and years to 'blow android out of the water'. For the same reason that apple could release a new phone almost identical in every way to the last one, and still sell millions on the first day.

  12. Re:Windows 8 = What were they thinking by stoolpigeon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One of the things that MS has going for it in the minds of many is that it is an OS for getting work done. The Metro stuff really breaks that perception to pieces. I love when I'm in desktop mode and I go to slide the mouse across the screen with the track pad and that pulls up the charm bar with time and date - and what I want is now under it and I need to click around to make it go away.

    Or when I go to close a window that's been maximized on the desktop and barely overshoot the little x at the top right and now it's covered by the charms bar...

    Search is supposed to replace the start menu - and I am all for that but the search is so poorly implemented. My laptop isn't capable of upgrading to 8.1 so maybe this gets fixed but on 8 it's really bad. If I start typing the word 'pad' - Wordpad does not show up in my search results. Crazy.

    Having updates in two places - stupid. And it appears that some updates in the app store wont run until updates in windows update are done. I had two apps pending forever. Then I went over to windows update and found 1 important update that it said would be automatically installed - but it wasn't. I had to kick it off myself. As soon as it finished, the app updates that had been pending finally kicked in and completed. One was the Kindle app which would not open until it did update. It took me 15 minutes or so to figure out the magical order to get it all to work.

    I've been using 8 for 2 or 3 weeks now on a brand new Samsung I bought for my wife. There are some nice things and there are a lot of very broken things and all of them scream to me that no one actually used this on a laptop. I can't imagine how they could have and not noticed how painful so much of the UI is. Want to uninstall an app from the home screen? Right click then move the mouse all the way down to the bottom left of the screen - just not too far to the bottom left.

    Want to search the store? Open the charms bar. Now you will be tempted to start typing in the search bar. Don't - it defaults to searching what is already installed on your machine. You need to look at the list on the right and scroll down to store, select that and now you can search the store. It is not built into the store - it isn't obvious in any way that this is what you need to do. When in the store it just feels like search isn't possible.

    I hear 8.1 fixes the install mess where installing software fills the home page with tons of shortcuts. Since I can't upgrade to it, since Samsung can't be bothered to make their stuff work with it, I don't know but I'd sure love it. Installing MS office left me with multiple columns of junk on my home screen. And I don't know what algorythm drives placing tiles on that screen - but it is insane and constantly fights me. I can rarely get tiles organized just like I would prefer - stuff slips around and leaves unpleasant gaps.

    I'm hoping it will improve down the road. I like having multiple players in the OS market. I run Linux for the most part myself but for a number of situations and people in my life I need windows. I really have never been a fan of Apple's approach so I try to be patient with MS.

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  13. Re:finally by Arkham · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Finally, Microsoft Word for your phone. They will blow Android out of the water.

    The ONLY way anyone is blowing Android out of the water is if they provide a better product and give it away for free. Android isn't where it is because it's superior; it's there because manufacturers can use it for free.

    --
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  14. Re:finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Finally, Microsoft Word for your phone. They will blow Android out of the water.

    Office apps are already on the Windows Phone, at least enough functionality to make draft documents or edit documents. I'm not going to be typing lab reports with my thumbs. However, I have written short stories (4-5 pages), which the phone saves to SkyDrive and I open on my computer later.

    I also made a budget in Excel on my computer. Later my wife and I couldn't remember how much we budgeted for shopping, so I opened the spreadsheet on my phone, and there it was.

  15. Re:finally by TWiTfan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Am I the only one here who still recognizes sarcasm?

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  16. Re:finally by Minwee · · Score: 3, Funny

    Finally, Microsoft Word for your phone. They will blow Android out of the water.

    They're already half way there. They just have to figure out the "Android out of the water" part.