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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."

13 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.

  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 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. 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.

  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. 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.

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
  6. 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.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  7. 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!

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  10. 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.

    --
    - Vincit qui patitur.
  11. Re:finally by TWiTfan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Am I the only one here who still recognizes sarcasm?

    --
    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  12. 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.