That’s mostly in line with what we’ve heard from previous rumors, but it’s still quite impressive. The Xbox One has 8GB of RAM, along with a Blu-ray drive, as well as a native 64-bit architecture, a 500GB onboard hard drive, HDMI in and out (including passthrough capabilities for use with your existing home theatre setup), 802.11n Wi-Fi as well as an 8-core CPU and USB 3.0 connectivity. Adding basically a HUD layer to live TV might be the Xbox One’s biggest appeal for content providers who are looking for additional ways to engage audiences losing interest in traditional ads. The Snap Mode feature does something that has until now mostly been reserved for computers and for mobile and tablet devices: provides a second-screen experience that runs right alongside things like live TV. You can even use Skype, newly introduced to Xbox with the Xbox One, and have that running in Snap Mode too.
So you can watch a movie and then also browse the Internet at the same time, for example, to look up elements of that film.
There’s a “Snap Mode” feature, too, which looks like the Microsoft Windows 8 experience, in that it allows you to run two activities simultaneously. But voice control isn’t the only trick, there’s also gesture recognition tech for controlling the system with your hands. It’s remarkably quick, quicker even than the process of changing channels on my at-home cable box hardware. Then, you can dictate activities to Xbox One, sort of like how many imagined Apple would do their own Apple TV with Siri.Ĭhanging between activities is as easy as telling the Xbox One exactly what you want it to be doing. Your voice cues the Xbox to your user profile and sets up all your custom options. Kinect is part of the package, and it’s a voice controlled experience from power on throughout the entire process. “Design and build an all-in-one system to light up a new generation of games, TV and entertainment,” in a way that’s “simple, instant and complete” is how he characterized the mission for the new device.