Xbox One Insider Dashboard OS Previews [2017]

I'm probably the wrong person to be an insider. I don't send messages or use achievements. I almost never receive notifications for anything. I will say the home screen doesn't have any more wasted space than the last one did. I'd have to see a pic to compare, but that one was mostly wasted space after they removed the minimized application/game preview.

For me, The last few things I used are quickly accessible from home, as is the my games and apps link. The guide seems to be basically the same, but I guess power users would be concerned about an extra click. I disagree that I'd take the old guide over a 10% speed improvement. If the new guide is actually 10% faster, that makes it an automatic improvement, despite the layout tweaks.
 
I'm probably the opposite. Performance is not a real concern for me. Features & functionality are my biggest concerns. Absolutely hate features & functionality being removed without direct replacements.

Tommy McClain
 
I never understood Suggested Friends.

I wish there was some type of explanation of how someone makes your list.

If it just some random gamer with similar taste then "meh".

But if it includes people that you have previously played with together then I see it usefulness. Sometimes I will join up with randoms in some co-op, end up shooting the s^*t and having a blast. Only to log off and realize I forgot to add them as a friend. Search becomes impossible because they have a gamer tag like "Ieatnoobsfordinner7779311!!!!!" and I didn't bother with remembering anything past "noobs".
 
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Needs more pins. They could easily add three more columns to the new pins setup as well as an entire additional row. Even then, that only brings the Pins count to 36 (9 by 4) from the current 18 (6 by 3). Even then, I need more pins.

I view the Pins as favorites. I dont want to go into My Games and Apps to get to them, where I have to sort through 240 installed games and 95 Apps and 25 Ready to Install games. I want Pins to be its own top level section to the Left of Home. I want multiple sections of pins. I'd set it up as one each for Apps, Xbox One Games, and Xbox 360 games, as well as Xbox Original Games once that BC level hits.
 
I wish there was some type of explanation of how someone makes your list.

If it just some random gamer with similar taste then "meh".

But if it includes people that you have previously played with together then I see it usefulness. Sometimes I will join up with randoms in some co-op, end up shooting the s^*t and having a blast. Only to log off and realize I forgot to add them as a friend. Search becomes impossible because they have a gamer tag like "Ieatnoobsfordinner7779311!!!!!" and I didn't bother with remembering anything past "noobs".
I suppose that makes a little sense, although looking at the Recent Players vs Suggested list on Xbox.com (Recent Players list is not a thing in the Win 10 Xbox App AFAICT*), there does not appear to be any correlation. The suggested listing looks like friends of friends for networking, which is somewhat useless to me for gaming since I really don't care unless we already were playing the same game with our mutual friend. Seems like a waste of developer effort IMO. This isn't Facebook ffs. Why would I want to add random gamertag of people I've never interacted with. Hell it doesn't even tell you which friend that suggested friend is a friend with.

I'd rather just use the Recent Players listing because at least then I know I played X game H hours ago.



*I was playing Horde recently and would have liked to find the folks I played with again, but nope. I gotta use the bloody website.
 
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Most updates I've had an indifferent to positive reaction to, this is the first that I've taken an instant dislike to. My main complaints are the burying of thing I use under more submenus, the horribly bland homepage and the fact that I've not found a customizable element that I actually care about yet.

[edit] Just read that reddit complaint outline and I'd say he pretty much nailed it.
 
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Looks like the latest Alpha release added some new filters for the 1X to the My Games & Apps section...

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Tommy McClain
 
I wish those filters would be listed as sub groups on the left side menu instead.

They also need to add just Xbox Original games to the mix once that BC hits. Its a shame they have it burried in with the X360 games.
 
They still dont get it. They need to have multiple pin sections: apps, xbox one, x360, xbox originals, or however a user wants to organize it.

Also, get ride of the huge space wasting Pins designator on the left and add another row on top to give us more working space for pins! Could be 44 to 48 with 2 more pins on the left instead of worthless pin designator. Then it could be 50, 55, 60 pins going by that pin size with a row on top. So much wasted space.

Fucking morons.
 
@BRiT Do they really need multiple pin sections? You can organize your pins however you want them, so you can organize your rows however you want them. Seems pointless. They also have the my games and apps section where you can have small icons and filter. Not sure why so many pins are needed. Most people are at most going to have maybe ten games that they're playing that they'd really need fast shortcuts to, and 10 apps would probably be a stretch.

I imagine the amount of negative space in their ui is intentional. I'd prefer not to have a completely crowded layout, but they could probably take a little bit more negative space away, especially on the initial home screen. 50 pins might be alright. Again, 40 pins already seems like a lot.
 
@Scott_Arm Yes you absolutely do if you want to use more than 40 pins total. I want to use "pins" as favorites. Here are my favorite Apps. Here are my favorite X360 games. Here are my favorite Xbox Original Games. And here are my favorite Xbox One games.

The My Games and Apps section is completely frustrating to use when you have 250+ games, 95+Apps, and 25+ Ready to Install items. Once I redeem my BingRewards for Xbox Games Pass I will have 350+ games. Navigating that will be a total bitch regardless of all the filters. Over the next year I will also add 48 new games from Games With Gold. Not to mention the big major titles I will get on release day.

I have at least 15 apps I use at least once a week, mostly for streaming (Amazon Video, AMC, Epix, ESPN, Emby Theatre, Netflix, HBO, Starz, Showtime, CrunchyRoll, Forza Hub, Groove Music, SyFy, Xbox Insider Dashboard, Youtube). That leaves only 25 tiles left for games.
 
Xbox NXE was my favorite iteration. Then they were hell bent on making a Kinect friendly dash and since then haven't really got it figured out again.

I think they're too focused on "bringing stuff to you" instead of just making it navigation friendly.
 
Finally the next dashboard version is hitting the Alpha ring. They still have a long ways to go, but at least this makes the dashboard a little bit less pathetic.

Yeah better, but still no replacement for Snap. That's the only thing left that will get me to start providing more than 1-star reviews & detailed feedback reports. Once that was removed I basically gave up on the Preview program. :(

Tommy McClain
 
What's snap?

It was their original multi-tasking capability, to be able to run Apps in a side-panel [~20% screen] while running a game or another app in the main panel [~80% screen].

It was great to be able to play a game and Skype or have ESPN, TV, other Video apps, Music Apps, or Achievement Hunting Apps open at the same time.

 
It was their original multi-tasking capability, to be able to run Apps in a side-panel [~20% screen] while running a game or another app in the main panel [~80% screen].

It was great to be able to play a game and Skype or have ESPN, TV, other Video apps, Music Apps, or Achievement Hunting Apps open at the same time.

Why did they remove it when that was one of the main advantages and unique features of the console's OS?
 
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