News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[Scott_Arm]

Another system update with new features. Microsoft is not resting on this thing.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/01/xbox-one-game-hubs-and-tv-updates-now-in-preview

 

[iroboto]

Another system update with new features. Microsoft is not resting on this thing.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/01/xbox-one-game-hubs-and-tv-updates-now-in-preview

Makes you wonder if they are actually going to update the UI in an overhaul way when windows 10 releases on Xbox. With all these incremental updates happening at once it just seems like it could be a lot of re-work or waste of work. Not sure how MS handles concurrent builds though, I've seldom had to work on two separate projects that needed the same features and hard cutoff transition phase.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I don't know. I think ui changes are probably the simplest part of the additions.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Makes you wonder if they are actually going to update the UI in an overhaul way when windows 10 releases on Xbox. With all these incremental updates happening at once it just seems like it could be a lot of re-work or waste of work. Not sure how MS handles concurrent builds though, I've seldom had to work on two separate projects that needed the same features and hard cutoff transition phase.

The Windows 10 UI is essentially the same Windows 8 / new UI which XBOX One is based on; the primary difference is the behaviour of the New UI and New UI apps in desktop mode. My Windows 10 install essentially looks like my Win 8.1 install except it behaves better at the desktop.

 

[orangpelupa]

update it to allow running Windows softwares and i'll buy it in a jiffy (then put the windows on hibernate or something when running game OS). My pc is creaky old and it still works fine. dont want to upgrade just to play games lol.

 

[eastmen]

That 5% off is for using the Target red card charge/debit thing?



Agreed. Discs are one of the most annoying aspects of console play, sometimes I actually find myself thinking "I could play MCC right now.." but don't want to get up and swap discs so I'll play something else instead. Lol.

I'll have to check on Newegg, it just seems annoying that in order to get discounts you have to jump through hoops.

I also find it very strange that when you order things through the MS Store, they are physical discs. So even when they give you $20 gift cards and such as preorder bonuses for discounts, you still have to deal with the disc. I was looking for a deal on Dying Light and the best one seems to be from the MS store, but I don't want another disc!

ya the target red card , credit or debit. We just have a debit account with them. We do a lot of shopping there since they also carry food

 

[iroboto]

The Windows 10 UI is essentially the same Windows 8 / new UI which XBOX One is based on; the primary difference is the behaviour of the New UI and New UI apps in desktop mode. My Windows 10 install essentially looks like my Win 8.1 install except it behaves better at the desktop.

You're right, I don't know why I expected a UI overhaul. It seems as though Win10 has most of it's meat under the hood. Integrated hyperV, some sort of separation of personal data and application data via hyperV? virtual desktops, and in general just better control over the OS. Have you noticed anything else in particular since using the preview edition (aside from UI elements)?

 

[liquidboy]

You're right, I don't know why I expected a UI overhaul. It seems as though Win10 has most of it's meat under the hood. Integrated hyperV, some sort of separation of personal data and application data via hyperV? virtual desktops, and in general just better control over the OS. Have you noticed anything else in particular since using the preview edition (aside from UI elements)?

Windows 10 is a pretty monumental release in my opinion...

The start menu is being re-written as a "modern" app deployed via store using the windows-app-store-model .. It's using new WinRT composition api's to deliver a "Continum" app that has multiple UI's that morph into each other as you go from desktop -> tablet -> mobile ...

There are several other completely re-written from ground up modern apps that , as above, use the app-store-model to deliver themselves.. These will replace existing windows apps/services eg. music/video/media/xbox apps etc all have new re-written apps..

We will get a new browser architecture, that builds ontop of the old BUT is a dual-architecture (EDGE) .. It reworked the trident and chakra engines, new dll's of each will exist going forward and the old ones will remain for backwards compat ..
- Trident - MSHTMlL.dll (legacy) / Edge.dll (living)
- Chakra - Jscript9.dll (legacy) / chakra.dll (living)

This new browser architecture will allow the "living" side to innovate faster .. Also a new UI written ontop of these engines, which is code named Spartan, is as the other apps mentioned above , will be a windows-store-app-model app .. It will be deployed via the store and can be regularly updated as such..

Under the covers within the OS the biggest change I see happening is Windows will get a "Container" technology. Ill call this the WindowsContainer. This is similar in concept to docker and Linux containers BUT it's also very different in it's overall goals..

This is a great intro to the concept of the "Windows Container" , theres still not much known about it BUT its a start..

There's also so much going on in the developer front ... WinRT vNext, a lossening of the window-app-store sandbox to allow a great range of apps (rumors that more win32 / 3rd party framework love coming)

.NET Native for us .NET lovers ... lots of news already out there in the public domain regarding the importance of this ...

DX12, I don't need to say much on this as you can go to the public announcements and videos on channel 9 ..

And the biggest news is of course that Windows 10 (Threshold) is rumoured to be the ONE OS that will span embedded/phone/tablet/desktop/console/server ... same exact WinRT api's , Dx12 , Trident/Chakra engines that span the entire ecosystem so devs can build "Universal Apps" and have the confidence the underlying api's and engines they rely on will be consistent across windows ..

And of course with MS's latest moves going Open with lots of it's dev stack, hopefully we'll see some x-plat love for Dx12 and WinRT .. Would love to be able to target a "universal app" and have it compile to iOS/Android .. I know of Xamarin and Fuse BUT MS have WinRT/Dx12/.NET native .. I would love to see them take the big step of doing this..

sry for the long winded post BUT been following lots of these techs for years, many since research (drawbridge/midori etc) ... really excited for Win10

 

[iroboto]

Thanks it was a good summary. I'm not sure how much of it is applicable to Xbox one in terms of what it needs.

 

[Rurouni]

They just went for another "promotional" round for Xbox One in the US. You can buy X1 for $349 in the US starting from January 16th. Remember folks, this is a "promotion", so it doesn't last forever.....
http://majornelson.com/2015/01/15/x...ing-holiday-looks-ahead-2015/?linkId=11752233

 

[Scott_Arm]

Just to make sure I'm getting this straight, there's no One chatpad and there's no voice messaging and there's no video messaging?

So the only way to send messages to friends is to use the virtual keyboard and go through all that hassle? Or use smartglass which is the same thing, only requires an additional device.

Seriously?

That explains the lack of voice and video chat how?

BTW typing this on my logitech remote qwerty keyboard for my HTPC. Explain to me again why the market does not exist?

@RancidLunchmeat

So, I just revisited this post because you were complaining about chat on Xbox One and not having an input device to do it. You wrote this post using your Harmony remote. Guess what, all Harmony devices are compatible with Xbox One since February 2014. There's your input device.

 

[nggamer]

The Jan 21 event will include a few tidbits regarding the Xbox service (ie. Live) integration into Windows 10 on PC and Phone. Not about console.

As a console-only gamer, I'm a bit concerned about Windows 10 becoming a distraction for the Xbox team.

 

[iroboto]

As a console-only gamer, I'm a bit concerned about Windows 10 becoming a distraction for the Xbox team.

That's fair. I guess you'll be listening intently on Jan 21. MS is definitely moving towards their mobile, cloud, services based strategy. You'll either love it or hate it, but it's certainly seems like the projection is going to cause some intersection of devices/services that previously were separated.

 

[3dilettante]

Prior to launch, the Xbox One project pulled a lot of teams to fix up the platform. Wouldn't it only be fair that Xbox return the favor?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

As a console-only gamer, I'm a bit concerned about Windows 10 becoming a distraction for the Xbox team.

Microsoft have a history of spreading themselves too thin and neglecting what become important markets. I remember when IE was actually a great browser compared to the competition. Insert distractions and Microsoft lose the browser market. I remember when WindowsMobile/HandheldPC/PocketPC/WindowsCE was big deal in mobile operating systems. Insert distractions and Microsoft lose that OS market. I remember when Microsoft used to own the education market. Insert distractions and now Apple have taken a huge bite.

Microsoft definitely need to be more careful because they no longer have an ever-growing unassailable cash cow like Windows or Office. For most people the OS their computer comes with (Windows 7 on) is more than good enough for what they do, unlike back in the early days of Windows 3 -> Win95 -> Win98 -> Win2K - WinXP where the OS was maturing fast and adding much needed enhancements and features, principally security and stability, prompting massive upgrades. Ditto Office.

 

[AlNom]

Are there different teams handling the three different OS on Xbox?

 

[Scott_Arm]

I actually think aligning Xbox to the PC would be mutually beneficial. Any good work that is produced for either can be shared with the other more easily.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Are there different teams handling the three different OS on Xbox?

I'd be surprised if the hypervisor was a product of anybody but Microsoft's Hyper-V team. Virtualisation isn't the study of the dark arts that it used to be but it's still a specialised area. I can't imagine that the hypervisor would need to change much either, so it surely doesn't necessitate a dedicated team within the Xbox division.

 

[AlNom]

mmm...

How about a dedicated team for the GameOS? Then the SysOS folks would converge/unify/synergize/Voltron-ize/Captain Planet with the Win & mobile etc.

 

[Scott_Arm]

They explained that they took the Hyper-V product and basically stripped everything out of it that they could to make it "light-weight" for the console, since they had exact definitions and resource requirements for each of the two hosted VMs.

The game OS is what ... a couple of drivers and a thin kernel that handles pretty much only the api calls that are available in the SDK. My guess is that there would probably be a very small group of people working on that.