Microsoft has revealed what’s to be expected in the next upcoming system update, for Xbox One owners.
Xbox One owners can expect the long awaited arrival of external hard drive support and real names for identifying your friends.
While Microsoft has been delivering updates on a fairly regular basis making many changes across its platform since launch, external hard drive support has been one of the upmost request features, along with being able to use real names which Microsoft mentioned back during E3 2013.
With Xbox One owners with a gold subscription can expect free games with gold beginning in June and all Xbox One owners being able to access popular entertainment apps without a gold subscription, Microsoft is continuing to deliver improvements to its consumers.
External hard drive support is as simple as plugging in a 256GB or larger USB 3.0 devices and once formatted you can copy and move games, apps and game add-ons from one drive to another, use up to two external hard drives at once. Microsoft has even provided you with the ability to choose which hard drive is your default download and installation location.
Real names will allow you to keep track of your closet friends, and also provide you with the ability to find your friends more easily providing what your name sharing setting is. Once you boot up the friends app for the first time you will be able to enter your name and who you share your name with.
SmartGlass is also getting a ton of changes for Xbox One. After getting great feedback from the SmartGlass beta, the SmartGlass app will be updated to deliver the entire OneGuide and Universal Remote Control experience.
Now in supported markets you can view all of your TV listings on your SmartGlass device and set and view your favourite channels and app channels on your smart phone, tablet or PC. With the Universal Remote Control, you can also easily switch channels, set new recordings and select and control recorded content from your DVR. Another great companion feature now in SmartGlass is pin reordering. With the touch of your finger you can easily organize your pins in categories or favourites based on your preferences and have those changes refresh to your console.
Other improvements to SmartGlass will help you stay current on what you and your friends are up to, even when you’re away from your console. Bringing the hero stats and activity feed front and center, and adding more ways for you to compare achievements via SmartGlass whether you’re on a friend’s profile or viewing a game from the activity feed. Just like on the console, you can choose to get notifications on your smart phone, PC or tablet when a favourite friend signs into their console or starts broadcasting a game. For many devices, you can even choose to start watching the broadcast wherever you are.