As I wrote last month, if you’re truly interested in the possibilities of a media-converged “connected home,” Microsoft’s Xbox One provides a forward-thinking experience in many respects. I’ve been playing around with mine for a couple weeks, and I’ve come away with some impressions about the console that I didn’t expect. The interesting thing is that these impressions aren’t merely compliments or criticisms about the device itself but mostly thoughts about how my admittedly conservative tech mind is reacting to features that change so much about how I’m used to doing things.
You know me: I’m resistant to change in many ways. That’s well documented in this space. I still listen to disc-based music—even LP—and I have never read an ebook. My movies are more Blu-ray-based than Netflix-streamed. You might call me nostalgic about physical media but still excited about the prospects of a digital future.
You can see why I’m fascinated by the promise of the Xbox One, which touts itself as a powerful media hub for the living room. My wife is jazzed about the music possibilities, I’m excited about the many varied apps and high-resolution games that will be coming our way, and the kids are eager to check out the apps and play with the Kinect-based games. My recent immersion in the Microsoft ecosystem that includes Windows 8 Surface tablets, Windows Phone, and our Windows desktop system paved the way for the placement of Xbox One in the living room, where it would interconnect with all these devices to provide a seamless media and computing and storage experience across all devices. I was prepared and eager for all that.
(Read the rest at Residential AV Presents: Connected Home.)