Warning over 4Chan Xbox One prank

Warning over 4Chan Xbox One prank

Xbox One owners are being warned about an internet prank message that could wreck their console.

The prank message, originated on the

Super Time Force shifts to 2014, also coming to Xbox One

Super Time Force shifts to 2014, also coming to Xbox One

capybara games

capybara games

Capybara Games is bringing its radical 2D run-and-gun game, Super Time Force, to Xbox One in addition to Xbox 360, and aims to launch both versions simultaneously. The

Reddit user compiling unofficial wishlist of Xbox One improvements

One intrepid Reddit user has taken it upon himself to compile suggestions and improvements for the recently-launched Xbox One based on player feedback, launching a wishlist of fixes under the

10 Reasons I’d Pick the Wii U over the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Today

10 Reasons I’d Pick the Wii U over the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Today

This could have been Nintendo’s year — should have been Nintendo’s year.

And in a sense, it was Nintendo’s year, though it took some doing to get here. No one was supposed to buy the company’s shiny aqua-blue or whatchamacallit-black 3DS when it arrived back in February 2011 with a

Xbox One party chat problems will ‘get better’ Microsoft promises

xbox one party chat problems microsoft fix

Microsoft says it’s working to fix several issues with its Xbox One party chat service. The new and improved chat, that debuted as a separate app on the console, allows gamers to chat with up to seven friends during gameplay. However, Xbox One owners have

Xbox One’s 1080p upscaling makes games look worse

The Xbox One has had a number of major issues in its short life, and it seems like the problems just keep rolling in. Forum denizens over at NeoGAF recently pointed out that the post-processing being performed on some Xbox One titles, to upscale 720p to 1080p

Gaming consoles: Xbox One Vs PS4?

Gaming consoles: Xbox One Vs PS4?

I was tempted to start this week’s column with some melodramatic superlatives on how the battle between the two biggest launches of the year has started, how sales have been phenomenal and how this will spill over to the next few months till one console will be declared the new king. I’ll refrain from doing that as I’m more fascinated with the questions thrown up instead. Almost no category in technology has seen more sudden success and unprecedented failure than this finger-mashing device world.

and growing demand. A good start for both and this will continue, as Christmas demand as well as launches in the UK and Europe have begun.

Rushed job and poor quality machines?Many have seen their PS4 bricked and unusable with a ‘Blue Light of Death’ striking. Many reported that the Xbox One is dead on arrival with a ‘Robot Vomiting’ sound followed by a ‘Green Screen of Death’. Poor quality machines released to catch holiday sales? Not really. This is almost a tradition with every console launch. Teething issues immediately crop up in the first lot of machines. Things stabilise pretty quickly.

Why should I buy a console when smartphones and tablets give an excellent gaming experience at a cheaper price?

Good question. While ‘app gaming’ is an excellent platform, it pales in comparison to what these consoles can deliver. From mind-boggling graphics and intense gameplay to online jousts and jaw-dropping augmented reality, there are many features that can’t be matched on a tablet.

Last of its kind? The Xbox One may well be one of the last gaming consoles you’ll get to see

But these consoles are seriously expensive.

Yes, they are. But on a feature-to-feature comparison, they are actually a bargain. This is your gaming console, Blu-ray player, media streamer, music-playing machine, your TV-watching-experience-enhancing machine, your voice and gesture command units, your first brush with true augmented reality and your online device. There’s no way a company will sell a standalone gaming machine anymore (as Nintendo realised with its Wii U); both machines are designed to be the centre of your entertainment universe.

Aren’t the previous generation of consoles a better buy, given they’re priced much lower?

Good to see you’re thinking on your feet. Previous generation consoles are powerful machines that will continue to fall in price. If you don’t own one, look for excellent bundled deals, usually announced about three months after a new generation console is out. Will the Xbox One and the PS4 be the first true 4K source players for your new 4K TV? In a world moving to Ultra HD (four times your normal full HD), shouldn’t the next generation of consoles deliver too? Currently, out of the box, they DO NOT! Yet both companies have made cryptic claims that in the future with firmware updates as well as add-ons, they will. I don’t see any way for these consoles to survive in the future without 4K output and can’t wait to see the first true 4K game!

Easy on the eye: The PlayStation 4 is sleeker, leaner and better looking in terms of size and form factor

Are these the last gaming consoles on the planet?

I’d go out on a limb and say yes. At least in the current form and definition of what we perceive to be a gaming console. In the future, we’ll play games of a much superior quality than what these consoles can deliver – we just won’t need a console to play them. Our phones and TVs may have it all built-in, and you won’t need games on a disc.

What about Nintendo?

In the current scenario and with what Nintendo’s portfolio looks like – it’s safe to say that it’s Game Over for them!


Which one is better: Xbox One or PS4? Which should I buy?

The big question and one that has people scratching their heads. Earlier, it was easy to decide as most gamers were invested in one already and would upgrade from the same company to protect the library of games they already spent a fortune on. Those rules don’t apply anymore as both consoles are notoriously poor at legacy gaming. This is a fresh start; one that shuns the boring old to bring in the absolute new.

In terms of size and form factor, the PS4 is sleeker, leaner and better looking, but that should be the last reason to buy a gaming system. Price isn’t much of a criterion either as the PS4 may be $100 less, but needs accessories that cost almost as much to get the console up and about to its fullest. Both consoles offer almost equal hardware specs as well. Even the biggest rule of console choosing seems to have been left in the dust: the games themselves! The opening portfolio for both is fairly mundane, the number of exclusive choices aren’t many and there doesn’t seem to be any one killer game in the future that will tilt the scale much. Then who wins?

The decisive winner will be the one that delivers on the digital hub promise – a machine that brings in all forms of media and entertainment and makes the experience that much more automated, jaw-dropping, customised and intelligent. Isn’t it amazing that for the first time ever, the last Gaming King of the Hill may well be decided not on gaming prowess – but the capabilities of the machine over and above gaming? True Technological Poetic Justice!

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3.

Gaming consoles: Xbox One Vs PS4?

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White Xbox One is Exclusive to Full-Time Microsoft Employees

White Xbox One

As much of a hard time as gamers and consumers have been giving Microsoft since it announced the Xbox One, designing and releasing a console is no easy task. To celebrate the hard work of employees at the company, Microsoft will be giving each a very special edition of the Xbox One.

White Xbox One

Full-time Xbox One employees will be receiving a free Xbox One console bundle come launch. But it isn't just the regular Launch Edition. Called the 'Xbox One Employee Ship Gift' it includes an exclusive white console and controller, one year of Xbox Live, an exclusive achievement, and the console even has the words 'I made this' etched on the housing.

White Xbox One

As these are only for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business employees, it's unlikely that the white style of Xbox Will see release for consumers, but at least we can hope.

White Xbox One

source article

Punching the Xbox One Could Fix the Disc Drive Issue

Come on, admit it. We have all punched our electronics at some point in our lives. They don't work, we get frustrated, and they deserve a nice little wack to bring them back to their senses, right? Right?

Anyways, punching electronics is possibly the oldest, and the most brutish way people have found to fix erratic machines. It doesn't always work, but sometimes it does and it's always worth a try. Case in point, the Xbox One.

Some Xbox One users have found that the system's 'mixer syndrome', where the disc drive makes a loud, grinding noise when a disc is inserted, could be fixed by beating the day lights of the system. The theory is that a gear in the drive's loading mechanicism is misaligned, and a little brute force can put it right back in its place - as shown in the video below.

It works. It has worked for a few Xbox One owners, but there is no guarrantee of it. Also, before you go ahead and try this trick, know that this does indeed qualify as voiding your warranty. So proceed with caution and don't tell Microsoft.

Article Source : http://me.ign.com/en/news/17787/punching-the-xbox-one-could-fix-the-disc-drive-issue

Xbox One contre PS4 une semaine plus tard, qui gagne le match ?

JEUX VIDEO - C'est LA guerre de la fin d'année. Microsoft contre Sony, Xbox One contre PS4. Le match au sommet des consoles ne fait que commencer. Metronews vous livre son avis après une semaine de test des deux machines.

On ne joue plus ! Enfin si, mais la bataille frontale est lancée depuis ce matin. A quelques semaines des fêtes de fin d'année, Sony et Microsoft s'affrontent au rayon jeu vidéo. A une semaine d'écart, le 22 novembre pour la Xbox One et aujourd'hui, le 29 novembre, pour la Playstation 4, les deux géants ont abattu leurs cartes. Reste maintenant au public de livrer son verdict.

Dès à présent, metronews vous donne son avis. Après avoir pu testé les deux consoles pendant toute une semaine, l’heure est au bilan. Du côté de la Xbox One de Microsoft, on note des temps d’installation de jeu très longs, une connectivité avec les box internet pas systématique (contrairement à ce qui avait été annoncé) mais des fonctionnalités Kinect et Smartglass performantes ainsi qu’un démarrage rapide et efficace.

Léger avantage à la Xbox One

La PlayStation 4 peut, quant à elle, se targuer de lancer les jeux de façon quasi instantanée, de proposer des fonctionnalités "réseaux sociaux" simples et amusantes (le streaming de ses parties en live, par exemple) mais peine par moment à faire tourner simultanément plusieurs applications.

Finalement, au bout d'une semaine, la Xbox One gagne le match d'une courte tête. Et ce malgré la différence de prix de 100 euros (399 pour la PS4, 499 pour la Xbox One). Le jeu Dead Rising 3 et l'interaction console/tablette ont fait penché la balance en faveur de la console de Microsoft. Mais la partie ne fait que commencer : d’un côté comme de l’autre, de nouvelles fonctionnalités arriveront lors des mises à jour du système d’ores et déjà prévues dans les semaines à venir.

http://www.metronews.fr/high-tech/xbox-one-contre-ps4-une-semaine-plus-tard-qui-gagne-le-match/mmkB!rw335f4VDfKYk/

Microsoft Charging Users To Return Faulty Xbox One Consoles

There’s good news and there’s bad news if you are one of a growing number of people who got their hands on an Xbox One only to find they have a defective unit. The good news is that Microsoft are offering all people who have to exchange their console a free game as an apology for the inconvenience. The bad news is that you have to give up a lot of money for a while to get the console replaced in a short space of time, or can keep your money and wait a very long time.

In an alarming report received by us, one person in the UK who bought a defective Xbox One informed us of the options presented by Microsoft to replace. They were told that they could pay Microsoft £381 (US$621) and receive a new Xbox One within 2 days, with the fee paid being refunded if Microsoft receives the defective unit back within 14 days. The other option was to wait for a free shipping box to arrive, send the console back and wait for it to be repaired and returned, which would take a minimum of 14 days.

This is quite a catch to the “free game” being offered for the inconvenience caused by Microsoft selling a defective unit to someone. Even if one used a relatively low interest rate for a corporate client like Microsoft, at 5% they would earn £5 (US$8) from your deposit across 14 days; a nice way to off-set the cost of the free game.

With their main rival in the game console market, Sony, accepting they have been seen as anti-consumer in the past and working hard to change that view, Microsoft’s approach is baffling many. Over the years Microsoft have emphasised the user friendly and flexible ways of their approach, going so far as to ditch products, such as the Vista operating system, when they are clearly not what the consumers want. So far the Xbox One has seen Microsoft try to take as much money as they can whilst holding as much control as they can over the consumers. It remains to be seen how successful this approach will be.

Article Source : http://www.thenewsreports.com/microsoft-charging-users-to-return-faulty-xbox-one-consoles/2300/annier

Xbox One review: Microsoft delivers a solid contender with unlimited potential

Xbox One review: Microsoft delivers a solid contender with unlimited potential

A jack of all trades, but still a master of just one

When Microsoft decided to focus the Xbox One marketing campaign around the console’s media capabilities, my main concern was that everything would work just well enough, and nothing about the console would stand out. If the Xbox One was going to be a living room media device and a cable box and a video game console, something would have to give. But Microsoft proved me wrong: First and foremost, the Xbox One is a very capable gaming device, and a worthy successor to the Xbox 360.

Fittingly, the first thing you’ll see when you unpack your Xbox One is the Kinect. This is the Microsoft’s big gambit — the $100 addition that is poised to become an inseparable part of next-generation gaming. Like everything else in the box, it’s huge. You could definitely pack a few Xbox 360 Kinect units inside the monstrous camera that will be watching over your living room for the next seven years or so. It’s a sleek device though; the original Kinect looked like a plastic toy, but the Kinect 2.0 is a much more innocuous addition to your entertainment center.

The console itself is much bigger than I had expected. There are those who have compared the Xbox One to a VCR, and I am finding it hard to disagree. In other words, you won’t be buying the Xbox One for its portability. The console features both HDMI in and HDMI out, as well as S/PDIF, IR out and ethernet ports. Additionally, there are three USB ports and a slot specifically for the Kinect.

When it comes to controllers, I’ve always preferred Sony’s layout, particularly the analog sticks, but there’s no denying that Microsoft built the definitive console controller for the last generation, and smartly has changed next to nothing this time around. No fancy gimmicks or added functionality — the only significant changes are the death of Start and Select (replaced by the Menu and View buttons) and the raised profile of the right and left bumpers.

I have to wonder if anyone at Microsoft actually held the controller before shipping it. Because of the raised bumpers, switching back and forth between shoulder buttons is noticeably awkward. There’s no way to quickly slide your fingers from the triggers to the bumpers, which is an action that many games require. It’s a minor blemish on an otherwise great controller, but with no fix in sight, Microsoft managed to manufacture a new problem.

I want to try and avoid many direct comparisons to the PlayStation 4 in this review, but the external power brick, exclusive to the Xbox One this generation, looks even more ridiculous now than it did eight years ago, especially when it’s sitting next to a camera smart enough to track your skeleton in a pitch black room.

Microsoft also includes a decent headset in the box and a 14-day free trial for Xbox Live Gold, which is just as necessary on the Xbox One as it was on the Xbox 360. Without a subscription to Xbox Live Gold, you end up losing a majority of the console’s functionality. Netflix, Skype, Internet Explorer, OneGuide, game recording and online multiplayer are all barred from users without Gold, a vast majority of what the console was marketed on in the first place. It’s not unexpected, just disappointing.

Setting up the Xbox One was a bit more cumbersome than I would have liked. The initial update took about 20 minutes, and once it had completed installing, a message appeared stating that something had gone wrong. It had to start from scratch, but everything went smoothly the second time through. The first game I installed, Call of Duty: Ghosts, took its sweet time as well. It was nearly an hour until enough of the game had installed on the hard drive to allow me to start playing. Things seem to be moving faster now, but it was enough of a delay to make me take note.

I always felt that the dashboard on the Xbox 360 was too cluttered. Popping in a disc and starting a game was never complicated, but getting around the Xbox Marketplace or trying to change settings was counter-intuitive. On Xbox One, everything is front and center. Your profile, active program and recent applications fill up center screen. The storefront sits to the right, conveniently broken down into categories, and on the left are your personal pins: a custom list of games and apps. It’s not quite as snappy as I would have hoped, but there’s a whole lot going on in the user interface.

Plus, you can talk to it.

Kinect is both a waste of time and an epiphany all at once.

I didn’t keep a tally, but I’d say at least 90% of my voice commands were understood on the first try, and I can only think of one or two occasions on which the Kinect heard the wrong command entirely. It feels silly to request things from your TV out loud at first, but once you determine which commands benefit your experience and which inconvenience you, you can start to strike a balance. Navigating the menu can occasionally be faster with voice commands than with a controller, though it’s certainly not a necessity, and I haven’t gotten tired of telling my Xbox to turn off yet.

Another of Microsoft’s media initiatives is the OneGuide. The Xbox One replaces your cable box altogether once the two devices are connected through the HDMI out port, complete with DVR controls, voice commands, and a list of favorite apps and channels. Switching between watching TV and playing a game is as simple as a voice command: “Xbox, watch TV” and “Xbox, go home” seamlessly swaps between the console’s two primary functions. Although the OneGuide and the voice commands aren’t going to convince any non-subscribers to get cable, an Xbox One could be a worthwhile addition to your cable subscription.

One feature that I have yet to find any use for is Snap. Any time you open an application or start a game on the Xbox One, you can “Snap” in an extra application on the right side of the screen. I was running around in Dead Rising 3, hacking zombies to pieces, when I decided to shout out “Xbox, Snap TV.” A small screen appeared almost instantaneously on the top right of the TV with a live broadcast of Friends while Dead Rising 3 continued to run on the left side.

Snap takes up about one-fourth of the screen, so to really make use of the feature, you need a sizable television. That said, I have no idea why you or anyone around you would want to watch a 7-inch TV screen or try to talk on Skype while you race loud cars around a track. It’s worth mentioning that I couldn’t find any way to control the volume of the Snap and the main application separately.

Snap is a neat idea that doesn’t seem to have any practical use, but there is no telling how developers might make use of the feature with Xbox One apps down the line.

Sadly, Twitch streaming was not ready in time for launch, but recording and sharing game clips is still an option. At any time during a game, you can say “Xbox, record that,” and the last 30 seconds of gameplay will be saved to the hard drive. You can then export that footage to Upload Studio and trim it down, record a voiceover, and upload it to Xbox Live and your personal SkyDrive account. It’s a great way to quickly capture a shareable moment without interrupting your play session.

You can also Snap the Game DVR to the side of the screen and record in longer increments. Upload Studio allows you to splice clips together as well, so if you always wanted to upload a montage of your greatest gaming achievements to YouTube but never had the hardware to do it, now is your chance.

Microsoft went all out for third-party applications. Skype and NFL are both major head-turners, even for the consumers less interested in the gaming aspects of the Xbox One. If the Xbox One is going to be an all-in-one living room device, these partners are going to be a vital part of the console’s continued success.

Finally, I can’t conclude this review without talking about Microsoft’s second-screen experience.

SmartGlass turns your smartphone or tablet into a controller for your console, and it’s ridiculously cool. It can also detect when a game launches and gives you the option to open a built-in companion app. Much like Snap, SmartGlass hasn’t been fully implemented into the software yet, but there’s enough potential here to get gamer excited.

The Xbox One is everything Microsoft promised it would be. It plays Blu-Ray discs, it replaces your cable box, you can navigate the entire console without ever picking up your controller, and best of all, you can still play games on it. The only problem is that, other than playing games, it doesn’t do anything of those things flawlessly. You will occasionally repeat a voice command three or four times, the UI will stick and freeze momentarily while the system tries to catch up, and games will crash.

But the Xbox One is a platform. It will grow and evolve in the coming years, and once Microsoft pins down the issues and spruces up the dashboard, the Xbox One might become the nucleus of the living room that it was meant to be.

More from BGR: T-Mobile, AT&T engage in Twitter trench warfare over one customer

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Teardown reveals how the Xbox One will avoid the ‘red ring of death’

Teardown reveals how the Xbox One will avoid the ‘red ring of death’

Just like the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One also has a user-replaceable hard drive, iFixit’s teardown reveals. However, while the procedure appears to be easy enough provided you have the right tools and follow the appropriate steps to get to the hard drive, it’s also not officially supported. 

This means that taking repair matters into your own hands when replacing the hard drive, or any other component, will void the warranty of the Xbox One and may get you into trouble later with Microsoft. For what it’s worth, the Xbox One disassembled by iFixit has a 500GB 2.5-inch Samsung Spinpoint M8 SATA II hard drive inside. In addition to the hard drive, users would also be able to easily replace other components including the Blu-ray drive and the fan.

More importantly for gamers, iFixit has found that the Xbox One has “a beefy cooling system” that it will use to make sure that gamers no longer have to live in fear of the “red ring of death” that plagued early versions of the Xbox 360 console. Even better, iFixit says that replacing the fan and heat sink is “easy-breezy” for amateur mechanics so even if your new Xbox One does experience heat-related hardware failures you may not have to ship it back to Microsoft.

More from BGR: The Wii U looks like a dead console walking

This article was originally published on BGR.com