Early in March the Xbox team released a major Xbox One system update and today, just two weeks later, the company is once again announcing the “next wave of Xbox One features”. As with the previous roll out, Microsoft is planning to offer a preview of the new features in the “coming days” to all those Xbox Live members who received the early preview, while everyone else will have to wait until the final release in April.
Upcoming features:
According to a new article from Xbox Wire, Xbox One owners will get a few significant features.
- Game and app saves and updates: A game save progress bar will show you the status of your game saves. You will also be able to easily tell what games and apps are being updated or have been updated recently.
- Friends improvements: Notifications will be added to see when favorites and friends sign in to Xbox Live. This actually was one of the most frequently requested features from the first preview wave and we made it a priority to include it in the April update. Also, friends who are in multiplayer will be identified in the friends list. We’ll also add the ability to view friends’ most popular apps.
- Blu-ray 50 Hz video output support for content recorded at 50 Hz will resolve video playback issues some Xbox Live members in Europe are experiencing.
- Kinect voice and motion improvements will continue to fine tune the quality and reliability of Xbox One commands.
- Improved GameDVR video quality through compression algorithm improvements.
- Updates to Xbox One device management to address issues controlling TVs, set top boxes, and receivers that our customers have reported.
- New audio settings to tune how much volume is lowered when Kinect is used in communications.
Finally, the one feature pretty much everyone still waiting for: external storage support, won’t be released in the next April update. Microsoft says this is a top priority and it will come… Eventually.
You didn’t get invited to participate of the early Xbox One update preview? You can get your hopes up as the company will invite even more Xbox Live members to participate in the early preview.
Xbox One new markets in September
In a different, but related news, Microsoft also announced that Xbox One will be coming in 26 new markets starting September, including:
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Chile
- Colombia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Finland
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Israel
- Japan
- Korea
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- South Africa
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- UAE
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].