The Best Xbox One Hack You’re Probably Not Doing

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First off, calling this a hack may be a bit of an over statement. But there is a **ahem** trick that will allow you to share your digital library with one other friend. This functionality is really meant to allow an Xbox Live user to share his games and ability to play online with other family members in the household, even when said person is not logged in the console. This is accomplished by making a particular Xbox One your “Home Console”.

As mentioned before, making a particular console your “Home Console” will allow any other user on that console to play your full digital library. The great part about this is, that by signing into an additional console, you are also allowed to access your full digital library. You probably can see where I’m going here.

To perform this “hack”, simply sign into a trusted friends Xbox One console and make it your home console in the settings. Also, have said friend sign into your console and make it their home console. That’s pretty much it. You will now have access to all your friends digital library, as well as your own. And visa-versa.

I don’t know how long Microsoft will allow this to go on, but there stands a chance they will eliminate this functionality at some point. Although I don’t really see how they could because of the way the functionality is designed at its core.

One huge caveat, you are only allowed to make a console your home console three times in a calendar year. So you better be sure when your doing this, because you won’t get that many tries. One more good reason to own an Xbox One?

Tweaking The Xbox One Game Plan

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With the new generation of gaming upon us, the race for console dominance has just begun—again. Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 are all geared up to duke it out in what should be a very interesting battle of the boxes.

There is no question that Sony has garnered the hearts and minds of gamers thus far in the console war, capitalizing on each and every blunder Microsoft made early on. And while the gap between the two still feels apparent, all is not lost. There are a few things Microsoft could do to ensure control of their destiny.

Remove Entertainment Apps From Under The Xbox Live Umbrella. One of the top complaints against Xbox is that entertainment apps are under a paid umbrella, in effect making Xbox users pay twice for most entertainment services. This is by far the most egregious of things about the Xbox as a console. Developers have to pay a lot of money to get their apps approved on the console, and then Microsoft is making users pay to use them. Microsoft, stop it.

Include Xbox Music in Xbox Live. Okay, I know Microsoft has already announced free streaming from the console with an Xbox Live subscription, but what it they increased the value of Xbox Live by also offering a full-fledged Xbox Music Pass with your live account. It would not only bolster Xbox Music, but give Windows Phone users extra value on their devices.

Fully Integrate Xbox One and Windows 8 Games. While we wait for the indie-scene to fully come to fruition on Xbox One, Microsoft could really have a true Trojan horse if it implemented Windows 8 Games. I have to admit that thus far the Windows 8 game offerings haven’t been as strong as their phone counterparts, but they are there—and growing fast.

Find A Way To Close The Price Gap. When asked about the motivating factor for purchasing a PlayStation 4 over an Xbox One, the number one excuse is almost certainly the fact that the PlayStation 4 is one-hundred dollars cheaper. And even the most avid Xbox fan has to agree. So in the long run, Microsoft has to find a way to bridge the price gap. And although there is clear argument that you are getting a greater value with the greater price, it doesn’t refute the fact that almost everyone will consider the price gap when choosing a console—especially mothers. And as much as I hate to say it, un-bundling the Kinect may be the only option. Or re-introduce their subsidy pricing program.

In conclusion, looking back at the amount of change the Xbox 360 made over its lifespan, brings a promising outlook on how much the Xbox One and even the PlayStation 4 could evolve over the course of their lifetimes. Of course the most obvious answer that I left out from above was to have great games. Since the hardware is set in stone, software will make the difference, weather is be in the form of games, apps, or services. This will certainly be a great generation, and I for one can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.

LinkDump 02.15.10

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Here are a few tech stories that peeked my interest this week. Enjoy!

  • Penguin United Crossfire V2 Dissected, It’s a Go!
    Fellow editor at Techpedition has received a review unit of the second version of Penguin United’s Wii Crossfire and has given it rave reviews. Apparently the massive issues that the first version faced has been fix and is now the pistol peripheral of choice on the Wii.
  • Google Buzz
    Google has released their own social networking platform, which has caused a bit of an uproar over privacy concerns. My main problem with this is that it’s yet another social network to learn. That being said, it has a distinct advantage being integrated with Google. We’ll see where this one goes.
  • Microsoft Disables XBOX Originals Support On XBOX Live
    Microsoft finally kills support for all XBOX original games on XBOX Live. Supposedly this move should allow Microsoft to add new features and extend the system. Let’s hope for awesome updates in the future.

Tech Tip: Browser Wars, Get Chromed Out

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