If you were hoping that your Xbox One would become the ultimate TV box, prepare to be disappointed. Microsoft has revealed that it is suspending its plans to turn its Xbox One into a DVR.
At last year’s Gamescom in Cologne, Germany Microsoft announced that DVR functionality would be coming in 2016. It turns out that announcement was a bit premature. “After careful consideration, we’ve decided to put development of DVR for Over-the-Air TV on hold to focus our attention on launching new, higher fan-requested gaming experiences across Xbox One and Windows 10,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge. The company added “We’re always listening to fan feedback and we look forward to bringing more requested experiences on Xbox One, Windows 10 and Xbox Live this year.”
Ever since current CEO Satya Nadella took the Microsoft helm over from Steve Ballmer back in 2014, it seems that he’s been steering the ship towards a universal Windows 10 platform. This is in contrast to pre-Nadella Microsoft, which had each one of the company’s arms in a different pot. And in keeping with the new philosophy, with each subsequent update, the Xbox One has been starting to look more and more like a PC. Not only that, games that were once exclusive to Microsoft’s home console, like Gears of War and Forza, are now debuting on the Windows 10 store.
Doubling down on games seems to be the better move, as Microsoft caught the ire of gaming audiences back in 2013 by positioning the Xbox One as an entertainment-heavy Kinect-focused device. Once Phil Spencer took over as the Head of Xbox, he quickly changed Microsoft’s messaging towards gamers, and has since seen much praise from the community.
With E3 starting next week, we’re fairly confident Microsoft will continue on its universal Windows adoption.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.