The Xbox One update that’s been in limbo for a day or two is finally rolling out as I type this: that’s according to Microsoft’s Larry Hryb, who confirmed as much this afternoon on his blog.
I’ve tried a few tricks to get my Xbox One to pick it up, like toggling the automatic update option, to no avail. I assume Microsoft’s engineers are trying to go easy on their distribution servers, so it’ll happen when it happens.
Hryb reminds readers that Microsoft’s fiddled with the way the Xbox One handles updates, so for instance, if you use the “Instant On’ immediate power-up feature, when you turn the system off, it’ll quietly run an update check, then take the update “during off-peak hours in your local time.”
“All that to say, never fear you’ll see it sometime over the weekend,” adds Hryb.
This is one of the bigger, more noticeable updates to come along, adding more granular storage management (like letting you see your storage ratios, something that’s hidden from you now), separating My Games and My Apps into their own lists, enhancing the feedback system for content that’s loading in the background, providing a gamepad battery power indicator on the Home Screen (Hryb says once you have the update, “you can press the Xbox button to see the battery indicator on screen in the lower right next to the clock”) and adding USB keyboard support for determined typists.
There’s another update in the offing due just before Titanfall launches on March 11 (beta impressions of the game are here), designed to streamline party chat and friends lists, like making the latter more Xbox 360-like. In fact that’s a lot of what these updates amount to: backpedaling from automation that tends to feel more like obfuscation, to something that requires a smidgen more thought and interaction, but brings the benefit of finer, more personalized control.
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