Xbox One Major February Update Detailed, Available Now

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Two months into the new year and the Xbox One is now getting its first big update of the year. After consistently receiving monthly hardware and software updates last year, the Microsoft system took a bit of a break in January, although, gamers can't really be blamed if they didn't notice it. At some point, a monthly update was just expected.

At any rate, the Xbox One's February Update is a bulky one compared to the last update, and may be more on par (at least, content-wise) with last year's November update. Among the main things being improved upon this time are the Xbox One controller, Party Chat and Live TV. If you're into all of those things and wish they functioned better, then hey, this update is just the thing you want installed as soon as possible. Luckily, the update is already rolling out to Xbox One gamers, meaning there shouldn't be a problem downloading it today.

The Xbox One controller gets two updates that are meant to speed up the system-to-controller connection process. Previously, controllers took 4-to-5 seconds to connect - also known as 'forever.' Post-update, however, things should only take two seconds, at most. Furthermore, the stability of the device has been addressed, as some users reported disconnection problems. Mid-Halo or Call of Duty match, a sudden controller disconnection would probably be rather troublesome.

Improving Party Chat

Party Chat follows with some changes of its own. Aside from performance tweaks that lessen the time it takes to create a P2P party chat connection, there are now icons that easily inform users of the status of their chat:

Clock - Connection is in the process of being made
Squawker Ring - Successful connection and now actively identifies which person is talking.
X - Network limitations are preventing a chat connection from being made.

Perhaps the update's most important tweaks are improvements to game and party invites that will now detail which friend sent the invite, and what party or game the invite is for. Previously, players would have to wait for the text to scroll by.

Game Hubs

Among the few new features (not changes) to come with the update are Game Hubs. As many can probably guess from the name alone, Game Hubs serve as a central tool for any information related to a game, be it game clips, leaderboards, or who among a person's friends list is playing that game at that time. From now on, every Xbox One game will have a dedicated Game Hub.

"To get to the game hub for your favorite game, find a game in your pins, recently played list, or My games and apps, then press the Menu button and select View game hub. You can also search for any game in the Xbox Store and click on the Game Hub tile from the game’s store page."

The other new feature is the implementation of transparent tiles. In addition to custom backgrounds added last year, tile transparency will, hopefully, make backgrounds more visible than before. People were eager to get custom backgrounds support on the Xbox One, so there's nothing wrong with allowing people to see more of their chosen images, right?

TV on Xbox

Finally, Live TV gets some attention, with most of the updates dedicated to countries outside of the United States. First up, though, is Trending on OneGuide. As users navigate their way through the OneGuide TV listings, 'Trending on Xbox' and 'Trending on Twitter' labels will now appear within the details for the show/movie. TV trending is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the newly added France, Germany, Brazil and Mexico. Twitter trending is still a bit of an exclusive to the US, for one reason or another. That said, OneGuide has now made its way to the Netherlands, albeit without the updates just mentioned.

Another update comes to improve the control of TV, set-top boxes and receivers. The IR blasting database specifically has been updated with more hardware models, while also dealing with a few reported issues.

Wrapping things up, those that own the Xbox One Digital Tuner and also live in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy or Spain can enjoy the ability to see video frames while fast-forwarding or rewinding paused TV. Those same users can then stream their TV to a Windows Phone or Android device.

Needless to say, there something for everyone in this month's Xbox One update. And some changes are certain to be more important to players than others. Of course, now the time has come to look ahead to March's presumed update and continued debate over when screenshots will come to the Xbox One. Sooner rather than later, hopefully.

Source: Xbox Wire