Just a few days after a mystery Redditor leaked an image of the Xbox One supporting External hard drive support, Microsoft has announced the June update for their next gen consoles, which is a “Really, really big update” to the Xbox One’s software with External Storage, Real name use and a major change in how you can access external Apps like Netflix, Youtube and Machinma.
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The announcement has been made on Microsoft official Xbox News channel where they detail the full change, but for the lazy among us they have also created a 5 minute long video with Xbox Live’s Larry Hyrb (AKA MajorNelson) explaining the updates features.
The first point of call fo us is the long awaited External Storage compatibility. It’s been long considered a major loss for Xbox Fans, but now the June update will kill this issue. The Basics are that users will now be able to connect USB 3.0 Hard Drives with 256GB of Data or more to the console. Once you have connected the device the Xbox will ask to format the drive, and from then onwards users will be able to store game saves, info and all manner of Xboxyness onto an external HD.
This give Xbox users a much needed expansion on the Xbox One’s memory (currently 500GB) and users can connect an additional 2 external drives to the consoles, making three storage devices available on the Xbox One.
The next update is the Real voices feature, where you will be able to display Friends with Real name sharing. This is an optional feature, where by selecting the real names function you can reveal your real name to friends on a overall basis or selective if you choose.
There is a load of updates to the Xbox One smartglass including a new OneGuide experience and universal remote control, so you’ll be able to do more from your phone or tablet than before. You will also get notifications from friends on the twitch service direst to your connected device.
The big change with the Xbox One and its Apps is that users will now be able to access onto services such as Netflix, Amazon/LOVEFiLM and Hulu from their Xbox one even without an Xbox Live Gold membership. In the UK we hope this will apply to BBC iPlayer and other catch-up services too.
See also: Microsoft Updates Xbox Live Gold Features for Xbox One & 360
Other features including Pin reordering to tidy up your pins, using the Smartgalss app and the re-introduction of the Auto Sign in feature, where one Profile on the Xbox one can be assigned to Auto sign in on startup.
The update to the Xbox One will be landing in June, but a specific date has not yet been released.