Microsoft Previewing New Xbox One Features

If you're among those lucky enough to have been chosen to get early access to new Xbox One system update features, you'll be happy to hear about this little development: Microsoft is pushing a number of new features to testers now. These features will be rolled out more broadly to all Xbox One users in a coming System Update.

"We're still working on our next Xbox One system update and have been receiving some really great feedback from members with early access," the Xbox Wire blog notes. "I wanted to let you know we're pushing a few more features to the members previewing new system updates."

These features include:

Improved Blu-ray player. The Xbox One Blu-ray player now supports 50 Hz video output for content recorded at 50 Hz.

Firmware updates for the wireless controller and headset adapter. These updates will reduce audio static and improve wireless connectivity, Microsoft says.

Silent reboot after updating as an option. After this update, if your console is in Instant On mode, the update will happen automatically and return to standby upon completion, so you will no longer need to power on your console after an update going forward. If you wish to have the console silently accept and install future updates, you can now enable this as an option in Settings, System Settings. (Though the option will only appear when there is a pending update.)

These are all much-needed improvements.

That last one in particular is a big deal, since it affects so many users, or what we might call "anyone who is using an Xbox One properly". The way it works now is that the console can no longer wake up after you've installed a system update because the system has shut down, not gone to sleep.