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Friday, 15 November 2013

Next generation consoles may have impressive graphics that trump their predecessors, but to the seasoned PC gamer with the right hardware they're nothing new. by Jeff Bakalar and Blake Stevenson November 15, 2013 12:58 PM PST (Credit: Blake Stevenson) Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Friday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels! Want more? Here's every Low Latency comic so far.

Posted on 13:18 by Unknown

Next generation consoles may have impressive graphics that trump their predecessors, but to the seasoned PC gamer with the right hardware they're nothing new.


Jeff Bakalar Blake Stevenson

by Jeff Bakalar and Blake Stevenson

November 15, 2013 12:58 PM PST



(Credit: Blake Stevenson)

Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Friday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels! Want more? Here's every Low Latency comic so far.



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And the cable remote, well, I need that, still, because the Xbox doesn't have its own remote -- unless you pair a phone or tablet with the SmartGlass app -- and that's my only way to access the cable box DVR. (Credit: Scott Stein/CNET) And even if you use the admittedly pretty cool SmartGlass app, you still need a phone or tablet nearby, ready and connected. Using voice commands on the Xbox One means talking loudly and repeatedly, using specific commands I didn't always remember specifically. Meanwhile, I have a nine-month old baby sleeping in one room and a five-year-old in the other. I'm getting elbowed to please keep quiet. I reach for the remote again. I'll cast aside the fact that she also said she noticed the TV signal looked different -- paler, more washed out. CNET didn't find an issue with the XBox One throughput, but -- whether it's a placebo effect or not -- I see a slight difference. The real problem here is that the Xbox One doesn't do anything magical with TV: its just allows pass-through, and split-screen app-viewing and gameplay. (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET) I tried demonstrating the Xbox One's clean TV-listing interface, the ability to search for shows across streaming services, to pause live TV with a simple voice command. It didn't win over my harshest tech critic. And meanwhile, that massive new Kinect sat below our TV, staring at us. It doesn't whirr and move like the last Kinect, but it's ever-present. I haven't gotten many complaints about it yet, but maybe that's because I've had a Kinect under my TV for at least a year before that. (Credit: Scott Stein/CNET) Smart TV? Not really, not yet What can Xbox One do for my TV viewing, I ask again? Not all that much at all. I don't use "snap" split-screen much at all, even with a 59-inch TV. Audio from the TV channel and the Xbox game either gets mixed or can't be heard at all sometimes, and it gets too confusing. Also, the apps for that split-screen just aren't great. I tried watching the Jets-Ravens game with the NFL app snapped to the right, and expected -- or hoped for -- greatness. All I really got, mostly, as a score/stat rundown that matched what my phone could already give me...and was slower to update for some reason. I couldn't say "Xbox, show me passing stats," or "Xbox, replay third down," or "Xbox, show game schedule." I wanted the NFL app to be my virtual man-in-the-booth, feeding me relevant stats and interesting analysis as the game kept going on. It's just not that smart yet. If the Xbox One could eventually do that, great: but, split-screening just doesn't do all that much all that well right now. The Wii U has off-TV play, unlike the Xbox One. (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET) Hey you, get off my TV Now, because we only have one TV, there's also a lot of screen-sharing. I watch my shows, she watches hers, the kids watch theirs -- or I play games, and we strike a balance. The Wii U and PlayStation 4 both have a brilliant second-screen proposition to ease the pain, if you have the gear. Nintendo's console comes with a Game Pad that plays many games on a second screen very easily. The PS Vita, PS4, and remote play: works well, too. (Credit: Sally Nieman/CNET) On the PS4, if you have a PlayStation Vita, it's possible to connect to Remote Play to stream games in much the same way, and it works pretty impressively. This is second screen potential at its finest, because it frees up the TV for others -- while you're still playing a console game in your hands. The Xbox One has second screen capabilities via its SmartGlass phone and tablet app, but it's a different story altogether. SmartGlass is a huge help as a remote for video playback, and can be used in some games and video content, but it can't currently play games while someone else watches TV. I don't see why that can't happen in the future, but you'd need to figure out button controls, too. (Credit: Scott Stein/CNET) Another small problem happens when the Xbox One occasionally pings messages in the middle of a show someone else is watching, or someone's voice accidentally brings up a video-control menu or even changes the channel. Those moments are rare, but any additional annoyances add additional straw to the camel back of "why am I subjecting my family to this, again?" If everyone isn't quiet while watching on the Xbox, something odd is bound to happen sooner or later via an unexpected voice command. Hey you, get off my Xbox There's another problem with TV pass-through: suddenly, my wife's using my Xbox One all the time just to watch TV. Does that sound selfish? Well, it is, in a sense: I think of game consoles as personal devices. (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET) I haven't made a user ID for my wife to log in as, and maybe that would help things. But she's getting inconvenienced by having to root around for the controller, and clicking on the "TV" icon, or not having the Kinect understand her voice. And sometimes she forgets to turn the Xbox One off, which is understandable -- it's one more box. And no, saying, "Xbox, turn off" isn't exactly intuitive yet to the average person, even if it's easy to do. I do love how the Xbox One seamlessly and impressively auto-identifies you and logs you into a particular profile, which could mean a "family-friendly" mode in the future for when my kid or wife uses the machine, but right now user accounts are useless to me. This isn't an Android tablet or an iCloud account. My family doesn't have different Xbox profiles, nor do they seem to care to. If I was visiting a friend, I could log in as myself, and that's great, but that doesn't do much for my home. Xbox and the man-cave: good if you're Ray Lewis Look at one of the latest Xbox One commercials, featuring smack-talking NFL legends. Ray Lewis looks like he's strapped into a heads-up display in a personal virtual bubble: TV, friends, gaming, all at his command. He's in his own media cave. How does someone else share that cave? The answer right now is you're not really meant to. The Xbox One seems best for one controller, one user, one online experience, one voice to command all its elements into place. It's personal technology spread across a big screen. (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET) After the first day: tired acceptance Eventually, I wasn't asked to disconnect the Xbox One. Inertia had won the day. But I can't keep expecting my wife to keep hunting for the Xbox controller. This experiment, for now, is just an experiment. I'll switch back, because this current set-up just doesn't make any sense. HDMI-in on the Xbox One is like that extra port on a laptop you don't need now but you could in the future. Microsoft hopes the Xbox One will add more robust DVR control, and deeper cable access, down the road. How soon, or how easy that is to enable, I have no idea. But I'm tempted to just yank the cable box out of the Xbox One until that day arrives. I still think the Xbox One is the most advanced gaming console of this new generation, but to someone trying to sneak one into a living room, ironically, its "living room-friendly" elements make it the hardest to accept. And apologies to my wife, who's the unwitting subject of this article. Believe me, she likes new ideas and new technologies...when they make life better. And I don't think she's alone.
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      • For just one week, Google is offering shoppers cre...
      • The Southeast Asian nation is serving up harsh pen...
      • The sun-grazing comet spent Thanksgiving visiting ...
      • Black Friday offers now abound across the world. E...
      • In an unusual twist that goes against its traditio...
      • In an unusual twist that goes against its traditio...
      • Somehow, the early beginning to Black Friday shopp...
      • For online shopping, smartphones are good for brow...
      • Dive into four new books that use Legos to depict ...
      • The chip giant has been working on "perceptual com...
      • A Google Glass developer with a clear vision of wh...
      • Four new books showcase some of the most important...
      • James Howells' digital currency worth hardly nothi...
      • Looking for the ultimate Black Friday deal? Pump u...
      • The deals are coming in hot and heavy, so check ba...
      • Web giant's practice of combining user data from i...
      • A Ukrainian startup launches an online service tha...
      • Judge Lucy Koh finds that plaintiffs failed to pro...
      • Another enchanting doodle from the Google factory ...
      • Towering over the Forth and Clyde canal, The Kelpi...
      • The tech giant doesn't object to the variant of th...
      • A Ukrainian startup launches an online service tha...
      • The Spanish company's new Firefox OS phone will in...
      • Indulge your inner Hobbit with the "Journey throug...
      • Google doesn't object to the variant of the open-s...
      • YouTube looks set to introduce an ad-free subscrip...
      • New reports suggest Ford's Alan Mulally and Micros...
      • What better appetizer for your Thanksgiving feast ...
      • New reports suggest Ford's Alan Mulally and Micros...
      • Why is CNET's Roger Cheng so grateful for Samsung'...
      • One of the major holiday challenges is what to giv...
      • With a shortened shopping season, many big-box ret...
      • Next spring, Fabien Cousteau, grandson of the lege...
      • The biggest shopping day of the year is gearing up...
      • Three hand-picked Android apps can help you scope ...
      • With a shortened shopping season, many big box ret...
      • One of the major holiday challenges is what to giv...
      • The 16-foot-long model is powered by four small tu...
      • Budweiser UK launches a publicity campaign around ...
      • A Seattle restaurant, the latest to ban Google Gla...
      • Spectators won't believe their eyes when you make ...
      • Many hard drives come preformatted with special ut...
      • NASA releases a short movie showing comet ISON's a...
      • Discarded holiday wrapping paper can get pretty in...
      • We took a MINI to the Col de Turini to recreate Pa...
      • An ESPN survey suggests that while women do more s...
      • The increasingly popular currency was worth about ...
      • A UK study sees a first-ever drop in sexual activi...
      • The company has created a patent-pending technolog...
      • The number of affected customers was exceedingly s...
      • Koss' budget-friendly on-ear headphone doesn't loo...
      • Batch-made plastic eyes could be much cheaper than...
      • Apple is reportedly interested in improving its ma...
      • The flash memory technology is inexpensive and ubi...
      • Several retailers have published deals exclusively...
      • The update to Nokia's popular budget smartphone ma...
      • Apple increased its orders of iPad Minis in Novemb...
      • Tablets, tablets, and more tablets, as stores slas...
      • Batch-made plastic eyes could be much cheaper than...
      • The targets' appetite for sexually explicit materi...
      • Apple has reportedly ramped up iPad Mini supply to...
      • Nokia says it's the "right tablet," touting the it...
      • An update to Nokia's popular budget smartphone mak...
      • Two new browsers have followed Firefox with suppor...
      • Muslim radicals' appetite for sexual explicit mate...
      • If Microsoft's outgoing chief executive had listen...
      • Edward Snowden's NSA leaks have caused Google, Yah...
      • Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman believes tablet-la...
      • Black versions of the Android compatible smartwatc...
      • This magnetic device lets you act like a creepy sp...
      • So what are the real deals this Black Friday? Chec...
      • Apple's tablet is, according to Microsoft, no good...
      • In-ear vs. on-ear, circumaural vs. supraaural, ope...
      • On Tuesday Google announced a new extension for Ch...
      • The NSA may have employed an old-school spy techni...
      • Fly the friendly skies with a hot-rod paper airpla...
      • The company's new C720P Chromebook, due out next m...
      • Xbox One is the loneliest number if you're trying ...
      • On today's show, we'll tell you about the battle b...
      • New Zealand design engineer Olaf Diegel has 3D-pri...
      • If you read the fine print on the Xbox One, nearly...
      • The new caching of preference settings in OS X Mav...
      • Whether you're running the kitchen on the big day ...
      • Keep your sanity in the kitchen this holiday seaso...
      • The Redmond, Wash., company's latest anti-Google a...
      • When you want to communicate a subtle sense of dre...
      • The platform is rolling out on Tuesday to those ru...
      • Boomf lets your feast on your artfully filtered In...
      • November 26, 2013 8:42 AM PST LG's Splendor is on...
      • The platform is rolling out on Tuesday to those ru...
      • San Antonio's BiblioTech, believed to be the first...
      • A leak on Twitter reveals what appears to be the t...
      • Lower prices are the main catalyst for the surge i...
    • ►  April (48)
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