Microsoft's April update for Xbox One is out today, continuing the series of monthly improvements to their new console.
When the April update was announced, we learned it would mainly be focusing on issues related to notifications and Kinect functionality. After the March Xbox One update, we ran a post covering the main issues that remained with Microsoft's system. Does the new April update fix these problems? Let's take them one at a time and find out.
One of the big complaints about the March update was that the console still did not notify you when your friends sign online. This is a pretty useful feature that has been around on past consoles via Xbox Live for a while now, and it's downright strange that it wasn't included by default or added sooner. But finally, April update to the rescue--this is one of the highlight additions in the new update, and you'll finally be alerted when your friends sign into their system and come online.
The video from the post outlining the March update's issues pointed out that it would be nice to be able to choose which friends you are notified about when they come online, so you only get your favorites and not every person on your friends list. I don't think that is being added here, but it's hopefully something Microsoft will consider.
The lack of local media playback was another issue that the March update didn't address, but the April patch does not appear to be doing so either. You can't stream music or play digital copies of movies on the Xbox One, and that isn't changing. Related to media playback in general though, the update does add Blu-Ray support for those in European markets--something that's been sorely missing. It's odd that there are not more multimedia functions on the console, given that it's billed by Microsoft as the all-in-one media center.
Unfortunately, the addition of friend notifications (and at Blu-Ray support for those who didn't have it, which is at least related to media playback) is the only specific issue named in the March post that has been addressed in the April update. Microsoft did not add global inversion settings across all games, easier ways to auto-sign in, support for third-party USB storage, or all the apps you could ever want (okay, this one is a bit unfair, and they have added and improved some, such as YouTube.)
It's not as if Microsoft was going through this particular check list, though, and they made some additions that most people will appreciate (full list here), such as improving Kinect's ability to detect and track motion (by reducing false positives) and voice commands. If Microsoft keeps adding features and improvements at this rate, the Xbox One will probably be a very solid, comprehensive device a year from its launch.
