The Xbox One summer update will bring Cortana, Facebook Friend Finder and easy clip sharing

The Xbox One summer update has a string of features that will make the Xbox One look and feel more like a Windows HTPC. The major update in the pipeline is Cortana. Currently, Xbox Kinect users can give rudimentary voice commands to the console. The update will bring in a more fully-featured Cortana implementation, which will allow for more granular voice controls for the console. Users can give voice commands over a regular headset or a microphone, the Kinect is not mandatory. This update is big because it gives voice input, and a newer, more functional version of voice input, for users who had never factored in voice input as a part of their usage scenario. The voice commands supported by Cortana on the Xbox will not be the same as the voice commands supported on a Windows 10 machine, because of the changes in hardware. Cortana can be used to start new games, check out the activities of friends, start a new party and find new friends. The Cortana update is coming to users with the invite only Preview program in US, UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. [caption id=“attachment_319020” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  The redesigned storefront[/caption] Another big update is the addition of Facebook Friend Finder to Xbox. This allows for a better integration between Xbox Live and Facebook Friend Finder. Finding and installing new games got easier, with a more streamlined interface. There is a list of “ready to install” games now, a tab you can open to quickly install and play games. There is also more contextual information displayed for titles in your queue. There is also an easier way to share clips and photos from the console itself. It is also possible to share to twitter from the Xbox application. Another update is a convergence of the Xbox Live store and the Windows Store. Looks like the experiences on both Windows 10 and Xbox are going to get increasingly similar from now on.