You Can Soon Switch On Your Xbox One With Your Smartphone

Another month, another Xbox One system software update. Contrasting Sony's latest update for the PlayStation 4, Microsoft's brings a slew of new functionalities to its big black box. It will be available in May for those taking part in Microsoft's preview program and should be out for the general public soon after.

One of the major additions is the ability to switch on and off your Xbox One via the Smartglass app via Windows Phone and Android devices. To do this you'll need the updated Xbox One SmartGlass Beta app from the Windows Phone Store or from Google Play.

"The beta versions of the Xbox One SmartGlass apps for Windows, Windows Phone and Android will be updated to let you turn your Xbox One on and off. (Your device does need to be on the same home network as your console.) This feature request has more than 4,000 votes on the Xbox Feedback site," said Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Director of Programming for Xbox Live in a post on the official Xbox Wire website.

Also in the preview program will be Miracast support for video and photo streaming to the Xbox One from Windows PCs like the Surface 2, Surface 3, or Surface 3 Pro, Lenovo X1 Carbon, Dell Venue 8, Windows Phone 8, and some Android devices that support non-protected Miracast connections. These include the popular Nexus 7 tablet and the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Furthermore, Windows 10 users get Game DVR support via the Windows 10 Xbox App. It will be in preview along with a whole host social additions such as user profiles, real name sharing and avatars.

For a full list of what May's Xbox One update brings, check out Xbox Wire.