The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are more than game systems. PS4 owners are enjoying uploading game footage to Twitch. While Xbox One owners will not have this feature for a while. Microsoft has teamed up with Verizon to give it a media trump card that no other set top box can claim. Xbox One owner can do some TV-watching via a cable box and the HDMI-in. However, if you have Verizon FiOS TV, you don’t even need the cable box. FiOS has updated it’s TV app that was on the Xbox 360 for the Xbox One. The update brings with it 74 live channels streamed over the internet.
This is just the first in what gamers hope will be a long wave of entertainment apps for the Xbox One. Verizon Fios app becomes the first TV provider to stream live TV directly to without the use of a cable box. The Xbox One passthrough works very well already add in FiOS, Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN Watch or any of the grown number of media apps gives you a system that can not be matched at the moment. The Fios app as well as the others are all compatible with Kinect support for voice and gesture controls.
As a cool bonus, if your you have your FiOS cable box plugged into the Xbox One, you can do picture-alongside-picture with the snap feature. Now this is not all good news and I would not get rid of that cable box just yet. For one you do not have access to video on-demand or DVR recordings. You only get live TV. The app is live right now the Xbox One store. This is just more reason to jump on the Team Xbox One bandwagon.