Technology In The Home – Integration And Innovation

Our homes, much like our phones, are becoming smarter. In the way they save heat, electricity water and the money in our pockets. But they’re also becoming smarter in the way they entertain us. This month, Microsoft waded further into the development of the ultimate in home entertainment system with the unveiling of their latest gaming system, Xbox One. Eight years on since its predecessor, the Xbox 360, Xbox One proves how far the gaming industry has come in less than a decade. It also shows how the traditional market of the singular teenager alone in his room discovering imaginary worlds and challenging mythical foes, has changed to become a family and home orientated entertainment system. This was galvanized in the very opening showcase, as the multitude of Microsoft employees kept hammering home the point that ‘the living room’ would never be same again. 

So what’s the big deal then? Well it’s the fact that the Xbox One does it all that has really impressed potential buyers. It’s a console deigned for the ‘new generation’ of users who are so used to instant access to all their entertainment. In the world according to Microsoft, getting up to fumble around with the remote and switching inputs for you gaming console, DVD player and television is archaic as having to use a landline. With the Xbox one you can instantly flip between the three with the use of voice commands.

While Xbox One is very impressive, it’s also immensely large. The amount of things you can do on Xbox One is huge. Essentially what Microsoft is trying to get you to do is throw away all your other traditional technology and get you to consume the same content through Xbox One. You can access the internet, apps, Skype and your music collection. You won’t even use your T.V to watch T.V anymore, you’ll be watching through Xbox one. What’s more, you’ll also be able to use video streaming applications such as Netflix through the console. There’ll probably be some gaming in there somewhere, but you’ll have to wade through the immense amount of other features on Xbox One to get to it.

Gamers will bawl at the fact that there is no backwards capability for them to play their old Xbox 360 games and there has also been some issue with the fact that pre owned games are likely to come under great pressure as Xbox One limits the amount of consoles a singular game can be played on. This however, is a simple taste of the future of home entertainment. An all-in-one system run by voice control and face recognition technology, constantly connected to the cloud and running a multitude of different contents from different platforms.

The wireless trend is set to continue throughout the home as more and more technology becomes more reliable and easily affordable. The advent of digital showers is another one to keep an eye on for the future. Those after convenience and a very modern bathroom experience, can now wirelessly set the temperature and pressure of the shower or depth of your bath via a smartphone or tablet. So that as soon as you walk in the door or get out of bed, it’s ready and waiting for you.

Consumers are done with one size fits all technology. We now have the ability to tailor our technology to each of our individual needs. Whether it’s choosing between the content we want to see or don’t want to see on our home entertainment system or by choosing to point five of a degree the temperature of our shower. Our homes are getting smarter, are become more adapted to our busy lifestyles and technology is becoming less and less in your, and instead are quietly integrating seamlessly into our lifestyles.