The Preview for Windows 8.1 is available to those that want it.

A caveat, though:

Are there risks to installing Windows 8.1 Preview?

Yes. Windows 8.1 Preview and Windows RT 8.1 Preview are stable and have been thoroughly tested, but aren’t the finished product. Your PC could crash and you could lose important files. You should back up your data and you shouldn’t test the preview on your primary home or business PC. You might also encounter problems like:

• Software that doesn’t install or work correctly, including antivirus or security programs.

• Printers, video cards, or other hardware that doesn’t work.

• Difficulty accessing corporate or home networks.

• Damage to some of your files.

You should carefully balance the risks and rewards of trying out the preview before you install it.

With all the recent criticism from many, many gamers, Microsoft has done a 180 with the new Xbox One in regards to the always on internet connection and their used games stance. Now, after a one time set up online, when using physical disc media you will no longer be required to check in at least every 24 hours. Second – you can loan, trade, resell, give away your games as you want. No more restrictions there.

Did this make me reconsider an Xbox One purchase? It took me from a “probably not” to a “I’ll definitely consider it”. My last concern – Kinect. As an owner of the original Kinect, I can say that it’s a hell of a great device. Or, it was. For the first month I used it extensively. After that, it’s use waned and eventually gathered so much dust I am unsure if it even still works. You can’t deny that it’s a great accessory to the Xbox. But, I just don’t use it. I probably won’t use it on the Xbox One, either. I won’t be talking to my Xbox (unless it responds in a Jarvis-esque voice, ala Iron Man), I’ll continue to use the controller.

This is a GREAT move for Microsoft. They saw the huge backlash of their customer, they saw the reaction to the competition, and the moved. They admitted their mistake and corrected it.

The last thing I hear people bringing up – price. If Microsoft could hit the $400 price tag, that’d be great. But, it won’t be the deciding factor for me. $500 is a lot of money, but the Xbox One is a lot of machine. As far as media capabilities go, it could replace my HTPC. I am still waiting to hear if it supports various HD codec’s.

So, my PS4 preorder may get moved to something else. Thank you Microsoft for listening to your customers on this one. You made at least one Xbox fan very happy today!

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

Now, in a contradiction to the story yesterday which said that Xbox Support said that an Xbox Live ban removed access to your downloaded games, Major Nelson has said there is nothing to worry about. Although… As these are tied to your Xbox Live account, you do give up multiplayer access. Your account is banned, and your games are tied to your account. You can’t just set up a new account and pop in the DVD and play multiplayer again. So, I still hope they can offer some kind of retraction when it comes to bans that were not intended (rare, but it’s happened).

Major Nelson is usually the end-all when it comes to rumors. If he says it, it’s true.

Major Nelson, in a Reddit video interview, contradicted Xbox Support, stating, "Absolutely not, you will always have access to the games you purchase. Absolutely not." According to him, you only have to worry about losing multiplayer features through an Xbox Live ban.

And my response, courtesy of Penn & Teller – BULLSHIT!

I may be passing on Microsoft’s console now, for other reasons, but this has to be the biggest FUD ever. There have been some rumors and some information that Microsoft themselves had confirmed, but others like this are complete BS.

Due to the way Microsoft has handled the Xbox One console policies, games can not be activated if you live in an unsupported region. This also appears to be true within the US where only certain states will be able to enjoy the Xbox One at launch. We spoke with a Microsoft representative about this decision.

I’ve heard people get banned from Xbox Live for many reasons. Some are deserved, while others were either very minor or not a legitimate reason. But, to ban a user and remove access to all the games that he/she had tied to their account? Bad move. One in many that Microsoft has made lately. Alienating your users, even those that deserve a ban?

Not cool. I have never been banned, nor do I want to, but this a bit overboard. Terms of Use? Is there a limit to how much the Terms of Use can really apply? Forfeit all the licenses if you are banned? Of course, with the always online requirement, this is easily obtainable. 

Microsoft has some good ideas for consoles, but the recent announcements concerning their stance with the Xbox One has me wondering if those ideas ran out. The big one – Used games. They claim that the digital distribution is better and that restricting used games will drive prices down. I’ll admit it worked good on the PC and that consoles are getting closer to the PC than ever before. But – Consoles ARE NOT PC’s.

Old gamers remember taking their NES to their friends house for a sleep over because they only had a Sega Master System (I was the one with the Sega). If they both had an NES, they’d bring a pile of games for the night. Now, with Microsoft’s new strategy, it makes it difficult to bring my console over, as I must bring the Kinect and make sure it’s working, and if it’s longer than 24 hours I need to make sure they have a good, solid internet connection available. If they have a console, I can’t bring my games over to play but I can loan them to them (make sure to do it a few days ahead of time so they have time to download), one at a time. Now, that is old school thinking. I doubt that it happens very often anymore. Except, I still see kids taking games to other peoples houses when they have a sleep over, so it’s not too rare.

Then, you have those kids that mow lawns to be able to afford some cool games. Definitely not enough to buy a few games at full retail price. My kids like taking a $20 bill to Game Stop and buying a couple, maybe 3, used games and coming home and playing them. So do I. I will buy new games, as well, especially if they are some great ones. But, for some (Duke Nukem Forever is a great example), I would NEVER buy new unless they hit the bargain bin at $5, which I seriously doubt a new game would hit that price. Take the used games market away, and that really limits how many games I will buy. That is a big part of the decision when buying a console. I finally bit the bullet and own a Playstation 3 now. There is a large game library that I can go out and pick up fairly cheap. If games were $20 for the older ones and $50-60 for the newer ones with no used game market, I would skip the console all together. But, the used game market pulled me in. They sold the console, a few accessories and several new games (Last of Us comes tonight!).

Finally, the always online requirement. I am always online anyway. But, I do know that sometimes things happen, and they have. Sometimes, the internet is down for more than a day. Sometimes, the Xbox servers have issues and are down. I expect my console to work. When it doesn’t, and it becomes a paper weight. A $500 paper weight. No thank you.

Microsoft – as much as a fan I am, I will not be buying an Xbox One. I wasn’t going to buy a Playstation 4. I was going to continue being a fan boy and support you. But, you pushed me away, and you sold me on the competition. Now, I have a PS4 pre-ordered. It’s about the games. You took those away. I don’t care about TV. I have TV. Sorry, Microsoft. You lost a sale. You want to educate people, fine. But, I’m going to play games while you do that. And judging from various forums, Reddit, Facebook and elsewhere, I’m not alone. We want to play games. We’ll play games online. But, when we unplug the cable – we’ll still play games.

I’m hoping (yet definitely not expecting anything) that Microsoft will make an announcement this summer to backtrack on a few things – Kinect requirement (I don’t want one, drop the price $100 and get rid of it), online requirement, used games restriction. Fix those, and you’ll have a lot more sales. Even with the price higher than the competition, it would be alright. But, a tightly controlled ecosystem at a higher price? You’re not Apple. These aren’t iPads. These are consoles. You can’t be the game changer here.

There is a limit to how far people will go (even us fan boys) to buy the name “Xbox”. I can’t go that far. 

The new features for Windows 8.1 are a nice gesture, but some of the opinions I’m seeing online, some very heated, are saying that’s not enough. I am sure there are still those that want a Windows 95-7 style Start Menu to return, but that will not happen without third party tools. Program Manager (the desktop UI from Windows 3/NT) will not be returning, either, no matter how much people want it to.

I can admit that the new Modern UI interface takes some getting used to, and has some issues (I can name quite a few, depending on the platform). Microsoft is doing their best to improve the interface and make it easier for people with problems. Love it or hate it, Modern UI is sticking around. At least there are some notable changes with Windows 8.1, but will they be enough to sway those that detest Windows 8 and the new interface?

What’s different with Windows 8.1? The Verge has a nice write up on some of the changes. Some of the major ones that I know I’ll like – improved lock screen (picture frame style image rotation, similar to iPad), updated Live Tiles, Start button (not a Start Menu, just the visual cue to take you to the Start Screen), more personalization on the Start Screen…. A good bit of changes, and they are very welcome by me.

Microsoft is also borrowing some more ideas from Windows Phone 8, introducing new large and small Live Tiles — the animated app icons that appear on the Start Screen — in Windows 8.1. On the Weather Tile you can now see the weather in three different cities and three days of forecasts displayed at the same time. For apps like Calendar, it will display your entire calendar for the day, and third-party apps like Twitter will be able to display additional information. "You still get notifications, you still get posts, you still get counts on them, but they take up one-quarter of the space of the tiles we had with Windows 8," explains Jensen Harris, a director of the Windows User Experience Team at Microsoft. Desktop apps will also use colorful tiles by default, and developers will have the option to create richer versions.

Microsoft has started to implement the Lync and Skype integration. For those that use Lync at their offices, this is a great addition. This makes me want to install Lync on my home server (Server 2012) to try this out. I may need to upgrade my server to support more of these cool things Microsoft is releasing!

As of today, according to Microsoft, users of the two services can now:

• Add Skype contacts to Lync and vice-versa, enabling presence sharing
• Initiate audio calling and instant messaging between Lync and Skype

Microsoft takes a jab at Siri in it’s new Windows 8 tablet advertisement. Honestly, I couldn’t agree more. The points they are making are very valid. Windows 8 tablets are great to get work done, whereas the iPad is great at other things (consuming media, light gaming).

After many rumors, speculations, guesses and conspiracy theories, the Xbox One has finally been announced and some features have been thrown at the gamer. What really sticks out to me? The console itself looks very elegant and more like a piece of AV equipment that will fit right in with the rest of my equipment. It doesn’t have the toy look and feel to it like previous consoles have. Second? The new Kinect sensor is quite a bit better all around, and looks like it will play a big part in not only the games, but other features of the Xbox One experience. Third, the controller has been improved over the already great Xbox 360 controller.  Lastly – Blu-ray. This is important in pushing the Xbox One into a real living room device giving it more duties as part of a good AV system.

The games were a small part of the presentation, with not a whole lot of game play shown. The detail was great, and the graphics were improved. But, what really got me was how smooth everything was. The frame rate was high, the animations were very fluid and very detailed and lifelike. Just a great demo for those.

Microsoft has released a FAQ answering a few questions (used games, always online, etc.) to help with some of the rumors. In a few weeks, they will follow up at E3 with more details and more information on the console. Still no word on price, but for a gaming machine with Kinect sensor and a seemingly full featured HTPC? If it’s over $399 at launch, I’ll pass for about a year.

What are your opinions on the new console? Will it compete well with the Sony Playstation 4? Still a lot of information out there, so go check out the Xbox.com site for more details.

Forza 5 demo (not gameplay, unfortunately). Details in the cars are amazing. Still, without actual gameplay footage, I’m going to wait to judge.