Xbox One

When you play online games on Xbox One, you’re included in an Xbox Live party. Woot! But you don’t need to hang off any chandeliers or blackout to have a blast. You don’t even need to leave your house.

Hulu Plus for Xbox One features larger, richer images, easier ways to find your favorite content, and new dedicated pages for Hulu Originals, Hulu Latino, Hulu Kids and video game trailers. You can also watch Hulu Plus and play games simultaneously, either by snapping Hulu Plus to one side of the screen or switching back and forth. See the video.

12:01 a.m. is a magic time Friday, when Xbox One is available with more than 10,000 retail locations in 13 countries opening their doors. But you can start the celebration before then by participating in virtual or real launch events around the world, writes Major Nelson on his blog.

One of the first places in the world where Xbox One became available was in New Zealand, and at a special midnight event Friday at Auckland’s Shed 10, hundreds of fans celebrated the arrival of the console amid rock music and an Xbox green beacon in Auckland.

It couldn’t get any easier to find a movie using the new Redbox Instant by Verizon app for Xbox One: just use your voice to search for movies, and wave your hand to control the content, writes Brad Bowers, senior product manager, Redbox Instant by Verizon, on Xbox Wire.