The OS is the only reason why I can have a console in my lounge. My PS4 stays in the bedroom.
TV:
- I use smartglass, mostly on my phone to search through TV listings on my Sky box, find a program to watch and change the channel via the Kinect IR blaster.
- There are some lets say, extreme TV hogs in my household. Snapping TV is not 100% ideal, but it at least lets me say "I need to check something on the xbox quickly" and I can do it without being torn to pieces. My nephew happily watches cartoons in snap mode while I mess about on the xbox.
- Boot to TV. There were admittedly some tensions when I moved the XB1 into the front room as the concept of turning on a console and activating a "tv app" to watch TV wasn't exactly intuitive, but the new boot to TV feature eliminated that problem. All the family need to do now is turn on the xbox and everything else turns on and its ready to go.
Gaming:
- Instant resume is extremely useful when it comes to having a console in a lounge. The fact that the Xbox is on every single minute that the television is on means that getting into a game that has been suspended from days ago is a matter of just selecting the game from the recently used list and I'm straight in the game. I just got Diablo 3 and I can see the benefits of instant resume instantly.
Misc:
- Kinect log in. Automatically being logged in when you walk into the room and automatically having the home screen change depending on who presses the guide button on the controller is cool. Not major, but convenient.
- Gesture/voice control. It isn't 100% and it isn't for every use case, but when you don't have a controller near by and it works, its pretty cool. Yesterday my wife brought in dinner and we sat down. She wanted to watch friends, but there was no controller or remote around so I voice controlled the xbox from the title screen of a game, to TV, to the channel that we wanted, with nothing but a knife and fork in my hand. It felt good. When it doesn't work it hurts though
I'm not the gamer I used to be. I used to have the time to sit down in my room and play games all day. All day.
I now have a wife, full time job and a baby coming so a console interface that integrates itself into my life instead of being an isolated experience is much more appealing to me now.
I'm also a tech freak so new toys that do new things are going to excite me more than the so-called "boring" or "safe" route.