Today, Microsoft released the latest preview of the Fall update for Xbox One consoles to Insiders on the Alpha ring, bringing the build number to 16281.1000, or rs3_release_xbox_dev_1710.170831-1900. Most notably, it includes support for light and dark themes, a feature that was announced at gamescom 2017, and was added to the Xbox apps on Windows 10 a few days before.
Unfortunately, you"ll have to wait just one more day before it"s active, as you"ll have to reboot your console after 9am Pacific Time tomorrow.
Here"s the full feature list for build 16281:
Light and Dark Themes
- We are adding new themes to the dashboard. In addition to the current theme, you’ll be able to select a new light theme. Please note that this setting will not be enabled till 9.00am PDT 9/6/17 as we need all Alpha users to be on this new build. After 9.00am on 9/6 simply reboot your console to see the setting.
- Navigate to Settings > Personalization > System personalization > System theme.
- Select Light.
Notifications enhancements
- Game invites are moving from Action Center to the Multiplayer tab of Guide and Recent Achievements will now be in the Achievements tab. This makes it easy to see at a glance if you have new invites or Achievements when opening the Guide, and makes accessing those notifications faster, now that other system notifications aren’t in the way
It also contains one fix for Movies & TV:
Movies & TV and Misc Media Apps
Black screens during movie playback have been fixed as has Fast Forward.
Finally, there are a number of known issues:
Light Theme
There are some known visual contrast issues in messaging, the entertainment twist and the Mixer twist – you may see white one white. Fixes will be coming soon.Sign-in
When using Arabic or Hebrew language and signing in with a profile using the “Lock it down” security preference, the sign-in screen which requests Microsoft account e-mail address and password is distorted. This does not affect the profile if it is set to use the “Ask for my passkey” or “No barriers” security preferences.
Workaround: Set the console to use another language, sign-in, and set the profile’s security preference to “Ask for my passkey” or “No barriers”. Alternatively, you can still type in your password as normal using the virtual keyboard though the screen is distorted.Netflix
When using Hebrew language, Netflix fails to launch.Minecraft Better Together Beta
Other games fail to launch after launching the Minecraft Beta.
Workaround: This occurs if the Minecraft Beta is the first game launched after powering on the console; launch another game before Minecraft to avoid this issue. If you are stuck in this state, hard reset your console.Blu-Ray Player
3D Blu-Ray content plays in 2D.Game Hub
Game Hub isn’t accurately tracking Gamerscore and achievement unlocks for certain games.
As you can see, some of the known issues have been there for a few builds now, and some are new, such as the one that has to do with the light theme.
If you"re in the Preview Beta ring, Microsoft says that you"ll be getting this build within a few days, assuming that there are no showstopping bugs. Oddly enough, the company has already been pushing 1710 previews to the Delta ring for four days now.