Xbox Live Game Pass on iOS is…amazing!!

Xbox Game Pass on iOS and macOS is Amazing

Recently, Microsoft made their Xbox Game Pass subscription accessible on iOS and macOS. Admittedly, this wasn’t via a dedicated app, as that’s not how Microsoft wanted to play. Instead, when using your iOS or macOS device, you need to navigate to a dedicated webpage to stream the game you want to play. 

When I read this, I was hesitant, and it’s taken me several months to decide this was something I wanted to try out. I was hesitant because:

• it’s another expense that I could, probably, do without when I’ve got so many other games, on other platforms, still to play

• How can the quality be any good if the content is streamed? Surely there would be lag, and the experience would be unplayable?

Well, last week, I signed up. 

Wow. 

I wish I’d tried it sooner. 

Let me walk you through my experience. 

iOS Streaming

Let me lay a bit of context here. So this is the hardware currently in use to support this feature

• iPhone 13 Pro Max

• Raser Kishi for iPhone Controller

• Fibre is a Virgin Media connection coming in at 350Mbps on average

The last part about the fibre connection is vital because there is a lot of data coming down. Of course, internally, it’s essential to ensure you have a strong Wi-fi connection from your phone to the router/modem itself as you can still drop packets there. If your connection is poor, this may not be for you. 

The controller is essential as well, and there are several options out there. However, I love the Kishi and have used this one for around six months now. It’s straightforward to attach to the phone, with a clasp at the back that you click to extend the phone. There is a Lightning port in the case, so you can charge your phone as you play, and it’s incredibly comfortable, allowing for long sessions of play

Once in, you need to navigate to https://xbox.com/play and log in with your Xbox account credentials. 

Follow the instructions, tap the Share icon and add the Xbox Cloud Gaming service as an icon to your Home Screen.

Once done, you can tap to open the list of games available to stream, and away you go. 

Now I will say that the experience on the iPhone, whilst amazing for the size of the device, is the weakest of the platforms I’ve played it on - namely because of - the size of the device! When playing Forza Horizon 5, the response times were great; I had no issue with a lag; however, when you’re used to playing games like Forza on the big screen, it can’t help but feel condensed. That said, games like What Remains of Edith Finchplay superbly on the smaller form factor, and I’m sure that if I were to spend time going through the catalogue, I’d find more examples of titles that almost look as if they were made for the iPhone screen. 

iPadOS

Onto iPad now, the main difference here comes in the controller that I used. Now I had one of the original Steel Series Nimbus controllers that I purchased back when gaming on the Apple TV was introduced (RIP to that - at least in my eyes. We hardly knew yow). Sadly, the experience was less than optimal. There seemed to be a delay when pressing the A button, as an example. When playing Marvel Avengers (I know it’s been criticised, but I enjoy it), you can’t push down on the left analogue stick to Sprint because it’s not recognised - all in all, not great. 

So I purchased the official Xbox One Wireless Controller and connected that up. All other issues were resolved. 

The iPad I have is the 2018 3rd Gen 12.9 Pro, so not the latest or greatest as I essentially use it as a media consumption device. 

And now game streamer. Because the quality is fantastic, I have Marvel Avengers installed locally on the Xbox One in my utility room, and when I have my morning coffee, I will sit there for half an hour and play as I wake up. The load times can be annoying, whereas one advantage of streaming is within almost 5 seconds of me tapping the game button, I’m smashing people up as Hulk, and that feels good sometimes. 

MacOS

Finally, onto MacOS, and this is where, naturally, the best experience is. So I’ve got one of the new M1 Pro devices, and it’s hooked up to a couple of 28-inch 4K monitors in my office. Once I’ve mapped the Xbox Controller to it, it’s pretty much the same process as iOS; you don’t need to create any shortcut. Just go to https://xbox.com/play - and go to town. 

I don’t need to say much more. It works amazingly.

I tried it with a Windows 10 VM, using Parallels as well, and the experience was excellent - added to by the fact there are more games available on Game Pass for the PC than elsewhere. Titles like Age Of Empires, Fallout 1 and 2 and more mean it’s just another outlet I’ve got if I need it. 

I know my site generally focuses on Productivity, so you may be wondering why I’m writing about the above? Well - we all need downtime. We all need to do the things that bring us joy without feeling guilt, at not working on something that brings in an income. Gaming has, forever, been my outlet and where I go to switch off. There are times when I’m in a repetitive race on Forza where my brain drifts off, and I find myself having some of my best ideas. 

Game Pass iOS/iPadOS and MacOS is, in my eyes, a triumph, and I’m so surprised to find myself saying that.

Use Your iPhone Keyboard Like a Boss

For all iPhone users, the keyboard is the piece of functionality that gets the most use - I don’t think that can be disputed. No matter the application, there is a good chance you are going to use the keyboard so it makes sense for you to make this as easy as possible. There are lots of tips and tricks to maximise your efficiency with it - some are well known, others not so. 

Here are a few of my favourites. Certainly not a comprehensive list of everything you can do but I play with these bits the most. 

Settings

If you go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard there are lots of options here to play with. 

You can enable/disable Auto-Capitalisation for words, Auto-Correct and the checking of spelling as you type.

Enable Caps Lock is a solid option. If you tap twice on the shift key then this enables Caps Lock - until such time as you tap it again. 

Other notable settings here include turning off Predictive Text, turning off the Character Preview which is the enlarged image of the key that shows when you tap it. Also, the ”.” Shortcut allows you to double-tap the space bar to insert a full stop/period, followed directly by a space. 

Text Replacement

If you are familiar with tools like TextExpander then you know all about Text Replacement. You can use short snippets of text and expand them to form longer sentences/characters. Very useful if you have strings of emoji characters that you use often. Simply type in the shortcut and the longer phrase will be offered as an option in the Quick Type window.

Shake to Undo, Swipe to Undo (three fingers)

The faster you type, the easier it is to make a mistake. No problem, simply shake your iPhone to bring up the Undo popup or swipe across on the screen with three fingers to the left to Undo - or the right for a nifty little redo option

Double or Triple Tap to Select

Need to select some text for formatting or copying? Double-tap to select a single word, or triple-tap to select the entire paragraph

Added bonus - did you know that once you have highlighted your text, you can pinch with three fingers to copy the text and then pinch once more to cut? I think I found this by accident using an iPad. Useful. 

Turn into Trackpad

If you keep your finger on the spacebar, you can convert your keyboard into a trackpad, allowing precision placement of the cursor. 

If you use a second finger to tap whilst moving the cursor in this fashion, you can select text easily as well. 

Tap and Hold a Letter for more options

Most keys on the keyboard have more than one option. Long press on a character key to look at various accented characters or different punctuation marks.

Lookup Dictionary Definitions

Did you know that you can look up the definitions of words you have typed without the need to shift to another application? Simply select the text - then choose Look Up from the pop-up menu and you’ll be presented with the definition.

Left/Right Handed Keyboard

Finally, if you struggle to use the keyboard with one hand, you can actually move the keyboard to either the left, or the right hand side of the screen. 

Long press on the emoji icon in the bottom left hand corner and position the keyboard on either the left or right of the screen as needed. Or put it back in the centre if you find the resulting keyboard too small.

Multitasking on iPadOS 15 - A Winner

Ever since the concept of multitasking was introduced on the iPad, I’ve never been a big fan. It just seemed so - I don’t know - fiddly. Lots of swipes and gestures to remember, being someone that comes almost exclusively from a laptop/desktop background, the effort of learning all of these new ways of working seemed a little much - especially with the restrictions (at least then) that working on the iPad provided. 

I think iPadOS 15 though takes multitasking to a different level. It doesn’t, necessarily, change what you can do (although there is a killer new feature that I’ll touch on shortly), moreover it makes the existing features more accessible, minimizing the need to think about how to work on multiple apps at once. 

Multitasking Menu

Split View and Slide Over were introduced six years ago now - something that really surprised me when I checked this out. That’s a long time for a feature that I rarely if ever use. And that’s on me, it’s in no way a criticism - as mentioned earlier, I’m desktop-centric as opposed to looking to use my iPad for much more than fun and larks. 

The multitasking menu, accessible from any iPad application via the three dots into the top centre of the window, makes it easier to access those features. When you tap/click it, there are three options presented to you. From left to right we have:

Full Screen - move the application into Full-Screen mode. 

Split View - this places the application into Split View - or at least starts t. It will move itself to the far side of the screen, just enough for you to see it poking out from the bezel where it will ask you to select another app to split the screen with. Once you have selected one, both apps will be side by side in Split View

Slide Over - Slide Over is my favourite of these views and the one I have started to use most often as I try to kick-start my iPadOS lifestyle. You’re not restricted to having just one app in Slide Over accessible at any one time. Just slide up from the bottom of the slide over window and choose from the list of slide over apps you’ve selected. It’s great

The Shelf

Whilst other third-party applications have provided shelf functionality to iPadOS for the last couple of years, we now have it baked into the main operating system itself and it works very well. Whenever you tap on the multitasking menu, if there are multiple windows available within the app, they will be shown at the bottom of the screen and you can tap to select the one you want - or even create a new window by tapping on the plus button to the far right.

I was surprised at how natural using these features felt when I first used them. It didn’t feel like I needed to commit anything to memory that I would consciously, have to try and find later - the muscle memory was instinctive and now I see those three multitasking menu dots in the same vein as I see the traffic lights in the top left-hand corner of a macOS window. It’s just - easy.

And that works as a summary for both iOS and iPadOS 15. They do not share any ground-breaking features, nothing that is going to make you want to rush and get them downloaded. However, what they offer, is good consolidation and in my eyes, that makes it a very strong release.