One isn't just for gamers

The Xbox One is perfect for small business owners and an "entirely justifiable" business expense, Marques Lyons, Microsoft Xbox MVP and the director of Consumer Camp has claimed."What is being positioned as an excellent entertainment device can be just as enticing for you and your small business," claims Lyons in a new blog.

"The Xbox One, priced at $499, is an affordable option for small business owners, as there are many features built into the console that could help it rival even the most modest of video conferencing and networking platforms. "These features include Skype, SkyDrive, Wi-Fi Direct and Internet Explorer.

"One will allow people to not only use Skype on the console, but it will allow for multi-person chatting. Combine this with the wide-angle lens and 1080p view of the included Kinect and you have the means for collaborative meetings and presentations," explains Lyons.

He added: "Currently, on the Xbox 360, you have access to SkyDrive via the Internet Explorer web browser and the dedicated SkyDrive app. SkyDrive has become one of the leading cloud services for storing documents and having them available anywhere you need them. For the real time Location system, SkyDrive, snapped with Skype (for example) can make accessing documents for presentation and discussion easy.

"The SkyDrive app can let you easily access both photos and videos for viewing. If you're hosting a meeting at your office, don't worry about attaching a PC to the TV or using a projector. Store your videos in SkyDrive and then use the app to open that video. Do you have photos from recent travels or images showing details and diagrams? Open them with SkyDrive, navigate them with Kinect voice or hand gestures, be free from tethering that PC around.

"With SkyDrive via Internet Explorer, you can use it with the Office Web Apps to open that Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint. Use the Kinect voice and hand gestures to navigate to websites. Now you're free of clickers and light pens to use your hands to for more expressive gestures."

But it's Wi-Fi Direct, a new wireless technology that allows devices to connect to one another without the need for a wireless access point, which really gets Lyons excited."I'm currently in awe of Wi-Fi Direct and it's possibilities," says Lyons. "For consumers, I put forth the idea, that Wi-Fi Direct, plus SmartGlass, would mean being able to beam live TV to any SmartGlass enabled device. For you -- as the small business owner -- you could imagine having a SmartGlass enabled device and beaming in the other direction: Send your presentation to the TV, use Smartglass to navigate through the PowerPoint presentation, use your tablet to control Internet Explorer. "

With access to the Office Web Apps via Internet Explorer, Lyons says small business men could use the Xbox One as a PC replacement."Because Internet Explorer has access to the Office Web Apps, pair that with a Wi-Fi keyboard and mouse and you have the means to edit documents, when necessary, even if you aren't near your PC.," he explained.

For many years, TV was the leaky life raft for movie stars and directors to avail themselves of when the bloated Titanic of their film careers collided with the iceberg of audience indifference. These days, it's looking more like an escape in the best sense as the film industry, high on the pricey steroids of superhero blockbusters, has grown inhospitable to everything from character actors to character-based dramas. The latest casualty of Hollywood's comic-book obsession? Comic books themselves. This week it was announced that Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's literate adventure series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen — featuring the exploits of Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Mina "Dracula's chewtoy" Harker, Dr. Jekyll, and the Invisible Man in a steampunk vision of Victorian London — was being developed by Fox as a put pilot. This is promising news for two reasons.

One, The League deserved better than the tepid Sean Connery movie that sent its star into early retirement back in 2003; when placed in the right hands, the material is rich enough to support an ongoing series. And two, Fox's move is a welcome and overdue sign that a thinkier tier of comic properties, gobbled up in the wake of Spider-Man's success, might finally fall out of the hands of uninterested, rights-hoarding film studios and into the more creative arms of television networks where they belong.

Grant Morrison's brain, even while sleeping, could power the Hadron Collider. His comic books, whether original creations like Seaguy and The Invisibles or franchise work on X-Men and Batman, are so packed with ideas it's a wonder there's any room for thought balloons. This makes an adaptation particularly tricky — unlike most comic writers, he's not auditioning for movies in his scripts, he's trying to make movies look small in comparison. But I think there's potential in this overlooked three-issue collaboration with ace artist Philip Bond. It's the story of Ali, a mild-mannered Pakistani twentysomething living in a tidy corner of the U.K. where he helps his father run a chain of corner stores. But all naraka breaks loose when, on the day Ali is to meet his arranged bride, a strange crate of Turkish delights opens a portal to a Day-Glo multiverse and all the deities and wonders of Islamic and Hindu myth come pouring out.

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