Say goodbye to the names Xbox 720, Xbox Infinity, Xbox Fusion, or even plain-old Xbox--Microsoft's next-gen console has been officially announced as the Xbox One.

In its May 21 reveal event at headquarters in Redmond, California, Microsoft has unveiled the specs, cleared up the rumors, and given gamers a taste of what's to come with the revolutionary, game- and lifestyle-changing Xbox One console.

What you need to know about hardware

There's a lot going for the Xbox One, as the technology powering the console was showcased in a demo. GameSpot reports that some of the specs include a 500GB hard drive, 8GB of RAM, a Kinect 2.0, Blu-ray drive, 64-bit architecture, Wi-FI, and a USB 3.0 port.

The features are driven to go beyond gaming, considering how health and lifestyle is also being targeted as a main entry point for consumers.

"The Xbox One is a real advancement, one that will transform the way we experience TV, games, music, movies, and more," said Brian Blau, director of Gartner Research, to The Guardian. "This is Microsoft branching out into the living room to reach more of a family audience rather than a core gaming audience."

One of the improved features that dabble in this category, reports The Guardian, is the all-new Kinect 2.0 which can also serve as a sensor to track wrist and shoulder rotations and even read users' heartbeats.

The Xbox One is scheduled to be released at the same time as the PlayStation 4, giving it an October release date for gamers to look forward to.

Connectivity: Entertainment revolutionized

What make connectivity different from Microsoft's standpoint is that you are able to do things simultaneously, thanks to the role of Windows 8 in the mix.

According to CNet, the Xbox One runs on three operating systems: the Exclusive partition that's focused on running games, the Host OS for the main system that boots the other two, and the Shared partition, which is involved in running all the apps included in the Xbox One.

The second partition allows for switching between apps with very little lag time and even use two apps at the same time with no problem. This also makes the Xbox One's interface to mimic the Windows 8, with its signature tiled look.

As for entertainment apps, you can have group chats via Skype, as well as a split screen so you can run two apps at once.

"We're designing Xbox One to be your all-in-one entertainment system that is connected to the cloud and always ready," said the official statement of Microsoft to GameSpot. "We are also designing it so you can play games and watch Blu-ray movies and live TV if you lose your connection."

One backwards compatibility and secondhand games

Backwards compatibility has been an issue back when rumors of the next-gen Xbox One console had been starting, but this time, it has been confirmed that backwards compatibility is not part of the Xbox One architecture.

"We started with a completely new architecture for this generation, and the architecture that we have with the 360, that would have been limiting to go forward with," said Todd Holmdahl, vice president for hardware, to Game Informer.

As for secondhand games, the one thing to potentially worry about for some, would be the, to date, unspecified fee.

In an interview with EuroGamer, Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison has to this to say about the fee, "You can purchase a game in two ways: from a retail store or you can download it. So the act of putting the bits on the hard drive--the Xbox One doesn't really know or care what method the bits got into the machine, if it was from a disc or downloaded from Xbox Live. But obviously users will then have to purchase that content."

For the meantime, this information was as far as Microsoft was willing to share at the time, stating that the May 21 event was reserved solely for the introduction of the console and hardware specs.

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