Backbytes: Get back in your Xbox

"Xbox. Stop bothering me!"

The idea of voice or gesture control always looks exceedingly cool in sci-fi films, but invariably turns out to be absolute rubbish in real life - as Microsoft has kindly demonstrated in its latest adverts for its Xbox games console.

The Xbox, which comes with the company's Kinect living room spyware built-in, can be triggered just by saying "Xbox on" in an incredibly smug way. Unfortunately, the latest adverts, featuring some actor called Aaron Paul, have triggered owners' own Xbox devices, turning them on and starting up Titanfall, the only game worth playing on the console, if they have it.

Naturally, Backbytes doesn't have anything to do with games consoles, which is where social media comes in:

"Aaron Paul just turned my Xbox One via the Xbox advert. (Which triggered the IR [infrared] blaster to switch my TV off..)" tweeted Qassim Farid, who calls himself a "tech blogger".

Chesterfield-based Tom Neal wrote: "@Xbox your new TV advert is annoying the hell outta me. Aaron Paul keeps turning my console on... #stooooop".

Of course, none of this would have happened if people had sensibly stuck with their Mattel Intellivisions, Philips G7000s and Binatone TV Masters.