Microsoft’s SmartGlass to bring phone, tablet, Xbox together
Microsoft doesn’t like the way your phone, tablet and Xbox play right now, so it’s created SmartGlass -- and it intends to bring all your devices closer.
The new feature will connect all of your devices together in an effort to enhance the way you play video games or watch programming on your Xbox.
In a demonstration Monday at E3, Microsoft showed how SmartGlass lets mobile devices work as companions to the Xbox when watching a show or movie. As an example, the company showed how a user could watch an episode of “Game of Thrones” on an Xbox and be presented with a map of the show’s world on an enabled tablet.
With video games, the example that was showed was of Madden, the NFL video game. Users can choose plays and modify them on a tablet -- seemingly in secret from their opponents -- and then run them on the Xbox.
Fortunately, Microsoft is being smart about this and not keeping SmartGlass exclusive to Windows Phone. The new feature will also work with Android and iOS devices.
Another feature will let users start watching a program on one SmartGlass-enabled device and then pick it up where they left off on another.
“With Xbox SmartGlass we’re opening new doors for producers, artists and creators to develop far more than single-screen TV experiences,” said Marc Whitten, Xbox Live executive, at the feature’s presentation.
The feature will launch this fall.
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