With Microsoft’s E3 Media Briefing coming on Monday June 4 at 10am PDT, more and more news are starting to trickle out about what Microsoft will announce for it’s living room entertainment products and services – the Xbox, Xbox LIVE, and Kinect. The latest rumor involves the company set to unveil a cross-platform app named “Xbox Smart Glass” that allow users to control and stream media content to their Xbox 360 via their handheld devices. Below is a summary of what Examiner.com and Engadget revealed:
- The Xbox Smart Glass companion app ill allow users to control their Xbox 360 remotely.
- The app will be available cross platform on multiple operating systems including Windows, Windows Phone, Android and iOS.
- Users will be able to play video and other media on tablets and phones and, more interestingly, push that content right to their consoles for playback on the big screen
- Applications (such as YouTube/Netflix/Vimeo) will be accessible through the tablet.
This sounds very much like an AirPlay-equivalent for the Xbox 360. Remember Microsoft has already released the Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone, Windows 8 and iOS, so we believe this may be an extension to that app. However, the ability to stream videos across different devices, as well as interact with applications, makes this app especially interesting.
It’ll be interesting to see what this “Xbox Smart Glass” app will look like at E3, along with the other rumors such as a new “Woodstock” music service, and Internet Explorer for Xbox. Next week will surely be an interesting week.