The Glade 4.0

"Xbox Smart Glass truly turns any TV into a smart TV."

Looks very impressive. Thoughts?

I've seen articles about this. Microsoft is really pushing the Xbox value add stuff right now. Windows 8 will bring even more integration between your mobile device(s), PC/Laptop, and your living room console.

It's going to be interesting to see how it does.

I'm expecting some new windows phones to come out shortly after the Win 8 launch. I'm really looking forward to giving one a try. If this stuff works well, and can get some traction from app developers, it's going to be a game changer.

Edit:
Here is a link to a short article on Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/04/micr ... lay-esque/

They (MS) is also adding a bunch of new content/services to XBL as well.

Pretty neat but seems a bit too gimmicky to me, I'd imagine this is a trial of some feature they are looking to put in their next gen console. Or then again it could be like everything else MS does, cool concept, no support, fanfair or marketing push.

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Being able to push content from Win 8 and any smart phone to your TV is pretty big. MS has pretty much taken away the reason anyone might have both an xbox and an apple TV in their room. They've also probably just put a dent in the Wii U's brand new armor.

You've been able to pull content from your PC to your TV via an Xbox since Windows Media Center was introduced in some XP packages 5 or 6 years ago. But as I said since MS does such a shitty job of supporting otherwise cool features no one really knew about it.

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Smart Glass is a lot more than being able to play videos off a PC on your network. Browsing on the big screen using the phone seems like a cool feature to me. Being able to surf the net with a real, decent browser seems like a cool feature to me. Being able to see maps and stuff on my phone or tablet while I'm playing seems to be a cool feature to me. Etc etc etc.

Microsoft has found a way to turn any smart device into a Wii U controller. That's big.

Edit - what I appreciate most about Smart Glass is that Microsoft is finding a way to extend the products that I already have. That's awesome.

To me, what will truly make or break this is games/videos/etc pushing content to the phone, not vice versa. Pushing my phone display onto a 51" screen is not very appealing. Having games/videos push unique content to my mobile device sounds intriguing but will significantly add to media development time which is why Blu-Ray features seem to have fallen off so radically.

I am also very interested to see the possibilities of developers using the functionality to turn your phone/tablet into a custom controller that is specific to the game you are playing; or better yet the possibility to map your own custom controller on the mobile device.



I am going to go on the record and say Wii U is going to be a bust because it will either be so candyland or ticky-tack that it won't catch on without an extremely attractive price.

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Word is, it's gonna be priced $300-350. When you already have a 360 and a smartphone/tablet, I don't see the draw of the Wii U any longer. Not that I ever saw it in the first place, mind you.

Big announcements from e3 from Nintendo: you can use two controllers! NEW super mario bros 2! paper mario! luigi's mansion 2! lego game! Mass Effect 3! Wtf is this ****. GTFO Nintendo.

My understanding is that Wii U isn't going to have Blu-Ray or DVD support either because they don't want to add the license fees to the already high cost.

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