Smart Glass

Last year I believe, Microsoft announced what at the time seemed to be a nifty little app for the Xbox called Smart Glass. The reasoning behind it was that a user could install the app on both their Xbox and Smartphone/tablet, and then control their Xbox with the latter device. A good and interesting idea in theory, so far in Europe at least, it's execution has left me really wondering: why bother?

Useful

They key benefits it seemed were that it gave you access to a keyboard, a useful feature should one employ it regularly (I tend to play games on my Xbox) gave you access to extra content when watching certain Xbox films or playing games, or act as a touch screen controller. The first two to me are limited as I tend not to watch films on my Xbox and the games that take advantage of this device are so far few and far between. Those that do, ie Halo, are limited. They keyboard is good on occasion but considering Smart Glass takes a while to start running on my phone, I've usually done any typing I need beforehand.

The controller aspect could prove useful on some games that don't require too many buttons, though I've yet to test it. Manipulating the dashboard with it is fun but not really a necessity.

The only app that I have found it useful for is Internet Explorer on the Xbox, which until recently, I never used. Yesterday I decided to see how intuitive it was, in order to watch videos on a bigger screen without having to connect my PC to the screen/xbox. It worked rather well, but what made it all the more exciting was that Xbox allowed me to use my phone. This is a major benefit considering the controller is rather slow and cumbersome to use on a webpage, and doesn't give the user the ability to manipulate a whole lot. Either that or I hadn't worked out the buttons. Smart Glass on the other hand offers a much more intuitive user experience that takes full advantage of having touch screen controls. In some ways it even breathed new life into my Xbox experience and showed me a whole host of other possibilities.

Whilst the app is certainly not revolutionary, it has a lot of potential to make the Xbox experience that much better and give users a whole lot more to do. Unfortunately, with the latest Xbox announcement, I can envisage this potential all getting put to one side and forgotten about, if that hasn't already happened. Having said that, I'm sure it will be part of the Next-Gen Xbox's features. It's a genius idea to give users the ability to use a table or smartphone to control a game they're playing on their Xbox, or watch a film, or whatever...
The next Xbox is supposedly branded as the entertainment hub of the living room - Smart Glass seems like a good feature to have alongside, especially when so many people seem to use their tablets and phones to game on. It's a good tool to use against Nintendo's WiiU, which in my mind is essentially a gaming tablet, with seemingly fewer features.

It will be interesting to see how much Microsoft uses Smart Glass in its future products. When it was launched it seemed like quite a big feature. Though not unlike Kinect, it hasn't had a huge amount of support for the Software giant.