Xbox SmartGlass – the Second-Screen Feature by Microsoft
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The Los Angeles Electronic Entertainment Expo which started from Monday 4th May featured a new app by Microsoft, named Xbox SmartGlass, which will act like a second screen that will allow you to see media information on the screen of a PC or a mobile gadget. Thus this app will let Xbox games, TV shows and films be integrated with smartphones and tablets. It will permit you to see films on multiple gadgets, seeing a film on a tablet and then shifting the video to the screen and provides thorough information of media on movies and TV while you are at home or on the go. It can run on all Apple tablets as well as phones and Android phones too, and also those having the Window OS, thus allowing tablets to play a major part in the overall experience of gaming.
In the demo on the screen, SmartGlass provided an actual map of Game of Thrones as the action was shown on screen, thus producing an ‘intellectual companion’ to the video. SmartBox even allows you to access internet on an Xbox 360 with the help of Internet Explorer. The tablet or the phone acts as the keyboard and you can conveniently browse through web pages without having an actual keyboard.
As far as games are concerned, SmartGlass allows access to recent games playing on the screen and permits players to decide plays in sports games or watch inventory on a tablet.
Tablets are getting increasingly popular as they are growing in their graphics and computing ability and simultaneously gaming companies are planning strategies about incorporating tablets with the entertainment they produce, viz. games. However industry experts are of opinion that it is still far from reality to turn tablets into consoles, to be compatible with PlayStation or Xbox for the most sophisticated AAA games like Gears of War or Assassin’s Creed.
An expert has said that games on tablets are same like those on smartphones on an average. They are regular, every-day games not having the advantage of graphic processors like their higher-end counterparts. Most tablet versions of hardcore games are highly reduced in the activity and are restricted only to allow gamers to purchase weapons or armour for using in the multiplayer version, rather than delivering a complete version of the game. Experts are of opinion that gamers will soon demand more.
It is expected that more hardcore games will be designed for tablets which would enable Xbox SmartGlass to compete with the iPad.