October 23, 2012 By

Xbox Smartglass launching October 26th, coming to Android & iOS early 2013

Microsoft has released an official video demo of its new Xbox Smartglass technology, which is due to launch for Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Windows RT on October 26th. Third party clients for Android and iOS will then be made available in early 2013 according to Pocket-Lint.

 

Xbox Smartglass enables you to share content between the screens of your smartphone, tablet and TV and acts as a remote. It also provides supporting content (when available) on your smartphone or tablet when watching a movie/TV show or playing a video game. Unfortunately the UK won’t have the same supporting content as the US for launch, as James Pearce of Coolsmartphone points out:

Smartglass is basically an updated version of the Xbox Companion app and it will allow you to play content on your tv and let you control that content from the comfort of your sofa. As usual it seems that in the UK we are going to be getting a trimmed down version of the whole experience as the US has a load of media content providers signed up to work with the new update. The UK at launch seems to be stuck with the existing BBC and YouTube offering.

This is only initially though and Smartglass will surely be a great addition to Microsoft’s entertainment offering. It’s features like this that it will hope to leverage in order to convert more of its Xbox users to Windows Phone.

Microsoft Press Release

Tagged With: ,
October 16, 2012 By

Microsoft confirms Surface UK release, prices start at £399

Microsoft has confirmed that its Surface RT tablet will launch in eight different countries, including the UK, on October 26th. Pocket-Lint is reporting that UK prices will start at £399, with the Touch Cover costing £99.99 and the Type cover costing £109.99. Going by the US pricing, we can assume that the £399 price tag applies to the 32GB version of the Surface RT tablet. US pricing has been announced as follows:

A 32GB version priced at US$499, a 32GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at US$599, and a 64GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at US$699.

The Touch Covers will be available in five different colours – black, white, magenta, cyan and red. As well as the UK and US, Surface products will also be available in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong.

We’ll let you know as soon as we’ve had any UK pricing and availability through.

Tagged With:
October 15, 2012 By

Microsoft launching Xbox music tomorrow, comes pre-installed on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8

Microsoft will tomorrow begin the rollout of its new Music service, which is launching initially on the Xbox 360. The service will then come pre-installed on Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices once they have launched on October 26th.

Microsoft already has a strong entertainment offering thanks to its Xbox 360 console, which will be further bolstered by the launch of SmartGlass later this year. At the moment there is not a comprehensive music offering (streaming + purchasing + cloud storage) that offers true integration across various devices, so there could be good opportunity for Microsoft to create a strong service, then leverage it to sell more tablets and handsets.

 

Here’s a look at the main features of the new Microsoft Music service. Please be aware that while the service is launching in several regions, the details below mostly apply to the US for tomorrow’s launch: 

[Read more...]

Tagged With: ,