October 22nd 2012 9:00 pm PT

New Xbox entertainment experiences launching this week across your favorite devices

I wanted to let everyone know that this is a huge week for us because Xbox is taking several important steps to expand your entertainment experience. This week we’ll have the new console update, Xbox coming to Windows 8 and the launch of SmartGlass experiences across your favorite devices.

Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, October 23rd, we are rolling out the Xbox 360 dashboard update to the remainder of our Xbox LIVE Members.

 

As I mentioned last week, this update includes:

  • Refreshed Xbox 360 Dashboard. We’ve updated the UI with a few things, including an updated layout with more tiles, a combined TV & Movies channel and, in the US, a Sports destination.
  • Pinning. Pinning lets you personalize the dashboard by saving your favorite movies, TV shows, games, music, videos and websites right to the home screen. It’s as easy as opening an app or a favorite movie and clicking “pin.”
  • Internet Explorer for Xbox. With Internet Explorer on Xbox, you can easily find and view internet content on the biggest screen in the house, including HTML5 videos. Pin your favorite pages directly to the web hub or the dashboard.
  • Recommendations and Ratings. Recommendations will allow you to discover new movies, TV shows and games, generated based on a number of variables including the content you previously viewed, what your friends are consuming and what is most relevant and popular with our Xbox community. You can now rate content yourself and also see Rotten Tomatoes ratings.
  • Xbox Video. Formerly called Zune Video Marketplace, Xbox Video offers hundreds of thousands of TV shows and movies for buying or renting in instant HD streaming.
  • Recent. Previously called Quick Play, the recent view gives you a list of movies, games, apps or other types of content that you most recently accessed on the console.
  • Enhanced Search. The last Xbox LIVE update brought Bing voice search to Xbox so you could use voice to search for movies, TV shows, actors, directors and artists. This year we added genre search to the list, so now you can search for action, comedy, romance, drama or sci-fi. Bing voice search now includes results for video across the Web and YouTube.
  • International Expansion of Voice Search. We’ve expanded our Kinect voice search capabilities to 9 new countries – Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Ireland.

 

And with the launch of Xbox on Windows 8 on October 26, we are launching Microsoft’s premier entertainment service. This is the year Xbox will light up entertainment on your Windows 8 tablet or PC. We want to make Windows the best place for gaming, the best video experience bar none, and combine all the elements people love about music into one service.

  • Xbox Games. Xbox Games for Windows 8 will bring many of the games you already know and love, like Angry Birds Starwars, Jetpack Joyride, Fruit Ninja and more. These games will be playable on any Windows 8 PC, laptop or tablet. All Xbox games for Windows 8 will allow you to earn the Achievements that you we know you love; and many will also take advantage of other Xbox features, including leaderboards, multiplayer modes, and connecting with friends.
  • Xbox Music. Xbox Music is a brand-new service, built from the ground up, to meet all your music needs across your tablet, PC, Phone and TV. Xbox Music is the ultimate all-in-one music service, featuring free music streaming on Windows 8 tablets and PCs, download to own, subscription, artist-based radio, plus comprehensive discovery from one of the world’s largest music catalogs.
  • Xbox Video. Xbox Video is a first run video service offering tens of thousands of movies and TV shows for buying or renting in HD.

 

Plus, Xbox SmartGlass will also be available later this week when Windows 8 launches on October 26th. When the Xbox SmartGlass app launches on tablets, PCs and smartphones, it will include key foundational experiences for interacting with your Xbox 360, such as dashboard and app navigation and Internet Explorer control, like text input, scrolling and pinch and zoom. Additionally, you will get SmartGlass experiences with Xbox Video and Xbox Music starting this week. Xbox SmartGlass will be a free downloadable app that takes your Windows 8 tablets and PCs, Windows Phone 8, iOS and Android devices, and converts them into a smart second screen for the entertainment you are enjoying through your Xbox.

I have gotten a few questions on what games and apps will support Xbox SmartGlass, so I wanted to share a few a list of some of the apps and games that will support Xbox SmartGlass in the coming months.

Games:

  • Ascend
  • Dance Central 3
  • Forza Horizon
  • Halo Waypoint
  • Home Run Stars
  • Karaoke
  • Kinect Sesame Street TV
  • Prima Games

Sports:

  • ESPN
  • NBA Game Time
  • UFC

Entertainment Apps:

  • Elections 2012
  • HBO GO
  • MSN
  • NBC News
  • NOW TV
  • Slacker Radio
  • TODAY
  • Univision

For more details on the update, read our blog post (and watch the video) on the Microsoft News Center

If you have any questions or need help with the update, be sure to hit up @XboxSupport, they’re ready to help!

Follow me on Twitter find out when the Xbox SmartGlass apps become available

Xbox 360, Xbox Live By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

permalink: http://majornelson.com/2012/10/22/new-xbox-entertainment-experiences-launching-this-week-across-your-favorite-devices/

  • http://twitter.com/Tom Tom

    When does the NDA lift?

  • http://twitter.com/Mrphillyz1st James Coleman

    thank you I’ve been waiting for the update since they were talking about it last year or at e3 i forget but yeah it would’ve sucked waiting even longer

  • goob0t

    At e3 you showed halo 4 support, is that what you meant for halo waypoint or was that just a demo for just showing it off?

    Is the smart screen app updated for the iPhone 5 screen increase?

  • http://twitter.com/impatientandy Andy Walker

    Any chance Xbox Music works while gaming?

    Also on a completely unrelated note… and I’m not even sure if you’d be around this sort of thing… but could you somehow convince Microsoft to release Halo 4 on Demand at release? I’m not sure if there’s a reason you wait as long as you do… but I’d love to own Halo 4 digitally.

    • http://twitter.com/CaptainLawlit Ethan Neumann

      Yes, I too would love this alot. Being able to purchase all retail games digitally at launch should be mandantory.

      • http://www.facebook.com/ABACAB72 Arik Cotton

        I think they said that LIVE isn’t set up to do that right now. I’m thinking it will be by the time the 3rd console comes out though.

        • http://twitter.com/toohats toohats

          I think it also has to do with supporting their retailers. But they should be able to sell you a downloadable copy, but you have to go into the store to get the code and whatever little booklet. (Then when you are there, the store will try to sell you more.)

          • Richard Welsh

            I think this is the solution that best serves all parties. Users that want the convenience and security of digital copies have the option to purchase them at release, Microsoft continues to sell their product en masse to its retail partners, and retail stores retain (or even increase) their sales and store traffic, while requiring less physical space to store the product.

  • goob0t

    At e3 you had a demo showing smart screen with halo 4, is that what you meant for halo waypoint? Or was that just a demo to show it off?

    Is the smart screen app updated to use the iPhone 5 screen increase?

  • http://www.facebook.com/jayswanson42 Jay Swanson

    You’re seriously leaving WP7.x out in the cold on this one? Way to support your users.

    • http://twitter.com/SneakyNorthern Michael Lanak

      Windows Phone 8 will be here shortly. Chill.

      • Russell Gorall

        Spending cash on a new OS every few years that isn’t needed isn’t for everyone. The Internet – Opinions Since The 1990′s.

        • http://twitter.com/boe2BE Boe2

          It’s not a “new os after a few years”. It’s “an entirely new phone after less than a year”.

          • Russell Gorall

            A new OS for the phone?

          • http://twitter.com/boe2BE Boe2

            a new OS that is utterly incompatible with current phones on the market.
            The top models currently in stores will not support WP8 that is due very soon.
            Windows phones are awesome phones, but it’s easy to see why they just aren’t selling.

      • altitude2k

        Missing the point entirely. How does WP8 help those tied into long contracts?
        My Lumia 800 contract is up in December, so I don’t have long to wait, but this is really bad for those others who still have more than a year left.

    • http://twitter.com/toohats toohats

      Hey, It says on the site that Windows 7.5 will work. As I understand it, all Windows 7.0 phones can be upgrated to 7.5 so you should be fine. Connect online or visit a Microsoft store.

    • shinji

      They will be releasing a version to cover those. On the smartglass site it shows…

      Windows Phone compatible devices:

      Windows Phone 7.5, 7.8, and 8
      Coming Soon

      iOS compatible devices:

      iPod Touch (4th generation); iPhone (3GS, 4, 4S); iPad (1,2,3)

      Android compatible devices:

      Smartphones only (4.x)

      Windows 8 Compatible devices:

      Windows 8 and Windows RT Tablets and PCs

  • http://twitter.com/dantetheone dantetheone

    SmartGlass not coming to WP7? Why?

    • Russell Gorall

      In order to sell a new OS, that you didn’t need or want. It is the Microsoft way.

    • http://twitter.com/toohats toohats

      It says it is supported on the Smart Glass site.

  • http://twitter.com/CorinthRacer Joshua Rohay

    No mention of Smartglass for WP7, so I have to either be using a competitors phone or buy a brand new phone. Good looking out for those who avoided the other phones.

  • Russell Gorall

    So, you can look away from your console and do some things on your phone or tablet?

    I’d rather hear about some new IP’s. Cheers and happy, err, gaming?

  • http://twitter.com/JAYLEXPWn Alex

    So i have to buy a new phone ($599 unlocked) or a Windows 8 Tablet ($499 the cheapest) while i have a tank of a phone wp7 at my disposal. I am a big fan of windows phone and have had one since day 1 but this is just a dickish move by ms. Still ill have it on windows 8 (desktop) but why even bother

  • altitude2k

    So Windows Phone 7 devices are being left out? Very poor show, especially when non-MS OSs are being supported.

    WP8 may be coming out soon, but how does that help those of is tied into contracts?

    • http://www.facebook.com/omgitschrisgordon Chris Gordon

      I bailed on my contract with my Samsung Focus and bought an iPhone 4S 2 weeks ago…. I was sad. The app support for WP7 is pathetic.

  • http://twitter.com/williamronholm WillRon

    Lack of WP7 support makes me sad face.

    • http://twitter.com/toohats toohats

      Yes, that would be dissapointeing, but It says it is supported on the Smart Glass site.

  • http://twitter.com/bat0nas Tomas Misevičius

    What about smartglass for Android?

    • Hugoku

      Seems to be supported only on Smartphones last I checked on MS site.

  • http://twitter.com/naptownmvp JT

    Pinning. Pinning lets you personalize the dashboard by saving your favorite movies, TV shows, games, music, videos and websites right to the home screen. It’s as easy as opening an app or a favorite movie and clicking “pin.”

    This is 100% false.

    • http://twitter.com/damashedavenger kit walker

      i’ll donate 10 bucks to get the legal proceedings rolling… :)
      (u might wana change the wording on that major)

      • shinji

        We can’t do a class action lawsuit. It has to be individual lawsuits. But yes I agree that the text is a bit misleading.

        • http://twitter.com/SamboTaylor Sam Taylor

          Misleading and a lie are two different things.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003976957614 Willy McBurgle

      Even if the ‘pin’ menu had at LEAST made the pins half-height so that you could get more than 5 on a screen – even THEN it would have been better than nothing. But the current solution just seems so half-assed – almost like it was written by a teenage intern.

  • http://www.facebook.com/thomas.a.whitaker.1 Thomas A Whitaker

    From engadget;
    “When will I be able to use SmartGlass with my iOS/Android/Windows Phone 7.5 devices? And how?”

    The date isn’t certain, but functionality will arrive on other
    platforms “soon” after the October 26 launch of Surface, Microsoft reps
    tell us. When it does, it’ll come in the form of an update to your
    existing, “My Xbox Live” mobile app (which also renames the app to,
    “Xbox SmartGlass”) or Games tab (per WP7.5), and it’ll be more or less
    identical with the Windows Phone version.”

    • http://www.facebook.com/charles.schaefer Charles Schaefer

      Why is SmartGlass only going to be on Android phones but not tablets, while it is being released on all iOS products, ipods, phones, and tablets?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=554325079 Aaron Seddon

    my WP7 phone is currently on eBay, i’m failing to buy into WP8 since next to nothing has been shown of WP8 and i honestly cannot judge if its gonna be worth getting, achievements on my 2 year old iPhone games isn’t enough of a draw for me anymore. I’ve purchased an iPhone 4 for now and i’ll see how i get on with that.

    you’re gonna have to pull your fingers out with apps and games on WP8 to want to win me over again.

  • http://twitter.com/N7_Alex Iskandar Dzulkarnain

    Smartglass is available for everything…..Except WP7? *sigh* So that’s what supporters get?

    • http://www.facebook.com/travisbrowny Travis Brown

      It is available for WP7.

    • Emi Cyberschreiber

      and you got to that conclusion from?…. oh yeah your ignorance. why dont you go to the smartglass site and scroll down and see what devices it will support?. stop being ignorant and comment before actually searching.

  • http://www.facebook.com/NimFik Martin Kresta

    Now tell me straight .. which from all above will be available in Czech Republic? Thanks.

  • http://twitter.com/HEMI345 HEMI

    I heard that the Xbox Live serves will be available in new country. Is that true?

  • http://www.facebook.com/Son1ccoders Rob Hewer

    Any news on the NHL app?

    A guesstamate on the UK release date anyone?

    • mcmax3000

      I would imagine the NHL app is probably ready, but no point in releasing it when there’s no NHL to watch.

  • Scazza

    So I tried controlling Internet Explorer with my WP7.5 phones Companion App, and when i press any of the directions, it literally moves the cursor ONE PIXEL. Its completely useless. Also my phone has a keyboard, yet i cant use it to type in URLs.

  • StormRaging

    so no Madden 13 support? That was one of the games showcased for all the SmartGlass videos.

    • mcmax3000

      He says that the list is some of the games that will support it. Considering the News Center post that he links to also mentions Halo 4 support, which isn’t on Major’s list, it’s safe to say that his list doesn’t include everything.

  • http://www.facebook.com/xX6SIC6oWsLaXx Christian A Kläger Odria

    It’s bullshit how I haven’t gotten it yet… Why the hell does everyone have it?

    • JoeGrahamcracker

      It’s probably because you are so hideously repulsive.

    • Riddick Snipes

      U ain’t missing much

  • mcmax3000

    I’m looking forward to seeing how the UFC app uses SmartGlass since I use that app for every PPV.

    Also, I find it funny that the Election 2012 app is going to support SmartGlass, despite SmartGlass launching after all of the debates, and less than two weeks before the election.

    • mcmax3000

      Also, wait… What is this Karaoke thing on the list?

  • Will

    In the UK. Just got the dashboard update. Check your console peoples.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shane-Craven/100001049087243 Shane Craven

    Does anyone know if xbox music will be made available in Ireland?

  • http://twitter.com/frontstreet2011 Brian Ke

    Wow…major, didn’t think you for hiding the truth. What I tried to post earlier was nothing bad, so why keep it from public eyes. I’ve been a longtime customer of xbox and always spoke how much I love using it. But this 1x I mention how disappointed I am with smartglass… You delete it. Come’on not cool!

  • http://www.facebook.com/mordred.maeve Mordred Maeve

    All this stuff should be optionial for those who just want to play a game! like .. me. Currently I’m waiting for the download to complete so I can just play.

    • Hugoku

      Well… be glad it’s not like the PS3. Many times have I wanted to play something, only to find that the game needs an update which involves redownloading the whole thing. I just end up turning it off.

  • CW

    The issue I have with Xbox Video is that it doesn’t seem to support Windows DRM. For example I bought the Avengers blu-ray with digital copy. I loaded the digital copy to the PC which is running the Windows 8 release. Xbox Video cannot play the movie. Fortunately I found that Windows Media Player is still installed with Windows 8, you just have to search for it.
    So Major, why?? If Xbox Video is supposed to be the end-all, be-all video solution on Windows 8 then why cannot it play Windows DRM content? Will this be fixed? I just really want to know what’s up with this. Just FYI – this is coming from someone who has supported Zune from day 1 and really feel burned by how that was handled.

    I would also like to know why Xbox Music cannot read my music collection from my external hard drive. I don’t want to have to move all of my music to my main hard drive. Again, just another strange choice it seems.

  • N3G4T1V3 Cl233P

    This update was very intrusive. I was on ffxi at the time microsoft kicked me offline to update dashboard. This will almost certainly corrupr fata on ffxi meaning I will have to delete pol and reinstall. Not cool major nelson. Not cool at all. To update again takes 10+ hrs >.>; Couldnt the update tske place when I go to dashboard instead of taking place at your convienience? Im not happy with microsoft at this point. Thanks for nothing.

    • coren

      I don’t think half my usual games will work like they did before the update now.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ray-Rodriguez/1480995968 Ray Rodriguez

    Will Smartglass be able to run on Kindle Fire HD tablets?

  • http://twitter.com/thecapsaicinkid thecapsaicinkid

    I really question the usefulness of pinning items to a *sub-menu* on the home page. I could already access a recent games sub-menu. The blurb says I can pin them to the home page, you can’t.

  • http://twitter.com/prositen prositen (anna)

    My Dashboard is now in Swedish, and it looks like I have no way of changing this – the language setting is ignored. Any chance this will be changed? Will this apply to games with Swedish localization available too? I am definitely NOT interested in playing games translated to Swedish.

  • Thânia Santos

    pinning anything is a nice new feature,
    but I think that ‘tags’ system would be more efficient.

    let us create tags like we wish (“action” “rpg” “coop” “for the kids” “finished game” “wish to buy soon” …) and let us give as many we wish per item.
    with over 200 games on the hard drive, that would be a nice way to organize and then browse one’s collection.
    when you have many things, it is a nighmare to find something rapidly. and also all thoses arcade games I bought, and forgot I had….

  • shinji

    It’s up to Adobe to release flash for the platform not Microsoft. Even then flash is a resource hog for the most part and isn’t suitable for use on a console. Most are going to HTML5 anyways and the browser supports that.

  • kingcrusher

    Finally they fixed the 3 minute (seriously) wait time every time you exit an arcade game or application! Thank you MS for that… not sure about the rest of it, but that’s the first thing I noticed, and that made me happy.

  • ElektroDragon

    Can I pin all the ads right off my home page???

  • Russell Gorall

    You guys made the ads even bigger.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tr.kaline TR Samuel Kaline

    Are they going to add flash eventually?

  • http://twitter.com/WB650 Bayside

    First I had to DL the update manually to USB since it kept failing due to some stupid network error and now I keep randomly getting disconnected from XBOX. PITA update

  • http://twitter.com/paulopinheiro__ Paulo Pinheiro

    “Pinning. Pinning lets you personalize the dashboard by saving your favorite movies, TV shows, games, music, videos and websites right to the home screen.” – Really good joke.

  • http://twitter.com/paulopinheiro__ Paulo Pinheiro

    “Pinning. Pinning lets you personalize the dashboard by saving your favorite movies, TV shows, games, music, videos and websites right to the home screen. ” – Good Joke.

  • http://www.facebook.com/eggy.spacewind Eggy Spacewind

    My keyboard layout has now changed to QWERTY layout. I can’t find the setting to change it back to alphabetical order. Any ideas?

  • http://twitter.com/wingthing Marise

    Overall i’m quite okay with the new dashboard, but it’s really ridiculous that dashboard-language is automatically set to the country on my live ID, when my settings on the xbox clearly say English. Me and my friends are forced to read everything in half Dutch, half English now, where we dont even speak Dutch together on gamenights!
    Please give us back the dashboard in English!

  • http://twitter.com/BottleRocket_ BottleRocket

    Save for a MacBook Pro? I have one and I will never buy an Apple computer ever again. The same gripes you have on xbox could be aimed directly at OSX. Linux man, Linux.

  • http://twitter.com/BottleRocket_ BottleRocket

    I hate all the ads in the update and how sloppy it looks now, but my xbox (which is 6 years old) is running smoother than ever.

  • coren

    The new update has completely bugged up my Xbox. All the games I play using Xbox live, like MW2, MW3, black ops, NFS, Civ Rev can’t be played because there’s too much lag and there’s too much interference when using Xbox live. Can you please fix it before it gets too much for me to be able to use Xbox and have to switch over to Ps3

  • Russell Gorall

    The My Games actually loads up a lot quicker, basically everything is quicker. Whatever you did, MS, thanks.

    Now, next gen, please?

  • Scott Elder

    man I love being uniformed. I feel so snazzy!

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