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Xbox Second Screen Announced
kodiaktau writes "Microsoft has announced a feature called SmartGlass that provides a new set of features when viewing media on mobile or PC devices. Sources say that it will provide context focused advertising/product placement as well as metadata about the media you are currently viewing. Additionally the interface allows you to store viewing data and share between your desktop and mobile devices to continue viewing content between devices. From the article: 'SmartGlass also allows you to view the web on an Xbox 360 using Internet Explorer. The tablet or phone becomes the keyboard and you can easily browse web pages without having a physical keyboard in the living room.'"
It reminds me of Netscape Constellation. Netscape invented a pretty cool system where you could have a network-portable desktop - you could log into any computer anywhere, and all your stuff (programs, documents, desktop, everything) would come up for you. Think Chromebook, but more app-oriented, and in 1997.
One TINY feature of this was push content. Then the Netscape marketing department got wind of it and said "You mean we can use this to PUSH ADS?"
Then all the other stuff was ripped out, and the push content part of it got released as Netcaster, part of the Communicator suite.... And then was promptly ignored by everyone, because the only people interested in pushing content to you were advertisers.