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Microsoft's SmartGlass For Android Reviewed
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has released their much anticipated SmartGlass application for Android, allowing the Linux-based mobile OS to act as an input device for their Xbox 360 game console. While the app has its share of annoying problems, it does offer a glimpse into a possible future where consumer electronics are no longer crippled by the artificial barriers of manufacturer or operating system."
the Wii U tablet-based controller?
Doesn't linux strive to overcome the barriers artificially created by manufacturers and OSs? It has done pretty well for me.
Releasing it to Android before Windows Phone
DRM will continue to cripple and kill off (minidisk, DAT) our technology for a very long time.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
glimpse into a possible future where consumer electronics are no longer crippled by the artificial barriers of manufacturer or operating system.
Does it deal with rooted phones intelligently by assuming the device is malicious or does it deal with rooted phones stupidly by assuming the device is perfectly trustworthy?
I don't have a xbox 360 so it doesn't matter for me, but if I did I'd probably have the sniffer up and sniffin already. Unless it uses bluetooth somehow instead of wifi. of course there are sniffers for BT but it takes some specialized hardware.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
That they decide to release an Android application first. I guess at some point you have to write for the most important OSs or relegate yourself to niche markets.
Not compatible with ASUS T-300 running Jelly Bean. :-(
I wrote parts of this stuff
I first assumed this app would connect directly to my XBox via Bluetooth, and act as an actual controller device. It doesn't. Instead it requires internet connectivity on both the XBox and phone, and goes through the XBox Live servers (you have to sign into your XBox account on your phone, and also be logged into that XBox account on the XBox itself, before it can connect). I don't feel like messing around watching network traffic today, but I'm curious if XBox Live hands my phone over directly to the XBox (they find one another on my local network), or if all communication has to go through the XBox Live servers. There is a bit of latency, so I bet all communication is going out over the internet even though the devices are only 5 feet apart and both on the same LAN.
I found the gestures a bit clunky. For example, you have to touch-hold while dragging to drag faster. However there isn't any method (that I could find) to go through a whole page at a time in the XBox menus. I had to go item by item. I think I would prefer a simple D-Pad type setup on my phone, with dedicated buttons to scroll entire pages / screens at a time.
Better known as 318230.
Does anybody know if there's a similar thing for Linux? I've been looking for something that would allow the pen-digitizer in my thinkpad tablet work as input for my linux box, but so far have failed at finding anything in that vein.
entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
'The app has its share of annoying problems'...
...and I'm _sure_ they didn't do it on purpose!
It's OK Bender, there's no such thing as 2.
Seriously, why did Nintendo announce the Wii U so early?
It's called defensive publication. For any feature Nintendo announces, someone else can't get a patent.
Consider, for example, the lack of fork() in windows. It's a complete showstopper for linux programs which depend on fork. That's an API-level problem.
These problems are surmountable. Perhaps the most common case of fork() is to prepare for exec(), in which case an application can wrap the fork() and exec() in a function called spawn(). Then on Windows, spawn() would wrap CreateProcess().
Perhaps it's limited to phones at the moment? Surprised to see the Android version beat iOS considering MS has supported iOS much more in the past.
That would mean processor hedgemony. There would be no everything. There would just be Sameness. A universal one size fits all. Socialist code!
Sometimes, especially for code that blocks on the user most of the time, just running is better than running fast. To use the "socialism" analogy, perhaps we need a bit of social safety net, an instruction set that every computer on the net can use.
If I develop my own UI for Xbox
To paraphrase the recent order of the Register of Copyrights denying the DMCA exemption for interoperability with game consoles, why do you have to make a new user interface for an Xbox game console? There are plenty of PCs on which to prototype your user interface, and PCs can use the same Xbox 360 controllers, Kinect sensors, and HDMI monitors that Xbox 360 consoles use.
Client side security is an oxymoron.
So how should people who understand this fact go about convincing Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. of this?
Bear with me why I provide a little background to the question in the subject:
I worked for IBM for better than a decade, from the late 90s to just a couple of years ago. During that time, the general sentiment inside of IBM was that trying to lock customers in was a bad idea, that in the long term what was good for business was open, cross-platform widely-compatible solutions. That's not to say that none of IBM's product divisions ever tried to lock customers in, but it was the exception, and a fairly rare exception, and most of the rest of the company thought they were being stupid.
Obviously, the IBM I worked for was radically different in that respect from the IBM of the 60s, 70s and early 80s, when interoperability was a dirty word and IBM was able to gouge customers for obscene profits by locking them into "pure Blue" solutions. The anti-trust lawsuit and resulting consent decree was the start of the transformation, but the bigger force, IMO, was the fact that customers started distrusting IBM. In the late 90s when I started working for IBM Global Services, it was fairly standard practice in the consulting arm to actively *avoid* recommending IBM products unless they were clearly and undeniably the best solution available. A few years later practice shifted to pushing "blue" solutions more... but by then all of the solutions themselves had become not only interoperability-enabled, but most of them were entirely about interoperability, as IBM made the shift to a middleware and services company.
The fact is that open architectures and interoperable solutions really are better business in the long run. In the short term, lock-in allows the extraction of monopoly rents, but you don't build strong customer relationships that way, and good relations with your customers is how you continue raking in the bucks year after year, decade after decade. This is especially true for companies like IBM whose primary clients are businesses, but it's also true for companies that straddle the business and consumer markets, like Microsoft.
A number of things that have happened over the last few years make me think that Microsoft, even though they didn't get slapped around by the government the way IBM did, and really haven't ever gone through the sort of bloodletting that IBM did, has begun to turn the corner, to lose its institutional arrogance and its startup mentality of total domination at all costs, and matured into a company that understands you don't have to win everything to be successful, and that cooperation is sometimes more effective than competition.
I'd have said they'd never make that change while Ballmer is in charge, but maybe I was too pessimistic.
I'll reserve judgment for a few more years and see where they go. But I'm beginning to have hope that a new, less-evil Microsoft is emerging. They may need another serious failure or three to get all the way there, though. A major Windows 8 flop would probably be good for therm (culturally).
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Is there some way we can get the Google TV UI on an Android tablet? The entire GUI, not just the Google TV Remote Android app. How about more than just the UI, and actually stream TV from the Google TV box to the Android tablet.
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make install -not war
Looks like they can't even adhere to Android UI guidelines because they essentially used their Windows Phone UI on an Android app instead of using Holo. Not very professional from a standards point of view.
Also, the article seems to be surprised that Microsoft made this application available for Android - which is very bizarre. Like SkyDrive, Microsoft needs to get this on as many platforms as possible so that they can make their services and products attractive to everyone. This has little to do with embracing Android.
Android uses Linux as its kernel but I wouldn't say it was Linux based. It's userland is java based. They could easily use another kernel if they so wished.
Well, it is a microsoft app after all.
The gnome3 and gnome2 incompatibility could have been easily avoided but instead it was deliberately done to force retirement of gnome2 components and start with a clean slate. The gnome3 team had to effectively introduce DLL hell to linux to accomplish that.
Guys, I'm aiming for +4 Troll, I'm not even sure if you can get +5 Troll, but if you can I want it.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Microsoft, making software for linux
Embrace, extend and extinguish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish
One is running Icecream sandwich tablet and the other gingerbread phone. Neither are more than a year ago. So much for "no longer crippled by the artificial barriers of manufacturer or operating system". They clearly picked a limited set of devices.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
Here is demands:
1) I want to hack my XBOX 720 without getting in trouble with the HardWare maker since I $Purchased the Hard Ware.
2) I want to use my XBOX 720 as a Computer and Gaming Console. I want to install my type & version of Operating System.
3) Hulu Plus/Netflix is limited. I want to be able to watch any online videos/movies/trailers including independent online channels & web sites.
4) I want to stream movies from other countries to my XBOX 720.
5) I want a cool CPU/GPU instead of generic Intel.
6) I want to be able to watch 3D HD BluRay DVD movies.
7) I want to use my XBOX as a PVR
8) I want Kenetic as main Security Camera and Kenetic to understand sign language.