This is a busy week, with both Computex 2012 and E3 taking place in Asia and USA, respectively. Microsoft just announced the brand new Xbox Music service, thus saying goodbye to Zune. The announcement came during a big E3 presentation and included a library of more than 30 million tracks, accessible on all devices running Microsoft software, including the PC, Windows 8 tablet and Windows Phone, plus the Xbox 360 console.
All of that is wrapped up in a Metro UI-style interface, but overall this service is more of a rebranded Zune if you want. There’s also the Smartglass service and turns out, that that’s the more interesting bit. Microsoft promises that you can use your tablet to draw up a play in EA Sports Madden NFL if you want and then perform the play on the HDTV using your Xbox. This is merely an example of what the Microsoft-based ecosystem can do.
MS also announced that it will launch Internet Explorer for Xbox this fall in all countries where the console and Xbox Live are available. Using Kinect you’ll be able to surf the web with movements and voice alone, all of that via your television set. You can see a preview of Xbox Music in action below, showcased both on a tablet and HDTV. The Metro style UI seems very friendly and this is certainly more clean than other services, such as Samsung’s Music Hub, for example. Will it take off? We’ll see…
