MS unveils SmartGlass SDK for Xbox

Examiner states.

The SmartGlass technology was demoed by Microsoft during its E3 press conference earlier this month and provides a "second screen" experience for the Xbox 360 via a mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Windows Phones or the Windows Surface tablets.

Luxury & Brands quote Microsoft's senior global marketing manager, Peter Orullian, describing how the gameplay mechanics with SmartGlass would work: "Someone stands in front of Kinect and hits, you can reverse that, and the person on SmartGlass can bat. It takes two great Microsoft technologies and couples them."

SmartGlass seems to be Microsoft's answer to the Wii U's upcoming tablet-equipped GamePad, and the service has some advantages over Nintendo's more integrated touch-screen approach, Ars Technica writes.

Besides minimising costs by using touch-screen devices that players might already own, Microsoft says SmartGlass devices will also support features like "pinch to zoom" that are impossible on the Wii U's low-cost, single-point-of-contact tablets on the Wii U GamePad.