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Using an iPad with the Xbox with Free Xbox Companion App

Posted by steve on July - 21 - 2012 with 0 Comment

controlling xbox with ipadDo you own an iPad? Here’s some cool news.

A few months ago Microsoft released the XBOX Live app for iPhone and Android devices. Recently, they’ve updated the app for the iPad. The app is available on the iTunes store. To use it, download and install the app on your iPad. You’ll also need to go into your Xbox to Settings > System > Console Settings > Xbox Companion and change the setting to “Available”

What can you do with the app? You can participate in polls, keep up-to-date with your Xbox LIVE friends, browse through your list of games, and of course, shop for new games.

If you play videos through your Xbox, your iPad becomes a remote where you can play, pause, fast forward, and rewind.

Here’s something I love–you can launch games and apps right from your iPad. One of the very, very annoying things I hate about the Xbox LIVE screen on the console is that it takes way too long to find anything. The usability on Xbox LIVE is just horrendous. Whether I try to find Kinect Fun Labs or Kinect PlayFit, it usually takes me minutes and minutes of navigating around the annoying ads and nonsensical navigational options before I finally get to what I want.

With my iPad, I can connect right to my Xbox and see the last six games or apps I’ve used. Tap on it, and it launches on the console. Pretty cool stuff.

They still have bugs to work out. For example, if I own a game on disc and select quickplay, it’ll ask me to download the demo instead of asking me to put my disc into the unit. Still, it’s pretty cool to see this kind of interaction.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Microsoft expands this integration to include gameplay. Doing so would really take some of the wind out of the sails of the upcoming Wii U with its touchscreen controller.