If you’ve got an Xbox 360 and a Nokia Lumia, then downloading the Xbox SmartGlass app is a no-brainer. Xbox SmartGlass transforms your Nokia Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 into a controller for your Xbox, enabling you to interact with movie, music, and games content – right from your much loved smartphone. 

Xbox SmartGlass is all about helping you to extend the entertainment experience of the Xbox 360, by placing the power of the Xbox in your hands.

This companion enables you to delve into Xbox Music, Xbox Videos and Bing search, as well as browsing the Internet without having to touch your standard console controller. Connecting to your Xbox 360 much like your wireless controller does, there are no cables to entangle the experience.

To start with, the Xbox SmartGlass start screen displays what you’re currently doing on your Xbox 360 – just as a reminder, I guess. But beneath that, you’re presented with a list of things that you did on your Xbox – played a game or used Internet Explorer, for example. If you’re looking to interact, or play with one of those again, just tap the relevant icon. Otherwise, sliding the screen to the left or right will open up more options.

The discover panel presents you with a selection of featured movies, music and games titles. Selecting any one of these will allow you to dig deeper into the title, showing you details of the item.

If you’ve selected a game, you’ll be able to see if any of your (Xbox LIVE) friends have played the game, along with any achievements that are up for grabs. If it’s a downloadable game, you can then choose to download it to your console there and then.

Selecting a movie will bring up the synopsis, details on the cast and crew – of which are clickable, to show you other films they’ve starred in – and a related item section. There’s also a SmartGlass panel that contains a Video Guide. This guide displays information about a film as you’re watching it, springing to life when actors appear on screen, providing you with their filmography. Ultimately, it delivers a richer experience.

The SmartGlass panel also exists in any music title you’ve stumbled upon, but this contains the Xbox Music Experience. Much like the Video Guide above, it allows you to learn more about the artist that you’re listening to.

Offering tracks, games, or movies in the form of featured content is all well and good, but chances are you’ll want to search for something manually. Slide across again and you’ll reach the Bing search panel.

The great thing about this search function is that you can search by either the song/game/movie title, or by your favourite actor or singer. What you’ll be presented with is a long list of media items, all relating to what you typed in. Some may be songs, others may be games or films; just scroll down to discover new titles or find what it was you were looking for.

Xbox SmartGlass also acts as a trackpad when you’re using the new Internet Explorer that was added in this autumn’s dashboard update.

With Internet Explorer open on your Xbox, sliding your finger across your phone’s screen moves the cursor in exactly the same way on your Xbox – your finger becomes the cursor. Navigating the cursor to the address bar at the top will allow you to enter a URL, and to make things as simple as possible, Xbox SmartGlass launches a keyboard on your phone to allow you to enter in a URL from your Nokia Lumia.

When it comes to clicking on items or links, tap your phone screen to make that happen and zooming into webpages is possible by placing two fingers on the phone screen and pinching together – reverse that to zoom out.

What if you’re browsing the web on your Xbox and have to leave the house? Take that web page with you on your Nokia Lumia. Tap the icon at the bottom that resembles a phone with an arrow pointing to the screen and the webpage you were just looking at on the Xbox will be transferred over to your phone. You can now carry on where you left off, away from your Xbox and on your phone while you hop on a bus.

Xbox SmartGlass is free to download from the Windows Phone Store, so make sure you grab it today.

Do you use an Xbox 360 and Xbox SmartGlass? If so, tell us your experiences with it, using the comments section below.

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If you’re a sports fan then having a mobile phone is just as crucial as having a tennis racquet, some football boots or a cricket bat.

How else are you going to get live scores, fixture lists and the latest news?

My Nokia Asha 311 smartphone is the ideal device for these purposes and there are plenty of apps in the Nokia Store to satisfy the needs of any sports fan.

On your marks, get set, ready? Go!

 

This is the app formerly known as ESPNSoccernet, but if you were a fan of it previously then you can be rest assured that the name is all that’s changed.

This app still offers live football scores, fixtures, match stats and tables of all the major leagues around the world. In other words, this has all the vital information that a football fan will need. 

Sticking with football, there are a couple of other apps that you may want to try out. Live Scores (free) does what its name suggests and Goal News Launcher (free) brings all the stories from goal.com to your Asha device.

 

The sedate and charming world of cricket… The glorious sound of leather on willow! I love the tradition of clapping the batsman out as they walk to the wicket.

Cricket fans are well catered for in the Nokia Store. Cricket Companion 4.0 provides ball-by-ball coverage of matches, news, results and those all-important statistics.

There’s also Cricket Calling (free), which provides many of the same features and for something a little different I really liked Cricket Wicket (free), which provides the sound of tumbling wickets and the crowd cheering in the background. It’s a tremendous ringtone option.

 

Keen golfers will really appreciate this mScorecard app. It helps you keep track of your score while you are playing and even uses GPS to help you track your distance to the green?

Armchair fans of the sport may be interested in Golf App (free) which connects to feeds of the latest golf news and also has tips on how you can improve your game – should you ever feel inclined to have a ‘good walk spoiled’.

There also has be a honourable mention for Nokia Golf Tour 3D (free) an engrossing golf simulator where you can play alone (against the conditions, of course) or against an opponent. Lots of fun and great graphics too.

 

Fans of Formula 1 have a great choice of apps in the Nokia Store – and that’s not even including all the racing games.

F1 Confidential promises to offer insider gossip, news and pictures from the pit lanes. If you’re seeking something a bit more conventional then ESPNF1 (free) is probably a better bet.

This has commentary and summaries or faces, latest standings, driver profiles and everything else you could hope for. Along similar lines is F1 Live! Lite (free).

World of Red Bull (free) is not solely devoted to F1, as it also features many of the energy drinks’ other daredevil sports, but you may want to give it a spin nevertheless.

We know it’s impossible to cover every single sport and with any list there’s always a risk that your particular favourite may get left out! But, with a sharp intake of breath, here are some other notable apps for lovers of the following sports:

 

Rugby devotees may want to download Rugby App (free) for all the latest news in the world of the oval-shaped game.

Talking of oval shapes, gridiron fans, or American Football, if you insist, can stay up-to-date with NFL Scores (free).

If you prefer your motor racing to be done on two wheels rather than four, then you should check out MotoGP Superbikes (free) or World Superbikes (free).

Is wrestling a real sport? I would suggest not, but either way there’s aWWE (free) and WWE News for you to choose from.

And, finally, the prize for the most esoteric and exclusive sports app in the Nokia Store has to go to Polo Club (free). For all the latest news from the world of polo!

Top image credit: foxypar4

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