My Xbox Live For iOS: Microsoft Releases Xbox App For iPhone

Microsoft surprised the tech world Wednesday when it released an Xbox app for a mobile operating system besides its own.

The My Xbox Live for iOS devices is out now, free and optimized for either iPhone/iPod Touch or iPad.

With My Xbox Live, Xbox gamers can manage and alter several facets of their accounts. From the iTunes app description:

Take your Xbox LIVE experience wherever you go with the My Xbox LIVE app. Track and compare your achievements, connect with your Xbox LIVE friends, and change up your 3D Avatar. Review all your recent great games you and your friends love to play and compare achievements with them. Jump into our games hub to learn about the latest LIVE games and apps. Access Xbox Spotlight feeds, get breaking news from Xbox LIVE, game tips and tricks, gamer spotlight and much more.

HuffPost Tech sister site Engadget notes that the iOS app isn't quite as meaty as its Windows Phone counterpart. Users with WP7 can search and download games, movies and music on their Windows Phone devices, among other rewards for going all-Microsoft, but the iOS app does carry with it a decidedly Mango-ish look. From the screen captures below, you can see that the My Xbox Live app retains the Metro design elements and typefaces familiar to Windows Phone users. (And this isn't the first time Metro has snuck onto a rival OS device. In late November, Microsoft announced a new mobile website where iOS and Android device users could try out the Windows Phone interface on their own smartphones).

The Xbox team over at Microsoft has been busy this month. The Netflix app for Xbox Live was updated with an improved user interface, and the ability to control your Xbox 360 using your Windows Phone was recently added in the Windows Marketplace. The big news, of course, was the huge Xbox software update, which enables futuristic Kinect voice control of your machine and tacks on live television and several new channels; that update is rolling out as we speak after a few minor delays.

The latest news, however, is the Xbox Live's crossover move; below, check out screenshots of that new OS-hopping My Xbox Live app for the iPhone. If you've got an Xbox Live account, go ahead and download it with this link in the iTunes store (get on Wi-Fi first: It's 17MB) and, if you've got a Windows Phone, pick up the Xbox companion in the Windows Marketplace (here).

Comments

[ClipclockHub]

06:08 PM on 01/18/2013

No one has time to watch entire videos on mobile devices, that is why the ClipClock mobile app is so great!clipclock.com/download/4379

[CptQuesti]

04:13 PM on 12/08/2011

Noticed this article earlier, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-magid/onlive-cloud-gaming_b_1136678.html?ref=technology
Seems like it blows doors on the Xbox announcement, but if I were Microsoft, I'd want to get in on the mobile story too.

[Tom Hn]

11:54 AM on 12/08/2011

Xbox really stands out from all the boring Microsoft products nowadays. They should shift some of the marketing budgets from Windows Phone to Xbox.

[TrickyDOTcom]

10:50 AM on 12/08/2011

Well I guess I can say goodbye to the 360 Live App. Good job M$, I will give you just this one.

[Tanrioldu]

10:30 AM on 12/08/2011

I bet somehow this app will still manage to get a virus even though it is on an apple device. Wouldn't be a microsoft product without the viruses!

[NerdyStudent]

03:33 PM on 12/08/2011

That's one of the dumbest comments ever.

[ShawnRay]

06:42 PM on 12/08/2011

We are all now dumber for reading your comment

[JasonMcl]

08:05 AM on 12/08/2011

Since the OnLive app was released for Android and iPhone 2 days ago, you can get console quality games on either device, phone or tablet.

The games are a streaming service, they are being "played" on a remote server and your inputs are sent back to it via the on screen touchpad or external controller that onlive sells.

The interface is very slick and the gameplay is fluid and basically perfect over wifi. I didn't notice any kind of delays with the input. I will try it later on 3G to see how much streaming data it uses.

You can either "buy" a game, rent an individual one or there is a netflix-like subscription service where you pay 10 bucks a month for access to a hundred or so titles.

Pretty awesome, the only drawback is that you obviously need an unlimited data plan on a solid LTE network to get it done. HSPA+ might be fast enough but I am pretty sure 3G users will not be able to play reliably.

[JasonMcl]

08:07 AM on 12/08/2011

Oh an the point of that was that you really don't need an xBox or PS3 anymore. Since you can hook up a HDMI cable or "Airplay" to your heart's content.

[jgeurian21]

10:54 AM on 12/08/2011

Just wanted to point out that the catalog of games for Onlive is not even close to what is for consoles like the PS3 or Xbox 360. I had to wait for titles to appear on Online that had been renting for months and my friends had already played. Sort of like waiting 2 years for a new release to hit Netflix.

[jgeurian21]

10:49 AM on 12/08/2011

As a past Onlive customer I have to 100% disagree with you on the fluid gameplay. I have a cable internet connection at 30mpbs speeds and playing the games was simply horrid. The latency was made the games down right unplayable. I dropped the service and went back to my console. Maybe they were having some problems in early 2011, but it really did ruin my Christmas with the sheer let down of how bad the service was.

[JasonMcl]

06:07 PM on 12/08/2011

They must have made some improvements because it was silky smooth on my Xperia play. I have a very solid fiber optic internet connection and an exceptional router, so that may have something to do with it. My ping is typically 10-20 ms on most servers and that's with a 100 foot ethernet cable.

In my experience, cable typically has a very high latency, especially on uploads so even with that amazing bandwidth things like onlive won't typically respond very well.

[mados123]

01:43 AM on 12/08/2011

They have been creating apps going back to the excellent panorama and 3D point cloud app, "Photosynth."
http://photosynth.net

[anchises868]

10:54 PM on 12/07/2011

Cool! All I'm missing to use it is an iPhone/iPad/iPod touch and an Xbox.

[Niem Nguyen]

06:07 AM on 12/08/2011

don't forget about the LIVE account :)

[anchises868]

10:51 AM on 12/08/2011

LOL, thank you. I did forget about that.

[NerdyStudent]

10:40 PM on 12/07/2011

I actually rather like this idea, and put it on my iPhone 4 today...

The more interesting story however for those of us 8% er's who use the WP7, the new Xbox Companion App turns our phone into a remote control for the console--sort of like existing apps to do the same for PCs...

[DRaymond]

10:30 PM on 12/07/2011

Why is this surprising? Microsoft has never been as parochial as people seem to think. Consider all of the copies it sells of Microsoft Office for Mac. Or all the copies of Windows it sells for people who dual-boot their Macs.

[jgeurian21]

10:50 AM on 12/08/2011

Great points.

[ShabazKMorton]

07:01 PM on 12/08/2011

If not for Office....the mac and likely Apple would have died.

Fanboys hate to hear it...but it's true.