Microsoft’s wonderfully shiny new Xbox 360 dashboard is now available to most, and, while it’s a bit of a letdown in some ways (more on that later, probably), it has plenty of very, very cool new features. Cloud storage for game saves! New Netflix! HBOGO (Eventually!)
One of the niftier features, however, is being saved solely for those rockin’ Windows Phone 7 phones. Called Xbox Companion, it allows you some degree of control over your 360 from your handset (as opposed to a standard controller), and it just went live.
Now, don’t go throwing out your dedicated controller just yet, (Master) Chief. While the Xbox Companion lets you fire up and control media and set beacons (alerting you when friends are playing certain games, so you can drop everything and get some headshots), it’s by no means a replacement for your actual controller. It is, at least in its current state, mostly a rather neat trick and an occasional excuse to not get up and grab the controller.
Still: if you’ve got a Windows Phone handset, a 360, and a Live account, give it a spin.
