Running Windows apps through the Xbox 360
Running Windows apps through the Xbox 360
Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications.
"Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
To continue on our favorite topic of the moment--the Media Center functions of the Xbox 360 gaming console--some enterprising types have been experimenting with using the 360 as a kind of dumb terminal to run Windows apps remotely.
Since the Xbox 360 already interfaces with your Media Center PC to grab movies, music, and photo files, why can't it run simple programs? After all, the Media Center interface has a handy More Programs tab, and wouldn't you know it, Microsoft has some documentation on its site for getting a program to show up in that tab.
A poster on the Gaming-Age forums (where this photo comes from) had some limited success getting Internet radio clients and some simple games running. The 360's been on the market for only a week, so it's just a matter of time before someone gets a fully functional browser or RSS feed up and running.
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