As expected, Microsoft announced the debut of SmartGlass at its E3 press event yesterday. It’s an app, essentially, meant to work in conjunction with the Xbox. As you watch a movie or a TV show on your Xbox, the app (which runs on Android and Apple devices) (and Windows phone too, I suppose) can show you additional information about what it is you’re watching. So instead of having that laptop to look up IMDB info on the actor in the movie, you’ll have Microsoft do that for you and then you can be distracted and not enjoy anything hooray.

The Verge says SmartGlass has more potential as a gaming accessory:

The demo this morning showed off a version of Madden that allowed a tablet to be used as a secondary controller, with the gamer selecting plays, or as a way to initiate multi-player sessions and scan stats in Halo 4. While we didn’t see those demos ourselves, we did see a version of the new title Ascend, where a Lumia 900 running SmartGlass offered up a real-time map displaying the progress of our character as they explored the world.