|
Hands-On With Inside Xbox From Zumobi
Our iPhone expert sat down with Brad Dobbs of Zumobi, a mobile media company focused on delivering smart phone applications to check out their latest app for Xbox 360 owners.
|
|
Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Brad Dobbs of Zumobi, a mobile media company focused on delivering smart phone applications. For the avid Xbox 360 gamer, Zumobi brings the Xbox Experience to your iPhone. An app made for the 360 gamer that fears leaving their console behind, Inside Xbox 360 keeps you connected to the community.
The app has recently been updated, keeping pace with the New Xbox Experience. Community feedback is always taken into consideration, says Dobbs, "One of the biggest things we brought to this app from the reviews is the offline/online indicator and the 3D avatar support". The 3D avatar has indeed been brought into full view, and the app hones in on those familiar design elements that define the 360 Experience.
Your avatar and information get top billing in the Gamertag section and beneath that all your uploaded friends appear. There is an offline/online indicator for each, including yourself, though hopefully you know whether you are online or not. You can view what your friends are playing, a feature that lets you know you were a fool to have ever left home and should hurry back to join a game. Crisis averted. Also listed are what your friends have played most recently. If, however, your friend has left their gaming ways no recent games will appear (and you can feel free to shun them).
In addition to keeping you up-to-speed with the social side of 360 gaming, Inside Xbox 360 also provides a clearinghouse of official news and information from reviews to release dates to trailers. The new update to the app consolidates this information, condensing the format into an easier to read version. While the app is ideal for a gamer addicted to staying connected to their online experience, the offering of trailers and news makes it practical for a 360 owner that likes to keep up to date on the latest goings on and what the 360 library has in store.
When asked about developing for the iPhone Dobbs describes it as a "great experience", citing the distribution model and method as positives. "Apple took a good idea and make it really great and easy for the consumers and for us". Overall, Inside Xbox 360 is a pretty slick addition to the library, though not without some snags. Once you enter your gamertag, you must enter the tags for each friend you want to add. For a gamer with a robust friends list this is going to be either incredibly time-consuming, or incredibly selective. While it is fun to see what your friends are up to, it would be nice to shoot them a message or reply to messages they send you while on the go. I am not sure that the XBL API would allow for things like pulling gamertags, but it doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice. Navigation within the app is pretty easy, due in large part to its mirroring of the familiar 360 experience. Scrolling right to left within menu options does have some problems, but relatively quick load times from menu to menu alleviate some of this frustration.
The app comes to your iPhone at my favorite price point - free. This sort of discount brings ads along, of course, and other than the Mountain Dew part of the menu they are pretty unobtrusively nestled at the bottom of the screen. Capitalizing on the familiar, Inside Xbox 360 presents the New Xbox Experience in a consumable mobile format that offers a home-away-from-home for keen 360 gamers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
N4G Radio Podcast
|
 |
|
|
|
|
