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At long last, Microsoft will be bringing its Internet Explorer browser to the Xbox 360, scheduled for launch sometime “this fall.” The announcement was made during the company’s annual E3 keynote speech this afternoon. Xbox Live head Marc Whitten touted the service as being the first “fast, fluid, intuitive web experience in the living room.” As expected, Internet Explorer for Xbox will utilize Kinect voice and gesture features in an attempt to simplify the browsing experience. Say “web hub,” for instance, and you’ll be brought to the service’s homepage. From there, users can use voice commands to go through their favorites or bookmarked pages, shout out search queries with Bing, and the like. 
While certainly a neat idea, the question naturally arises of whether or not such a way of browsing the internet is genuinely “easier” than using the tried-and-true keyboard and computer screen technique. Nevertheless, an internet browser for Xbox has long been overdue, so it is refreshing to see Microsoft catch up to its competition in that respect. Whether or not all this succeeds will have to wait until later this year, when the platform officially hits consoles. By Jeff Dunn |