The magical "Devices" Charm is essentially AirPlay

[fc000]

Right to the point...

The "Devices" charm is not the same as "Play To", though the play to function is a feature of the Devices charm... but what's the difference? If you're playing a playlist in XBox Music on your Surface, and many of the songs in your playlist are local and don't have cloud versions, when you "Play To XBox 360", only the songs available ON XBox Music will play.

But, if you open you're devices charm, and select "XBox 360" you're now streaming the entire playlist directly from your device to the XBox, including songs not found on XBox Music, and you remain in the app, without being bumped to XBox Smartglass.

I've also noticed while watching videos on certain websites in IE10, the XBox 360 becomes an option in the devices charm. Now I sadly only saw it come up on a video that got stuck in an endless loading loop (and it doesn't show up for YouTube videos), but I'd imagine it can also send media to the XBox 360 for viewing in the same method as AirPlay on iOS.

You can also use the devices charm to send photos to the XBox 360, allowing the Surface to become a slideshow controller. I haven't had the chance to explore what other apps support the devices charm, but the option to send content to the XBox 360 will only appear when there is active content on screen that can be sent.

 

[stephen_az]

While that is one element, devices is a lot more than airplay. That is focusing on just one element relevant to a person with a Xbox.

 

[fc000]

Oh of course its just one element of the power of the devices charm, but its nice to see this type of media support is built right into the os level.

 

[jhoff80]

If you subtract Airplay's biggest feature (mirroring) then maybe SmartGlass and DLNA Play To are equivalent...

 

[stephen_az]

Oh of course its just one element of the power of the devices charm, but its nice to see this type of media support is built right into the os level.

My point is it is not "essentially" airplay. I am glad it can do stuff like that but to say it is essentially that one thing is overly simplistic. I could say it is essentially a printer driver and that would miss the point too. It is a flexible UI element that, like the other charms, adjusts its functionality based upon what you are doing at the time. There is a huge difference between its overall function and integration into both Windows RT and Windows 8 versus a single (very nice) Apple feature.

 

[Coreldan]

Damn.. Makes me want to get an xbox too, but not gonna get a 7 year old console at this point

 

[Digital Moe]

What site did you get the option to send to Xbox to appear?

 

[jhoff80]

What site did you get the option to send to Xbox to appear?

It needs to use HTML5 video, I believe.

 

[Digital Moe]

I thought as much problem is you always get directed to the desktop version of a site and when you do go to the mobile one it not the one that iOS or Android users get.