What's more, the free Android, iOS and Desktop LIVE Controller apps allow everyone in the family to hold a potential controller in their hands.
Now, over the past year or so there has been a real move to push applications that live on the desktop into the online world.
Both SmartGlass and Windows 8 extend the Xbox brand by offering 2nd screen functionality and Xbox Live titles on the desktop, respectively.
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The Altec Lansing LIVE Controller apps for iOS, Android, and Desktop are available for free download from the Apple App Store, the Android Marketplace and Altec Lansing's website respectively.
NEC's new desktop PCs might just hit the spot -- if you live in Japan, that is.
For instance, S-Launcher is a desktop widget that replicates the now-extinct Start Menu, live search and all. eSettings, meanwhile, is a centralized options menu for folks who might not know where to find power management or display settings in Win 8.
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When the solution is live in October, Skype users will be able to purchase Skype Credits from desktop PCs and mobile devices, through browser-based purchases and in the future, through in-app functionality.
ENGADGET: Skype strikes deal with Mach to expand direct carrier billing for credit purchases
Game Center will be another adaptation coming from the mobile iOS system, giving gamers a central place to find games and opponents -- a stab by Apple at gaining relevance in a desktop gaming space that is still dominated by Microsoft with its Xbox Live network.
In other words, while you can install an app like Photoshop on a full Windows 8 machine, you can't do it here, nor any other Windows application written since the dawn of the OS. Additionally, we have our doubts about whether anyone going forward will bother to write desktop apps versus those more optimized for running in the de facto Live Tile interface.
Once they've passed a UI certification, devices and apps will be billed as "plugged into Skype, " but don't expect to see anything happen too quickly: the SDK is Linux-only at the moment, with Windows and Mac desktop versions forthcoming, and Skype will be testing apps and devices before they go live.
ENGADGET: SkypeKit beta SDK adds Skype to any application or device
If you'd rather not let your Nexus 7 live out its life as a Jelly Bean-toting device, Canonical's freshly minted Ubuntu Nexus 7 Desktop Installer can help.
ENGADGET: Ubuntu lands on Nexus 7 slates with Canonical's one-click installer
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