Paul Thurrott - Windows 8 Secrets

First, however, let’s dive into the collection a bit deeper. If you’re using the Albums or Artists view and select an item (that is, an album or artist, respectively), it provides a pop-up display providing more information about that item. In Figure 9-26, you can see this effect for a particular artist.

Figure 9-26:Selecting an artist or album provides a pop-up instead of opening a new screen.

This unique approach displays the information about the artist or album in this new area, but it will typically require more space than the area provides. So this view also enables you to scroll within the area, vertically, to see more information. In either view, for example, you can scroll down (within this pop-up) to see more songs.

This pop-up also provides prominent Play all, Add to now playing, Explore artist, and Play on Xbox 360 buttons. But you may be surprised to discover that tapping an individual song here won’t trigger immediate playback. Instead, this expands the view in-line yet again, providing separate Play and Add to now playing buttons, just for that song, as shown in Figure 9-27.

Here’s a rundown of the actions you can trigger from these pop-ups:

If you click Play, the selected song is added to—and does not replace—any other songs that may already be in the Now Playing playlist.

• Play:This button plays the current selection, which can be a song, an album, or an artist, and triggers the app bar-based Now Playing experience shown in Figure 9-28. Here you’ll find useful on-screen playback controls and other buttons.

Figure 9-27:Selecting a song will expand a new area with unique buttons for just that song.

Figure 9-28:The app bar-based Now Playing experience

To see the full-screen Now Playing experience, click or tap the album art view in the app bar. When you do, the screen will change to resemble Figure 9-29. Here, you can see an animated Now Playing area on the left with more information, like artist biography and discography, which can be viewed by scrolling to the right.

Figure 9-29:The full-screen Now Playing experience with additional information showing

Or, you can simply click the little Full Screen widget, in the bottom right of that Now Playing area, to see only the Now Playing view full screen. This can be seen in Figure 9-30. This screen should be familiar to anyone who’s played music via the Zune PC software or Xbox 360.

Figure 9-30:The full-screen Now Playing experience showing only the Now Playing area

Note that most of the playback controls you see on this screen will disappear if you stop interacting with the PC. Wiggle the mouse, tap the screen or a keyboard key, however, and they’ll return.

Available controls on this screen include:

• Back:Tap here to return to the previous view.

• Rewind:Rewind the currently playing track.

• Play/Pause:Play or pause the currently playing track.

• Forward:Fast forward the currently playing track.

• Now playing:Display the Now Playing list.

• Full-screen toggle:Toggle between the truly full-screen view and the previous full-screen view, which includes additional biographical and discography information about the currently playing artist.

• Add to Now Playing:You can add songs to the Now Playing list at any time by expanding an album, artist, or song, and then clicking the Add to Now Playing button.

• Explore Artist:This button displays the full-screen artist details screen described earlier and provides access to the artist’s biography and discography.

Microsoft will be replacing the Xbox Companion app with a similar but more powerful app called Xbox SmartGlass, which should be available by the end of 2012. You may want to look for this app, too.

If you don’t already have the Xbox Companion (or SmartGlass) app installed, you’ll be prompted to get it from Windows Store.

• Play on Xbox 360:This button launches the Xbox Companion app, which will connect you to an Xbox 360 console in your home (it needs to be powered on first) and play the selection there, instead of on the PC or device. Two things happen when this connection is made. On the Xbox 360, a familiar (and Music app-like) Now Playing screen appears for playback and, in fact, gives you additional playlist editing features you don’t even get in the Music app, such as the ability to clear the queue and add and remove songs. And on your PC or device, the Xbox Companion app provides a remote-like experience called Xbox Controls that provides playback buttons, as shown in Figure 9-31.

There’s one more aspect of music playback that needs to be addressed. While Play to Xbox 360 is useful and interesting, it’s not the only solution that Windows 8 provides for playing music from your PC (or device) to another device in your home. That is, in addition to supporting Play to Xbox 360, Windows 8 (and thus the Metro-style Xbox Music app) also supports the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) “Play To” technology, which works with a wide range of devices, including, go figure, the Xbox 360.

This Play on Xbox 360 functionality is a bit more sophisticated than the Play To feature that’s been in Windows for years. To work, however, Play on Xbox 360 requires that the content you’re playing be found in the Xbox Music (or Video) Store, whereas Play To simply streams music from the PC or device to the console.

The playback controls persist as you navigate through the Music Marketplace, unlike with some online stores.

Figure 9-31:The Xbox Companion app lets you push music playback to your Xbox 360 and use your Windows device like a giant remote.

So why support both Play on Xbox 360 and Play To? Play on Xbox 360 is, of course, Xbox-specific, and it requires that the content you’re playing is found in Microsoft’s Xbox-based online stores. That’s because while using Play on Xbox 360, Xbox Music isn’t streaming the content, it’s handing it off and letting the console play it instead. Play To, meanwhile, is more basic in that you’re just streaming content from the PC (or device) to a compatible set-top box. So if you were to shut down the PC, the music playback would stop. On other hand, Play To lets you play music through the console that isn’t found in the Xbox Music Store.

To utilize Play To, start music playback and then bring up Xbox Music’s app bar. Click the Play To button on the right of the app bar, and then choose the appropriate device from the Play To pane that appears, as in Figure 9-32.

Figure 9-32:Using Play To