Ascend_OracleoftheNewGodsFrom playing games, to watching movies, to listening to music, Microsoft’s all-in-one companion application, Xbox SmartGlass, continues to build a hefty catalog of ways to interact with your Xbox 360. For anyone still in the dark about inviting SmartGlass into their holy trinity of media consumption, or aren’t familiar with what exactly it does, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. His name’s Peter Orullian.

But first, what is Xbox SmartGlass? Consider SmartGlass the very best parts of a friendship without having to subscribe to that nagging social courtesy of considering their feelings. Too lazy to get up and grab your Xbox remote? No problem, SmartGlass loves being a remote. Need a quick tip about the game you’re playing? SmartGlass will show you in real time, and won’t ask to play or tell you what you’re doing wrong. Actually, consider Xbox SmartGlass to be like your personal virtual servant; a media genie that only likes what you like and never pesters you about freedom, or lamps.

In a series of tutorial videos released yesterday, Xbox SmartGlass Product Manager Peter Orullian has outlined the many possible ways you can enhance any experience with the SmartGlass application, including our favorite, Xbox Live Arcade. Giving us the first information on how we can expect to utilize SmartGlass with Signal Studios’ upcoming action-RPG Ascend: New Gods, Orullian demonstrates the newly unveiled Ascend: Oracle of the New Gods, which acts as an interactive compendium, realtime dungeon map and stat tracker. All this while showing off some much appreciated gameplay footage. Check out the video after the jump.

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In addition to Ascend: New Gods, Orullian demonstrates how you can utilize SmartGlass for interplay functionality with Home Run Stars, the Kinect-based baseball arcade game developed by Smoking Gun Interactive. By synchronizing SmartGlass with the game, you select hidden pitches to sling toward your opponent, with a separate mini-game played on the secondary device that judges how well that pitch is delivered.

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The whole series of videos can be found on the official Xbox Youtube Page, demonstrating the many uses of SmartGlass outside of Xbox Live Arcade. The application is also free and available for myriad devices including Windows 8, Windows Phone, Android and iOS devices, so if you’ve got a smartphone or tablet, chances are all these features are already available and waiting for you.