Xross Media Bar
The XrossMediaBar (pronounced cross-media bar and officially abbreviated as XMB) is a graphical user interface developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The interface features icons that are spread horizontally across the screen. Navigation moves the icons, instead of a cursor. These icons are used as categories to organize the options available to the user. When an icon is selected on the horizontal bar, several more appear vertically, above and below it (selectable by the up and down directions on a directional pad).
Originally used on the PSX, (Which was a PS2 with a Digital Video Recorder built in, not the original Playstation) the XMB is used as the default interface on both the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 3. Since 2006, it has also been used in high-end WEGA TVs, the BRAVIA starting with the 3000 (only in S-series and above), the Sony XEL-1 OLED TV, HDTV set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, some Sony Cyber-shot cameras and the high-end AV receivers. The Sony Ericsson K850, W595, W760 and W910 feature a version of the XMB as their media menu, indicating that the next implementation of XMB is in Sony Ericsson mobile phones. The XMB is also the menu system in the new generation of Sony's BRAVIA TVs. Sony has also added the XMB to its latest range of VAIO laptops.
The interface won the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for "Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Best Use of Personal Media Display and Presentation Technology" in 2006.
The future of XMB is uncertain. The PlayStation Vita adopted a new touch-based user interface called LiveArea. However, XMB is still the default interface in BRAVIA TVs.
Read more about Xross Media Bar: PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, BRAVIA, Control
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