Hasta La Gadget!

You might think you’ve seen all that can be done with Kinect, but you would of course be wrong. Here’s another example of how Microsoft’s bundle of sensors and cameras can be utilized to freshen up an old concept — in this case a music video — with some arresting new visuals. Just sit back, relax, and hit play.

[Thanks, Joe]

Kinect used to shoot a gorgeous, ghostly music video originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink People Can Be Good  |  Dan Nixon (Vimeo)  | Email this | Comments

Microsoft just announced it’s had itself a solid second quarter, posting an $6.63 billion profit on record revenues of $19.95 billion. That’s more or less about the same as last year, when it racked up a $6.66 billion profit on $19 billion in revenue — and while the numbers look stable and Redmond managed to slightly beat estimates, things are changing fast underneath the bottom line: strong Kinect and Xbox 360 sales drove Entertainment and Devices Division revenue up 55 percent to $3.6 billion, but Windows and Windows Live revenue fell nearly 30 percent to $5.05 billion. That means the revenue gap between Microsoft’s consumer device business and the Windows business is now just some $1.3 billion, compared to $4.8 billion this time last year — and it undoubtedly explains why Xbox got top billing at Ballmer’s CES keynote this year, after traditionally being ignored, and why Microsoft is moving Windows to ARM as the mobile and tablet spaces heat up.

As for Windows Phone 7, there’s nary a peep, even though Microsoft was just crowing about moving 2 million licenses yesterday — we’re taking that to mean the infant OS hasn’t had any meaningful impact on revenue yet. We’re going to jump on the call at 5:30PM ET, we’ll let you know if anything good happens.

Update: Corrected the profit numbers: it’s a $6.63b profit and a $8.17b operating income, not a $8.17b profit.

Update 2: As noted by our friend Michael Gartenberg, Microsoft’s Q210 Windows division revenue was boosted by the inclusion of $1.71 billion in deferred Windows 7 upgrade sales and OEM pre-sales, so if you take those out, the gap between Windows and Xbox went from 3.1 billion in Q210 to 1.3 billion this quarter, and Windows sales are down 8 percent. It’s not a huge change for the big picture, but it’s worth noting the revenue deferral in context — Microsoft moved cash around so it would have a huge launch quarter for Windows 7, and now things are evening out.

Microsoft announces Q2 earnings: $6.63b profit, Xbox revenue up 55%, Windows down 29% originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve never been shy about our affection for Logitech’s G25 and G27 steering wheels, and now we can share our love with our friends of the Xbox 360 persuasion. With the brand new F-1 converter from XCM, die hard Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Slim fans can get behind the same wheels we’ve been behind since 2006. If that wasn’t reward enough, the F-1 also sports a built-in combo-attack memory function for fighting games, and rumble support is baked in for good measure. So go ahead, ye of the XBox 360 ilk, plug her in, caress the contours of her beautiful leather-wrapped curves, feel the way she kicks — we’ll try not to get jealous. Video game voyeurs can check out the F-1 in action after the jump.

[Thanks, Roadography]

Continue reading XCM’s F-1 Converter lets XBox 360 players get behind G25, G27 racing wheels (video)

XCM’s F-1 Converter lets XBox 360 players get behind G25, G27 racing wheels (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The story of the Trojan Horse must be a favorite among video game console manufacturers, because software updates these days often come with more than bargained for — today, Microsoft issued a mandatory Xbox 360 update, reportedly for a single bugfix, but which seems to have coincidentally halted scores of pirates and hackers from playing Call of Duty: Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 on the console. Members of the Xbox-Scene forums noted the update was taking suspiciously long to download, discovered that backup copies of these games ceased to work, and presently believe that Microsoft included a patch for these two games to enable an anti-piracy feature that specifically targets burned copies. What does the mandatory update do for you if you’re not part of the hacking scene? It merely enables the console to automatically boot a pre-inserted game when you power it on, a feature that was accidentally disabled in November.

[Thanks, Brian]

Xbox 360 mandatory update restores boot to disc, detains Call of Duty pirates for a tad originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WinRumors, NeoGaf  |  Major Nelson, Xbox-Scene  | Email this | Comments

It’s safe to say that, on the console gaming front, the Wiimote and the Kinect are competitors. But, take a step away to the world of PC gaming, and suddenly they can get along like old chums. That’s what’s demonstrated in the video below, created by YouTuber demize2010, which shows Call of Duty controlled by Wiimote, Nunchuk, and Kinect, enabling reloads, knife attacks, and peeking around corners. But wait, there’s more! The Blitz marketing agency has worked up a demo in which the Kinect can be used with a Flash interface, which doesn’t look too dissimilar from what Microsoft uses on the Xbox. This could open the door to fancier websites — if indeed any large number of PC owners ever actually wind up buying a Kinect. Both videos can be seen below.

Kinect hacked to work with Flash, Wiimotes, we can’t imagine what’s next (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PC World  |  demize2010 (YouTube), CNET  | Email this | Comments