I can’t remember the last time I jumped so high. Kinect Adventures looked so lame in Microsoft’s press conference just two days ago. But now I find myself leaping and lunging like a stuck lamb to win. I’m frolicking. More »
We’ve become so familiar with the “Project Natal” codename over the years that our tongues are still having a little trouble wrapping around Microsoft’s new Kinect moniker for it. Still, what’s in a name? Microsoft has finally shown us what matters with real games, real gameplay, and real hardware, and after spending some time with it using our very own human flesh to control the on-screen action, we feel like we’re starting to get a pretty good grip on the experience. Follow after the break as we break down the complicated workings and emergent gameplay of Kinect.
Continue reading Kinect guide: a preview and explanation of Microsoft’s new full body motion sensor
Kinect guide: a preview and explanation of Microsoft’s new full body motion sensor originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For the debut of their company Nox Audio, some creative headphone designers went all-out, crafting a feature-packed folding headset ready to rock PC chat, console gaming and even iPhone use. Priced at $80, the Specialist isn’t going to do all that without some compromises, of course — join us after the break to find out which uses these cans were best suited for.
Continue reading Nox Audio Specialist review
Nox Audio Specialist review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s a color we know so well, but it looks like Microsoft would like to dissociate itself from its RROD heritage, or perhaps just ran out of red LEDs: the new Xbox 360 only has a green ring around its power button, so even if you wrap the thing in a blanket and set it on fire, it won’t be flashing red to tell you how it feels. This was unearthed in a spec sheet that Joystiq received from a tipster, along with all the other fancy specs you can see above. Overall the console is 17% smaller, which really goes to show that Microsoft was much more interested in noise and heat reduction than sliding the new 360 into a smaller crevice of your home entertainment center.
New Xbox 360 loses ability to flash a red ring, can still probably die a fiery death originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Did you hear? Microsoft just unleashed a new Xbox 360! You can get all the info we have on it at our new Xbox 360 hub!
Check out our new Xbox 360 hub! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Xbox 360 Arcade reduced to $99** during Walmart Father’s Day sale originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While those lucky enough to find themselves in America can start hoarding new Xbox 360 consoles this week, folks in Europe are being forced to wait until July 16th. But hey, at least you now know how much it’ll cost you when that fateful day arrives, right? Microsoft has just fessed up to a €249.99 ($305) MSRP for the Xbox 360 250GB, complete with WiFi and one of those Kinect-friendly auxiliary ports. In related news, Wired.co.uk is also reporting that the console will sell for £200 ($294) when it lands in Britain, but we’re still waiting on the Big M to confirm that one.
New Xbox 360 priced at €249.99 in Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Microsoft apparently held a media roundtable last night after its Xbox press event, confirming that it will eventually phase out its existing models in favor of the new “slim” model.
My colleague Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat reported:
“The new Xbox 360 with a 250-gigabyte hard drive and the smaller black
design will sell for $299,” Takahashi wrote. “The older Xbox 360 Elite console with a
120-gigabyte hard drive will sell for $249. And the Xbox 360 Arcade
console, which does not have a hard drive, will sell for $149. The Elite
and Arcade consoles will be sold until existing supplies run out.”
Microsoft has not said if it will release versions of the Elite or Arcade models with the new design. The latest Xbox costs $299, and will be available this week.
To date, Microsoft still has not released a price for the Xbox Kinect peripheral; Aaron Greenberg, an Xbox product manager, denied reports that the Kinect’s price had been set. Gamestop reportedly posted a Web page claiming that it would be priced at $149.
“No Kinect price announced yet, retail price
estimates are purely speculative, final price & pack-in details are
not yet determined,” Greenberg tweeted.
Microsoft’s own official Twitter account, however, has revealed that Kinect will go on sale on Nov. 4, backed by 16 launch titles. Microsoft will begin selling the new slim Xbox in Europe on July 16.
It may not have a new name, but the Xbox 360 certainly has received quite a facelift on this the fifth anniversary of its unveiling. The new Xbox 360 (aka the “Xbox 360 250GB”) makes up for its familiar name by offering a starkly refreshed and, in our eyes, significantly sexier design than its predecessor — which honestly was quite the looker in its day. Despite only just being made official, we’ve already had time to unbox and play with one, a dizzyingly fast-paced unveil that might have left you with some questions about just what here is new and what here is old. Click on through, dear reader, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know.
Gallery: New Xbox 360 press shots
Continue reading New Xbox 360 guide: Microsoft’s slim console explained
New Xbox 360 guide: Microsoft’s slim console explained originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We just got a look at the new Kinect Dashboard-lite for the Xbox 360. In some ways, it’s pretty charming, with fun, jazzed up icons (when you hover over them they tilt and show off depth), a simplistic layout, and some great voice controls. The downside is this all comes at the cost of a brand new, fairly redundant interface for accessing functions that are already available with your Xbox 360 controller in the regular Dashboard. Still, there’s no denying the joy of waving a hand to log in, hovering over icons to select channels (though the wait-to-click mechanism strikes us as eventually frustrating), and scrubbing through media with very intuitive gestures.
The best part is the voice control, however, allowing you to speak “Xbox” and then a command like play, pause, back, forward, stop, Zune, etc. It’s ripe for abuse (pausing your S.O.’s seventh Netflix screening of The Constant Gardner ad nauseam), but Microsoft says it’s working on eliminating random commands that might seep into conversation. Our biggest worry is that we’re going to see confusion and fragmentation of functionality with the divergent UI requirements that Kinect apps and regular Dashboard apps require — we can’t imagine the Facebook or Last.fm folks being super thrilled at creating an all-new app just to support Microsoft’s whims, but we’re told just such apps are in the works. Is the existing Dashboard really so complicated that Kinect couldn’t control it? Check out a video of this puzzling Kinectasticness after the break.
Gallery: E3 2010 – Kinect Interface preview
Continue reading Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview
Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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