If an alien symbiote bonded with your Xbox 360 controller, it would probably look a lot like N-Control’s Xbox 360 Avenger controller attachment. It would undoubtedly make a lot of the same promises, too: lightning reflexes, more kills. More »
Continue reading KinectNUI enables Minority Report style interaction in Windows sans gloves (video)
KinectNUI enables Minority Report style interaction in Windows sans gloves (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While we wait (rather impatiently, we might add) for Mango to make its official debut others are still playing with test builds, pouring over code, and digging up interesting tidbits about Microsoft’s mobile OS update. That WP7 will be getting improved HTML5 support is nothing new but, that it will specifically support in-browser audio and continue to stream even if you navigate away from the browser or lock the screen, is music (literally) to our ears. Snippets discovered in a recent Mango dump have also turned up mentions of Xbox Live Voice chat, parties, multiplayer gaming, and tighter integration with the 360 for pushing Live content to your big screen. If you hit the WPSauce source link you’ll find a whole host of other fascinating things in the WP7 code, and some details about just how deeply Facebook will be tied to the OS. But, before you go, check out the video of the HTML5 audio support in action after the break.
[Thanks, Charlie]
More Mango features uncovered: in-browser audio streams, Xbox Live voice chats, and more (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dennis Durkin is COO and CFO for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. He’s also a dude thoroughly disillusioned with the future of portable consoles. Speaking to IndustryGamers, Durkin explains that the “crowded” nature of the mobile gaming market right now makes it extremely difficult to launch a dedicated handheld gaming device successfully — in his colorful words, it’s “a very, very red ocean.” Whose blood is soiling those waters? The Nintendo 3DS, says Durkin, which has sold reasonably well, but has clearly failed to reach the lofty expectations set for it by fans and previous handhelds from the company. Likewise, the PS Vita invites a lot of skepticism from the Xbox chief, who says his excitement is reserved for what Microsoft can do with Kinect, Xbox Live and unique content. You might say it’s to be expected that an Xbox exec would be casting doubt over Sony’s great new hope, but what we learn in the process is that Microsoft has no intentions of squaring up to its home console nemesis on the mobile front. Not with dedicated hardware, anyway.
Xbox COO sees dedicated handheld market as a ‘red ocean,’ will let Sony and Nintendo swim in it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 07:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Still not clear on what your gaming options will be like with Windows Phone Mango? Then Microsoft’s now got you covered with a fairly extensive overview of its new Games Hub, which has actually been tweaked a bit further from earlier previews it’s offered. One of the biggest changes is that the Hub now includes features previously relegated to the separate Xbox Live Extras app, including improved Xbox Live messaging, integrated achievements (complete with comparison views with your friends), and the ability to edit your Xbox Live profile — not to mention fully animated 3D avatars. The Hub also boasts a new Collection view that promises to let you more easily manage your installed Windows Phone games, and it’s literally been brightened up a bit across the board. Check out the gallery below for a closer look, and hit the source link for some more details.
Gallery: Windows Phone ‘Mango’ Games Hub
Microsoft details the new Games Hub for Windows Phone Mango originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Microsoft opened up the Kinect Software Developement Kit to coders everywhere Thursday. (Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com)
Microsoft on Thursday released a software development kit for its Kinect gaming system, and hackers are already testing the limits of what the device can do.
After the release of the SDK, Microsoft invited a group of developers to its headquarters in Redmond, Washington to see what kinds of applications they could come up with for the device. Dubbed “Code Camp,” the developers were given 24 hours to create programs that would interact with the Xbox-based motion-sensing device.
Initially released in November of 2010, the Kinect replaces the traditional Xbox controller with the movements of your actual hands, using a camera that translates motion into controlling the videogame you’re playing. The device was a hit for the company; Kinect sales surpassed10 million units in March.
But the Kinect’s release proved to be bigger than just a hands-free videogame controller. The device’s motion controller opens doors to application across all sorts of fields, from major advances in robotics to medical research. Until now, sensors and cameras used for capturing the motion of 3-D objects were either cumbersome and expensive, or cheap and unreliable. At $150, the lightweight, compact Kinect is capable of capturing real-time 3-D motion at the perfect price.
Initial Kinect application ideas ranged from the bland — such as a human-controlled version of Atari’s Pong — to the nerdy — like the augmented-reality program that drops a lightsaber in your left hand.
The coolest by far, however, was the “Quadracopter” hack, which lets you move a four-propeller-powered helicopter through the air with a mere flick of your wrists, seen below:
Coders can access the Kinect’s video, microphone and depth sensors to build on the low-level data streams taken in by the hardware. They can also access some of the more high-level capabilities like noise and echo cancellation, and skeletal tracking makes gesture-navigation in applications possible.
For major platforms, launching a software development kit is a big deal. When launching a new piece of hardware like the Kinect, building a robust ecosystem of applications is important to attract potential buyers. In order for that to happen, hardware companies need to court the developer community, enticing coders to build different programs for the new device. Recently, Apple has seen the most success in this realm, as its iOS platform contains over 500,000 applications available for download in its App Store. Similarly, Android is catching up with over 200,000 in the Android Market.
What’s difficult to imagine, however, is how Microsoft can build its developer base of Kinect coders when there seems to be little financial incentive for them to join. As Make points out, Microsoft’s developer agreement terms essentially state “you can’t start a business, make money, sell services or consulting” using the SDK.
“Under the terms of the license for this SDK Beta, you cannot deploy applications created with the SDK Beta for use in your business operations,” according to the noncommercial-use terms Microsoft makes developers agree to. “Even if no fee is charged or received in connection with such use, such use in a business is still a commercial use and is not permitted under the SDK Beta license.”
This is arguably one of the biggest stumbling blocks for Android, which is being beaten out by iOS in terms of making developers more money.
Still, the impetus for Microsoft’s SDK release began with amateur coders creating homebrewed hacks with the Kinect for the fun of it. If opening up the SDK leads to more of this, Kinect’s platform could grow much larger.
Of course, Microsoft’s SDK release is initially available to Windows 7 developers only.
IBM’s Centennial anniversary is fast approaching (as in TODAY), and their 100 years of hard work shouldn’t go unnoticed. Behind every major technological advance, you’re likely to find IBM’s name floating around somewhere. Here are 9 of our favorite IBM-aided innovations. More »
At first glance, the N-Control Avenger looks like the fevered dream of a quirky lunatic, destined for fame and failure as a legendary crapgadget. When one showed up on our doorstep, we were admittedly skeptical. Could a lever- and pulley-laden Xbox 360 controller clamshell really give us a competitive edge? Wouldn’t all the extra bits and pieces only result in a cumbersome mess? Is this doodad really worth the $50 asking price? We went hands-on to find out, and boy howdy, were we surprised.
Gallery: N-Control Avenger hands-on
N-Control Avenger Xbox 360 attachment makes it look complicated, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This must be the season of the hacking witch as we’ve now seen yet another company’s online security walls breached. Independent UK games developer Codemasters, responsible for titles like Dirt 3 and Overlord, has reported that its website was hacked on the third of June, exposing the names, addresses (both physical and email), birthdays, phone numbers, Xbox gamer tags, biographies, and passwords of its registered users. Payment information wasn’t compromised, but when you consider that almost everything else was, that feels like hollow consolation. For its part, Codemasters says it took the website offline as soon as the breach was detected and a subsequent investigation has revealed the number of affected users to be in the tens of thousands. Those who might have been affected directly are being emailed with penitent apologies, while the rest of us are being pointed to the company’s Facebook page while its web portal is kept offline.
Codemasters website hacked, ‘tens of thousands’ of personal accounts compromised originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 04:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft’s already brought Xbox Live integration to Windows Phone 7, and it looks like you can count on some similar, if not deeper, integration in Windows 8 as well. Speaking to The Seattle Times, Microsoft VP Mike Delman said that “Live has been successful on the Windows Phone,” and that “Live will be built into the PC. It will be the service where you get your entertainment.” Delman went on to add that “Xbox Live will the pervasive media service across devices,” and that “whether it’s us or Apple or anybody else, people want to be able to navigate through multiple devices in a certain ecosystem very seamlessly so we’re committed to that.” As you might expect, however, he was still fairly light on any further specifics, but he did say that assets like Live and SkyDrive will be unified, and he promised that Microsoft will have plenty more to show at next year’s E3 — according to Delman, “you will not just see consoles and handhelds at this show next year, this show’s going to morph into other devices.”
Microsoft talks Xbox Live integration in Windows 8, says service will be ‘pervasive’ across devices originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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