Hasta La Gadget!

Are you tired of Kinect hacks yet? We didn’t think so — good thing too ’cause we’re not done bringing ’em to you. The latest one to hit our tips box comes from designer Jean-Christophe Naour (Innoiz Interactive), a 3D light-painting program he calls Kinect Graffiti. While calling the results “graffiti” might be a little misleading (Naour isn’t exactly bombing virtual walls) it does whip up some nice streaky neon images that can capture the act of tagging, if not the final product. We won’t waste any more of your time with our rambling — a picture is worth a thousand words, and the video after the break is composed of over 4,000 of those. Don’t miss the flood of photos at the more coverage link either.

Continue reading Kinect Graffiti creates neon tags with the wave of a hand (video)

Kinect Graffiti creates neon tags with the wave of a hand (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The E3 2011 announcements from Microsoft just keep on coming, though this one’s a little more superficial than the rest. An Xbox 360 console, specially refashioned with a set of blood-red Gears of War 3 visuals, is set to launch on September 20th, equipped with a 320GB hard drive, two matching wireless controllers, and the obligatory copy of its headline game (plus some DLC goodies). The whole bundle will set buyers back $400, but if you already have a 360 of your own and just want one of those snazzy-looking crimson controllers, your wait and expense will be significantly reduced — you’ll be able to buy the GOW3 control pads for $60 on August 11th. See a closeup of it after the break.

Continue reading Gears of War limited edition Xbox 360 paints the town crimson, coming September 20th for $400

Gears of War limited edition Xbox 360 paints the town crimson, coming September 20th for $400 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These may not have made the cut to appear in Microsoft’s E3 keynote earlier today but gamers will probably appreciate two new features mentioned in a letter from Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten. “Cloud Storage for Game Saves and Live Profiles” is first up and provides access to ones profile and saves from any console, at any time with the option to save to XBL servers instead of a memory unit or hard drive. It all sounds very similar to the service offered for PlayStation Plus but as Joystiq notes, so far exact details are scant. The other feature mentioned is support for “Beacons” which go one step further than broadcasting what you’re playing or watching right now by allowing users to flag what they want to play, and lets friends on XBL or Facebook see that so they can meet you for a game. Check out the full letter after the break or over on the ‘stiq, we’ll sit back and dream of a future world where bringing our XBL profile by a friend’s house to keep track of our beatdowns is as easy as just logging in.

Continue reading Xbox Live adds cloud saves, ‘beacons’ that tell friends what you want to play

Xbox Live adds cloud saves, ‘beacons’ that tell friends what you want to play originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quick refreshing of Microsoft’s E3 landing page has apparently revealed some of the things it will be announcing within a couple of hours at its E3 press conference, including new features for Xbox Live like Voice Search and new look for the service. With the explosive popularity of the Kinect add-on, it looks like the system is being refashioned with support built in from the ground up as opposed to the current menu system that’s more of an afterthought. Also mentioned on the page are Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports Season 2 and most importantly, two new Halo games. One is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which appears to be the HD (& possibly 3D) remake leaked by Joystiq previously, while the other is Halo 4 — no explanation needed. We’ll surely find out everything when the press conference kicks off live at 12:30 p.m. Eastern and of course we’ll be covering all of the news live right here.

Update: Microsoft’s just confirmed some of the leaked information onstage at its E3 keynote, with demonstrations of a deeply integrated voice command setup powered by Kinect. YouTube has been announced as an Xbox Live partner, while Bing is coming to the console to let users search across Netflix, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Hulu all at once.That universal search also extends to new live TV partnerships with Sky, Canal+ and Foxtel.

Update 2: Want a better look at the revamped Xbox 360 UI that blends in more of a Metro look with the old Kinect UI elements? Look no further than the gallery below.

[Thanks, q & Pradeep]

Continue reading Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 UI has Bing voice search across Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and live TV

Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 UI has Bing voice search across Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and live TV originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry’s biggest annual get-together, kicks off in earnest on Tuesday, June 7th. Microsoft and Sony, however, will be getting the party started on Monday with keynotes scheduled for 12.30PM ET and 8PM ET, respectively. You can check out our liveblog posts (linked below) for the particular times in your local region — oh yes, we’re going to be liveblogging the hell out of these keynotes. Considering this year’s E3 will be the place where Nintendo previews the next Wii, the other two console gaming leaders pretty much have to give us something juicy to talk about.

Engadget is live from E3: get your Microsoft and Sony keynote liveblogs right here! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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