Microsoft

How To Hack Kinect

You’ve seen the kind of cool stuff people can get up to when they hack their Kinect. Now you can too, with this simple rather complex guide. Adafruit, the team behind the recent “bounty” on hacking Microsoft’s new motion-sensing peripheral, have posted an in-depth and incredibly technical guide on how to get the camera doing…

Xbox 360 Over-Heating? You Could Always Try This

The Xbox 360’s famous Red Ring Of Death was usually caused by over-heating inside the console. We’ve seen many backyard solutions claiming to fix this, but none as elaborate — or possibly effective — as this. It may not be easy on the eye, and certainly won’t win any awards for style, but piping a…

Can Microsoft’s New Online Store Compete With Steam?

As expected, Microsoft’s new online shopfront for PC games has gone live. We were promised a bigger, better store. So has it delivered? I don’t like it. Not yet, anyways. It certainly looks pretty, its minimal appearance a nice break from Steam’s clutter of buttons and menus and buttons within menus within menus. This theme…

Fable III DLC Travels Under Bowerstone With An Afro

The world of Albion expands on November 23 with the Understone Quest Pack, adding an entire new town for you to explore, while the Exclusive Hair Pack adds afros, corn rows, asymmetrical bobs, and a dog buff. That’s right, for 160 Microsoft points come November 23, you can sport a lovely afro, rock the corn…

Japan: We Love Cars, Kinect, Notsomuch

PS3 exclusive Gran Turismo 5 might be released a week after Kinect hits Japan on November 20, but the game already looks set to run over Microsoft’s motion control system this holiday season. The following photos were taken at the Bic Camera in Tokyo’s Yurakucho. This one of the largest electronics stores in the country.…

How Kinect Can Build A 3D Model Of Your Bedroom

You’ve no doubt heard (or even seen) how Kinect works, by projecting thousands of points of infrared light around a room. Now see what it can do once it takes all that information in. Okreylos has posted this handy little video on YouTube – produced by hacking his Kinect, of course – showing how Microsoft’s…

Is Kinect Reporting What It Sees To Advertisers?

Speaking at an investor’s conference on Thursday, a Microsoft executive offered that Kinect not only knows how many are in the room when an ad’s shown, but what kind of team colors they might be wearing. Uh-oh. Privacy concerns with the Kinect aren’t a new subject, of course. At the BMO Capital Markets forum, Dennis…

Alan Wake Coming To XBL Games On Demand

Alan Wake, which released May 18, arrives on the Xbox Live Marketplace’s Games on Demand service six months later. Major Nelson listed Alan Wake in his most recent update; it’ll get here Nov. 23. A price wasn’t listed in North America but MCV reports it’ll be £19.99 in the U.K.; those who balked at it…

No Full Body Protective Suits For You, Kinect Players!

When the Wii was launched, gamers got hurt. They whacked their TVs, their friends and themselves with the Wii Remote, which prompted Nintendo to make a protective jacket for the remotes. Likewise, Kinect players are getting hurt Is Microsoft giving out protective body suits? Well, no. Sadly, it doesn’t not look like Microsoft will be…

So, How Many Consoles Have Been Sold In The US This Generation?

Ever wonder how many Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft consoles have been sold in the USA over the past six years? Allow Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime to fill you in. Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Annual Digital Entertainment Conference in New York, Fils-Aime revealed that since launching in 2004, the Nintendo DS has…

Report: Kinect Only Cost $56 To Make

The Xbox 360’s fancy motion-sensing camera Kinect may cost you $149, but according to a report from UBM Tech Insights, it costs Microsoft a whole lot less. UBM have got hold of a Kinect, torn it apart to examine each of its components then tracked how much each of them cost. What they found was…

Kinect Sports Launches Facebook App

Rare has built and launched a Kinect Sports application for Facebook, which will keep track of players’ league results, allow them to issue invitations and be invited to others, and collect video highlights in a single place. The application will soon update with the ability to see complete personal stats and records (by event, or…

You Don’t Need Two Arms To Play Kinect

Chris Erickson’s brother found himself without the use of his right arm following a tragic accident, but that hasn’t stopped him from enjoying Xbox 360 Kinect games. Here we see one of the direct benefits of controller-free gaming. He might not do quite as well with some of the more limb-intensive Kinect games like Dance…

Xbox Support’s Cryptically Depressing Message

In the West, the Xbox 360 is all about friends. Playing with buddies online, friends lists, making new pals — all of which make this Japanese Xbox Support message all the more sad. On the Japanese Xbox Support page for console set up, “View More” (もっと見る) appears under the third item, which concerns connecting the…

Kinect Is A Blessing For This Family

With a (mostly) disappointing launch lineup and some niggling problems, it’s easy to get down on Microsoft’s Kinect. Try sparing a thought, though, for the parents of a four year-old autistic boy, for which it’s been a revelation. Gaming Nexus writer John Yan has penned an account of his experiences playing with Kinect with his…

Victor Declared In Hack-Kinect Bounty Hunt

Adafruit, which laid a $3,000 bounty for the first open source driver for the Kinect, has declared a winner. “Hector” delivered the goods, verified as workable by a third party in the hacking community. He’s putting the $3,000 toward “hacking tools and devices for a group of people he works with closely,” on projects such…

Kinect’s Star Wars Game Will Have You Force-Waving Your Arms In 2011

The Star Wars Kinect game, which so enthralled us before so quickly disappointing us when first revealed earlier this year, has around twelve months to get things right, with a release pencilled in for late 2011. “We have a Kinect Star Wars game coming out for next holiday”, Kinect’s creative director, Kudo Tsunoda, told the…

All The Kinect Accidents You Can Handle

With Kinect, Microsoft is getting gamers up off the sofa and getting them injured. Cue the highlight reel! As when the Wii launched, there are reports of accidents caused while playing. Some might be real, some might be faked, but most look painful. “Kinect Fail” appears to be the go to title on YouTube for…

A Visual Guide To Kinect Fail

Microsoft Suing Motorola Over Xbox 360 Tech

Not everything inside the Xbox 360 was designed by Microsoft; the console’s wi-fi capabilities (hold the jokes) and some its video codecs are licensed from Motorola. And are now the subject of a court battle between the two companies. A suit has been filed in a Federal Court in Seattle by Microsoft, alleging Motorola “broke…