kinetic

Open the pod bay doors, Kinect 2. The next version of Kinect — Microsoft’s hands-free, gesture-controlled gaming peripheral for Xbox 360 — is rumored to have such high processing power that it can read lips and even detect the emotions of its user.

If that sounds scary, well, yeah, it’s a little scary. If it’s true, it also means the next generation of consoles are going to be super fun. Eurogamer spoke with an anonymous source who spilled the beans on the new Kinect and potential plans for the next generation of Xboxes.

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Folks who want to connect their Kinect to their PCs can now use specially-designed hardware to add real-time, 3D tracking to programs, games, and research projects. Using the Kintect SDK hackers can add the Kinect to nearly any hardware.

Improvements include a new “Near Mode” that allows for objects at about 50 centimeters away from the sensor to register in 3D space, the first step to adding Kinect functionality to a desktop computer.

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Microsoft Streamlines Windows Install, With An Eye To Web Distribution And Ease Of Use

Installing Windows has always been something of a joke. Not always warranted, of course, but we all know how funny and catastrophic anecdotes outlive the less thrilling reality of something as commonplace as an OS install. Yet we all have heard a few horror stories about Windows installs, or at the very least joked about how long it often takes.

Microsoft actually went to some lengths in Windows 7 to correct this soft spot of theirs, and it’s true that the installation process is simpler and better. Seeing how well this was received, and also noting a number of market trends worth integrating, they are now taking the improvements a step further with Windows 8. A one-click install or upgrade is still a ways out, but the new features are kin with Windows 8′s approach of marrying stability with mobility.

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MS Is Still Ruling The Desktop 42% Of Machines Will Run Windows 7 In 2011

By John Biggs

Windows 7 is now the most prevalent – if not most popular – desktop OS with Gartner estimating that 42% of current PCs will run the OS while 94% of new machines will run Win7.

In comparison, OS X got 4% of the pie while Linux is firmly at 2%. Even IT departments are starting massive roll-outs of Win7 to their desktops, a move that has pushed the fairly new OS into the catbird seat. However, Gartner expects this to be the last time a standalone OS image is installed on business PCs as IT departments move towards hosted computing and virtualization.

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