Next Generation 'Xbox One' Announced
After much hype and speculation, Microsoft has officially unveiled their next generation console, the Xbox One. Don Mattrick (pictured) made the announcement to a huge round of applause, planning to make it the 'All-in-one' system in your living room.
Nokia Lumia 925 Announced
Nokia have announced the Lumia 925, their latest flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphone, at today's event in London.
Following all previous rumours, and yesterday's leaked images, the Finnish smartphone maker has finally taken the official wraps off the phone. It's quite similar in design cues to the previous models in the Lumia line, but it has a twist: it's made from aluminium. The rear of the device is still made from polycarbonate, and the front is a pane of glass; but the aluminium surround marks a new shift for Nokia's material-centric design.
'WINE.' Native Windows Software Running On Android
If you haven’t heard of it before WINE is a compatibility layer that lets you run windows programs on Linux. Alexandre Julliard, its original developer, showed us today a semi-functional version for Android.
Kinect Concept 'IllumiRoom' Turns Your Entire Room Into A Video Game
Microsoft Research have lifted the veil on its latest concept named IllumiRoom, which uses a Kinect and a projector to expand video game graphics beyond the boundaries of the television, augmenting the room around it to amazing effect.
Tobii Rex Lets You Control Windows 8 With Your Eyes
As far as novel input peripherals go, Tobii’s gaze-tracking addition to the keyboard and mouse standard is a fairly interesting one. And now, it can control Microsoft’s latest OS.
Microsoft Surface RT Hands On At Gadget Show Live Christmas
Arriving just over a month from the launch of its new operating system, Microsoft’s impression on the Gadget Show Live Christmas floor was a quite considerable one. Dominating a hefty chunk of the floor space at the show (as well as its entrance), it was difficult to miss anything the computing giant had to offer; from the array of devices running its new OS, to the promotion of its first-ever tablet PC: Microsoft Surface.
Microsoft To Introduce 'Xbox TV' To Take On Apple TV?
Citing “multiple sources familiar with Redmond’s plans”, The Verge has been tipped that Microsoft is planning to launch an Xbox-branded set-top box, similar to Apple TV, built to deliver movies and TV shows as found on the 360 marketplace, as well as more ‘casual games’ – most likely to be downloadable Xbox Live Arcade titles.
'Faceshift' Delivers Markerless Motion Capture Via Kinect
So it might not deliver the kind of sophistication in motion-capture that was utilised by Team Bondi for its ground-breaking crime caper L.A. Noire – that, after all, relied on a studio set-up with 32 high-def cameras tracking a single actor’s face – but new facial animation software ‘Faceshift’ does more than an adequate job in replicating such techniques, and it relies solely on Microsoft’s Kinect.
Elliptic Labs Brings 'Minority Report' Gesture Control To Windows 8
Norwegian company Elliptic Labs has launched a new touch-less gesturing control that uses ultrasound technology to translate hand movements, and bring a 'Minority Report' style implementation to Windows 8.
University Researchers Use Xbox Kinect To Control Lasers
Researchers at the University of Dundee have used the Xbox 360 Kinect sensor to control optical tweezers, a set of laser beams used to manipulate particles.
Physicists control the particles through their body movements, which are read by a Kinect-based interface called "HoloHands." While not completely perfect yet, with a latency issue and the occasional misinterpration of the user's movements, the interface has been quite successfully tested moving silica particles.
Microsoft Planning 7-Inch Surface Tablet For Xbox 720?
Microsoft seemingly isn’t keen on resting on its laurels any time soon. Despite just launching the Surface with Windows RT tablet to consumers across the globe, and with the Surface with Windows 8 just around the corner, the company has plans to build a 7-inch Surface gaming tablet that may well be used in conjunction with the next-generation Xbox, a la Wii U.
32GB Surface With Windows RT Comes With Just 16GB Free Storage
If you’re in the market for Microsoft’s new tablet, you might want to take a little more time in making your purchasing decision. At least, for those with a library of applications, music, photos, videos and files to store. Despite Microsoft boasting the Surface is an ‘all-in-one’ PC and tablet, it appears its on-board storage capacity is really quite woeful.
Mechanical Ceiling Recreates The Feeling Of Being Underwater
The natural subtleties of water's surface is one that many would not assume as up for technological interpretation. That was until artist David Bowen unveiled his installation Underwater: real-time wave patterns captured by a Kinect, and mapped to a mechanical ceiling for recreation.
Tim Cook Says Microsoft Surface Is "A Fairly Compromised, Confusing Product"
Tim Cook was asked for his thoughts on Microsoft's new Surface tablet during Apple's Q4 2012 results conference call, to which his response, while noted he hadn't tried one for himself yet, was that the device is "a fairly compromised confusing product."
Has Microsoft's Surface Been Priced Out Of The Market?
'Tablet talk' is becoming ever-more regular around these parts. Sleek, black, slate-like tablet PC's seem to be everywhere these days. From the top-end range featuring Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 all the way down to the likes of ASUS's lovingly-refined Nexus 7 and Amazon's up and coming Kindle Fire HD, there's not a consumer electronic in sight that has appeared to have such an explosive arrival onto the scene.
Microsoft Investigating Halo 4 Leak
He might be one of the most bad-ass, cybernetically-enhanced super-soldiers we've ever seen, but it seems even Master Chief himself isn't invulnerable to a spot of piracy. Reports are flooding in from numerous online forums from gamers claiming to already have their hands on the long-awaited fourth chapter in the Halo series, Halo 4.
Microsoft Unveils Gesture-Sensing Wearable Wrist Sensor
In a project headed by Microsoft Research, a team of researchers are busy putting together and testing a new wrist-mounted prototype that can track finger movement to within one hundredth of a centimetre and interpret simple gestures all in real-time.
Microsoft Mistakenly Ask Google To Block BBC And The US Government Over Copyright Infringement
Microsoft France have mistakenly filed a takedown notice to Google, under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) accusing seemingly innocent sites such as the BBC, The Washington Post and the US government of infringing copyright. Beyond this, the automated system Microsoft seem to have running has also requested the block of any webpage containing the number 45.
Microsoft Patents Yet Another Game-Changer: 'Wearable Controllers'
You'd better start believing Microsoft is planning something big in the years to come. Forget perfunctory add-on motion controls for a moment, because a patent filed by Microsoft has been uncovered alluding to technology that may just break new videogame ground in the Xbox 720.
Nokia Lumia 920 Announced
Nokia have unveiled the next flagship device in their Windows Phone line, the Lumia 920, at the Windows Phone 8 event in Manhattan.