Kinect Fastest Selling Gadget In History

Posted on December 6, 2010 by sophieparker

Apple did hold the title of fastest selling device in gadget history after the iPad sold 2 million units in 2 months. but now Microsoft have stolen the title!

According to readwriteweb.com, Microsoft have sold 2.5 million Kinect?s in just 25 days. Which is an average of 100,000 units per day. There for Microsoft has taken the title from Apple of Fastest Selling Gadget in History, and is selling twice as fast.

Microsoft are obviously onto a winner with Kinect, which brings new life to the Xbox 360. It?s controller free function is revolutionary and opens the console up to a whole new demographic of gamers. While the launch hasn?t exactly gone off with out a hitch and it could still do with a bit of refining, Microsoft have definitely got a hit on their hands.

Copy/Paste Update For WP7 Rolled Out To Devs

Posted on December 6, 2010 by sophieparker

The absence of a copy/paste feature on WP7 Rumours have been circulating of a major update for Windows Phone 7 due in early 2011. Apparently some developers devices are receiving updates already. The update contains the copy/paste feature that has been much anticipated by users. It seems Microsoft are taking Apple?s approach in seeding new versions to developers first.

The Samsung Taylor was the dev device to receive the update, which takes the OS version number to 7.0.7338.0. Retail devices are currently running 7.0.7004.0. A source for pocketnow.com claimed the device received the update after being connected to Zune. A tweet claiming the same thing shows that more than one device received the update.

Pocketnow.com?s source also gave a how to on the copy and paste feature:

?A user can tap a word in mail, IE, Word, etc and that word is then highlighted with arrows on both sides. One can then drag to the left or right to include more words. An icon appears above the highlighted word(s) (looks very similar to the copy icon in Office 2010) to copy. Open a new document, once the cursor is set/blinking and the soft keyboard appears, a paste icon (again, looks the same as the paste icon in Office 2010) is shown just above the top row of letters. In "Messaging", a user can long press a specific IM which open up the hidden menu that now includes copy. Paste where you wish…?

The absence of a copy/paste feature on WP7 brought it much criticism. Support for this feature was a priority for Microsoft, and seeding the update to developers shows that it won?t be long until it is brought to the public.

Kinect Hack Goes Predator

Posted on December 3, 2010 by sophieparker

Remember that classic 80?s sci-fi movie Predator with Arnie and Carl Weathers? Remember the predators cloaking device, it won an academy award for the best visual effect back in 1988. Today it?s actually possible to be the predator in your own living room with a little bit of programming know how and a Microsoft Kinect.

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The hack was developed by Takayuki Fukatsu and was showcased recently on popsci.com. Fukatsu used OpenFrameworks which is an open source C++ toolkit designed for creative coding. Fukatsu hasn?t provided any details on how he managed to achieve this effect. But the speculation goes like this. The Kinect can easily distinguish between the body and the background, and superimposes it onto your body in real-time. If you like super long YouTube vids, Fukatsu?s demo runs for 7 minutes. If you can?t spare the full 7 mins, skip to 1:30 and watch about a minute or so to get the idea behind the hack.

Although there?s no real practical application to this hack the hours of fun are endless. Plus it another demonstration of the creativity that the Kinect is encouraging, I want to see more! You can get a look at Fukatsu?s video here.

Kinect Sales Reach 2.5 Million

Posted on November 30, 2010 by sophieparker

It been announced by Microsoft that they?ve sold 2.5 million units in just 25 days. This number includes all worldwide sales and dwarfs the sales figures of their rivals Sony. Sony sold 2.5 million PlayStation Move controllers within a couple of months of it?s launch.

Microsoft?s original sales predictions were for around 3 million sold by Christmas. But their current figures indicate they will go well beyond before the years end. Microsoft’s Don Mattrick said earlier this month, that the company hoped to sell 5 million worldwide. Which looks like it might be doable.

In related news, analysts have concluded that the stock shortages announced by Sony and Microsoft are likely to be a hoax. Analyst Michael Pachter believes the companies are trying to build up hype around their products. The UK has not seen any shortages of either consoles.

NES Meets Kinect

Posted on November 29, 2010 by sophieparker

Yankeyan, who was responsible for the Kinect hack that gave us a lightsabre, has created a gesture control scheme for Super Mario Bros. Old school meets new school in this tribute to 25 years of Mario.

Yankeyan described how he used a PC NES emulator and the open Kinect drivers to do this in a YouTube post. He?s also admitted that it?s pretty strenuous to play Mario this way: ”I programmed it to recognize my motions and passed the virtual button presses to the NES emulator. I could have placed a simulated keypad right in front of me that I can press with my hands, but I thought full body gestures were more in the spirit of Kinect. Of course, Mario isn’t designed to be played like this, so this is really really hard,”

You can get a look at the Mario work out here.

Stability Fix Released For IE9 Beta

Posted on November 25, 2010 by sophieparker

Two updates were released yesterday by Microsoft for Internet Explorer 9 Beta. One, to fix stability problems throughout the browser. The other resolves an issue on 64-bit machines with Windows Live Essentials 2011.

Users who have enable automatic updates will be patched without the need of user intervention. Those who haven?t should update IE9 Beta now. KB2448827 is a recommended patch for all IE9 Beta users as it fixes stability issues in "various scenarios." The second fixes the feedback tool built into IE9 which users on 64-bit OSs with WLE 2011 installed were unable to run.

IE9 is not in its final release, these two fixes are based on user feed back. IE9 Beta and 7 platform preview or the only builds to be released to the public so far.

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Kinect Hack Fun Has Begun

Posted on November 23, 2010 by sophieparker

Now that Microsoft have done a complete 360 with their stance on the Kinect being hacked. Microsoft had previously said that it does not ”condone the modification of its products.” Now they?re claiming that it was all part of their grand plan, Kinect was left open ”by design”. And when asked if any legal action will be take against the open-source community the response was: ”No, absolutely not.”

So now that?s all been cleared up, lets see what?s been created. Yankeyan has created what most of have only dreamed of. With just a wooded stick, the OpenKinect drivers and OpenCV vision library, he?s found a way for us to all wield a lightsabre. Or the closest thing to it. Yankeyan?s program tracks the stick in real-time and overlays it with a lightsabre image. You can get a look at it in action here.

User Ben X Tan has created a ”human MIDI controller” using the Kinect, converting hand waving into MIDI notes. This draws on the Australian?s Pmidic MIDI controller, that uses light sources.

The open-source community is really making an effort to find other uses for Kinect?s motion controller. Other uses that have been demonstrated are a hands free multi-touch input device for a PC and 3D webcam that is able to create a live 3D model of a room and it?s contents. It?s also been demoed as a controller for Windows 7 and a motion capture device. All this within just a few weeks of Kinect?s release.

Mass Storage Mode Discovered In WP7

Posted on November 19, 2010 by sophieparker

Mmm, most interesting, WPCentral have found how to enable mass storage for Windows Phone 7. This means that WP7 can be used as a USB drive for manual data copy without the need for Zune.

The hack, which is just a simple reg key modification, allows the phone to be used as a ?mass storage device?. Which allows users to manually load music and pictures onto the phone. They key modifications essentially allow the device to operate in ?Legacy Mode? and another enables it to be shown in the shell. The Zune client must be closed after this modification in order to allow manual data transfer.

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But there?s a catch that essentially renders the hack kind of useless. The phone wont read any data transferred in this way. Even if they?re compatible and in the right locations. Still, you can move file around.

Kinect Technology Applied To PC, Demoed On YouTube

Posted on November 15, 2010 by sophieparker

It was reported last week that Kinect had been hacked after a bounty had been offered up for it to be done. The challenge was met fairly swiftly in just 3 days. Now the first application that uses the Kinect technology has been written on a PC platform, and is pretty impressive for a first attempt.

A YouTube user by the name of floemuc has posted ?Multitouch with hacked Kinect (HD)?. The video shows someone using his hands to resize and move photos around on a desktop. Alongside this is an image of the user as he controls the images on the desktop. This video was posted just a week after the official launch of Kinect.

Floemuc?s commented that he?d ?get the mandatory picture-browsing stuff done so it’s out of the way and everybody can focus on more interesting things.? He used Ubuntu as his development platform, libfreenect (the Kinect drivers), and libTISCH, from the ?Tangible Interactive Surfaces for Collaboration between Humans? project to achieve his goal.

So now that the ball is rolling, will this become the technology of every day computing? It will be interesting to see what is created next.

Aussies Buying WP7 Apps Get Hit With Transaction Fee

Posted on November 11, 2010 by sophieparker

According to Blogger Long Zheng, WP7 user in Australia are being charged a transaction fee for every app they purchase.

Zheng claims these fees are adding AU$1 for every app bought. The user is unaware of the charge until they check their credit card bill. The issue seems to be caused by the use of Microsoft?s Asia Pacific HO in Singapore to process purchases, thus making the transactions an international one.

If you look at the Android market, app purchases are converted to local currencies by Google, the users credit card provider then determines the exchange rate. iDevice users pay about AU$0.20 on a US$0.99 app and AU$1 on a US$2.99 app. Around 7 billion apps have been download from the App Store as of 20/10/10, so those small extra charges mount up to a sizable windfall for Apple.

WP7 user in Australia have been advised to use carrier billing rather than credit card. Zheng has asked Microsoft for a response, but is still waiting. It?s not the first time Microsoft has been criticised for billing issues. Aussies were again paying more. Nearly 20% more than US users for Xbox Live Microsoft points,  the currency of the online gaming service.

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