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Archives for : Kinect

Xbox 360’s New Dashboard (December Update) Review

Like the McDonalds commercials best say…”I’m lovin it”. The new features are great, the Kinect integration feels good, and the voice command options are solid. I am looking forward to what Microsoft comes up with next.

I’m thinking the system still needs a quicker way of reaching a list of online friends as well as a menu system that isn’t so lagged. It can be aggravating at times waiting for the main “x” (button) menu to popup or navigate. The dashboard is amazingly fast and accurate….its just the popup menu seems to never get any attention (outside of a few new options or icons).

I think the new UFC options will be a hit for a lot of MMA fans out there, bringing lots of behind the scene footage and interviews, as well as PPV features for live fights.

They have added additional support for the Xbox Companion Devices (i.e., Windows Phone 7 devices) that can interact with the system for reasons such as controlling DVDs or accessing additional information about what you have on the screen.

CES 2011, Day two…I was there, I survived proudly

Well, at CES there was a lot to see. A lot of great people to meet, a lot of great tech to drool over, and a lot of great information learned. I demoed the MS Xbox Kinect and got TKO’s in boxing by a Google employee heh. It was funny to see a Google employee having so much fun with a competitors product.

Out of the entire day, there wasn’t a person I regret talking to outside of the man showing off the Sony 3d camcorder. His words were kind of rude and insulting…I didn’t care much for that. I had asked him a reasonable question and he responded like I was an idiot. Now if the question was an idiot question…I would take full credit for it, but all I asked was what the highest resolution it shot in. He was a little sarcastic to that point but at that point he got a little aggravated and explained it shot in HD. Ok….there are various levels of “HD”….back down buddy…take a breather.

Anyways, the 3d TV’s look nicer (the LEDs at least). Very little to no flicker at all (LG was good), and clear as day with light glasses that didn’t bother you while on the face. Personally though I will still wait till it looks that nice or better WITHOUT having to wear glasses. Regardless….it was nice.

Viewsonic has a few nice monitors. Their latest series are LED but 2ms response time (2x the 1ms response time of their past LCD version). Made me want to snag one though….27″s of ……mmmmmm.

Hercules has a nice DJ/mixer usb combo that fell into a somewhat decent price, Triton/MadKatz had a nice 5.1 pair of Triton headphones for the Xbox/PS3, Skype’s on all the major TV’s and the AR Drones are back as usual. Audi has some nice cars to show off, pioneer has a new deck for the car coming out (Navi series) that looks fun, Sony has one hell of a widescreen 3d display for everyone to enjoy.

Did I mention the Kinect was fun?

Well that sums up a lot I think. I’d go deeper into detail and cover all sorts of things with images but this isn’t really a tech news blog. Go to CES!! It’s well worth it.

TheSa|nt