move

Does Kinect hate your small apartment?

In many ways, Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360 is an innovative concept: ditch the controller and let your body interact directly. Sounds great on paper, but the Kinect is a bit more greedy with its space requirements than either the Nintendo Wii or PlayStation Move, and that could hurt folks with small apartments. Folks like me.

I've had a rough experience with the Kinect in New York City, mainly because my living room has only about 6 feet between my 32-inch TV and the edge of my sofa. The Kinect requires a good 6 to 10 feet of space between the user and it, according to documentation in the games we received. That's a huge amount of room in most urban apartments, especially as that space also needs to be open and unobstructed. The Kinect's setup process suggests you move furniture if necessary, a task that's impossible for me, and an unkind expectation for most people.… Read more

Microsoft expects 5 million Kinects sold in 2010

Microsoft expects to sell 5 million Kinect units by the end of 2010, the company confirmed to CNET today.

"The demand for Kinect for Xbox 360 is exceeding expectations," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in an e-mail. "So we're increasing our forecast from 3 million sensors sold this holiday to 5 million. That's bigger than any launch in Xbox history."

Bloomberg reporter Dina Bass first made mention of the increase in projected Kinect sales on her Twitter account earlier today.

If Kinect can tally 5 million unit sales, it would be quite a feat.

During … Read more

IDC: Kinect to outsell Move this holiday season

Microsoft's Kinect could best the PlayStation Move in overall sales this holiday-shopping season, market researcher IDC predicts.

IDC, which conducted a survey in September with more than 750 "core" console gamers, expects that Microsoft will sell 2.5 million to 3 million Kinect units in the United States in the fourth quarter. It expects Sony to sell 2 million to 2.25 million Move units here in the same period.

"While it doesn't appear Kinect or Move will be this year's Tickle Me Elmo, millions of additional U.S. households will be enjoying motion-based … Read more

Sony makes a million 'Moves'

Sony has just announced that the company has shipped one million units of PlayStation Move in North and Latin America within the first 30 days availability. Though Nintendo has already proven that motion-controlled gaming has a place in the mainstream market, we were skeptical about how Sony would fare introducing a similar mechanism.

In our review, we found that the PlayStation Move provided some of the most accurate motion control we've ever seen, but we can't say we were thrilled with the Move's launch lineup. However, there does seem to be a few promising titles for the … Read more

Microsoft promotes three to division president

Microsoft has chosen to fill its executive vacancies from within, elevating three current business unit heads to president of their respective divisions.

In a statement this morning, the company said it is naming Kurt DelBene to head the Microsoft Office Division, Don Mattrick to head the Interactive Entertainment Business, and Andy Lees to head the Mobile Communications Business, effectively leaving things as they have been following the departure of Stephen Elop (who was named Nokia CEO last month) and the announced retirement of Robbie Bach.

"One key to Microsoft's success over the years has been our ability to … Read more

PlayStation Move arrives today for some, Sunday for others

Sony's PlayStation Move is officially launching to retail stores on Sunday, the company announced today. But there are some major exceptions to that rule.

According to Sony, retail stores in North America will start selling the PlayStation Move motion-gaming peripheral on Sunday. But those who have already pre-ordered the device will be able to get the Move today. In fact, some customers were able to pick up a PlayStation Move at game retailers as early as midnight last night.

Sony's fluid launch date becomes all the more confusing when one finds the device already on sale at Amazon. … Read more

Better file copier

TeraCopy from Code Sector is a free file-copying utility that offers more speed and security than Windows. It's a compact tool that can quickly copy or move single files or batches of files to any directory you select, but it does much more, such as automatically calculating CRC checksum values to speed up the validation process. It also skips bad files during the copying process, displaying them at the end of transfers so you can see just which ones need replacing or other attention.

TeraCopy's user interface is a pair of efficient dialogs, one an icon-based control panel … Read more

Sony mocks Microsoft's Kinect with new site

Sony has a problem with Microsoft's decision to control all on-screen action via player movement with its Kinect motion-gaming peripheral. And it wants to world to know.

The company has quietly launched its YayButtons site that details why Sony believes the use of buttons, which are found on the upcoming PlayStation Move controller, makes for a better gaming experience.

YayButtons includes an image of the PlayStation Move controller. People can click the buttons on the device to see why Sony believes they are necessary in motion gaming.

"It turns out that buttons are pretty important," one of … Read more

The 404 662: Where dude, where's my remote fart app? (podcast)

Since Jeff is obligated to stay away from technology today, we're inviting fan favorites Molly Wood and Caroline McCarthy to fill in, which means today's show is exceptionally positive and hate-free! But first, a segment on actual tech news, which I believe is a first for our show.

In a statement issued Thursday morning, Apple says they've taken developer feedback to heart and relaxed restrictions placed on applications allowed in their App Store. The new review guidelines address user privacy, duplicated applications, offensive content, and the growing number of fart apps--seriously, they explicitly say "no more fart apps."

The guidelines even go so far as to quote a Supreme Court Justice in response to what constitutes crossing the line--Apple says "you'll know it when you see it." Clearly Steve Jobs doesn't listen to The 404 Podcast.

Until now, Apple has been nebulous about what is acceptable and what is not. According to Apple, about 90 percent of rejected apps are due to technical issues and bugs and 10 percent are turned away due to privacy breaches and inappropriate content--hence the statement re: fart apps.

Alternatively, if you don't want Apple vetting what apps you run on your phone, we recommending checking out Google Android smartphones that let you run all the fart apps your heart desires.

Hey, dudes, if you ever doubted the science behind good dance moves, researchers and psychologists at Northumbria University in the U.K. just issued a study using 3D motion capture to map the rhythmic dancing of 19 sorry volunteers.

The results of the study were shown to 35 women to determine the sexual attraction associated to eight specific body movements including the neck, trunk, left shoulder, left wrist, and the speed of movement in the right knee. They also generated two videos to illustrate good dancing and bad dancing.

According to their findings, the good doctor believes that the majority of good dance qualities were influenced the most by various movements in the neck and trunk section of the male body. In other words: don't be a stiff dancer; fluid movements and confidence seem to be the No. 1 attraction according to Molly and Caroline, and as it turns out, Wilson and I obviously have a lot to learn!

Finally, we turn our attention to the real stuff white people like, at least according to data aggregated from profile information on the popular online dating site OKCupid.com. We should note that this information is based on 526,000 randomly selected OkCupid users and absolutely does not reflect our personal opinions.

That said, the study presents compelling information about both sexes and their respective ethnicities. For example, white women tend to lean toward escapist hobbies like bonfires, boating, horseback riding, and thunderstorms, despite living in largely metropolitan cities. In contrast, Asian men typically choose "simple" as an accurate self-description and specifically state their exact country of origin, as opposed to just writing "Asian." Not surprisingly, Asian men also list "software developer," "mechanical engineer," and "surfing the Net" as common hobbies. Guilty as charged, I suppose.

Tune in to hear the rest of OkCupid's observations, with some of our own thrown in for good measure. And our apologies to everyone that got a "voice mail full" message yesterday--the line is cleared, so feel free to leave us a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638) for a chance to make it on our show!

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