Revamped Xbox 360 dashboard to launch on December 6th, Microsoft confirms

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that its Xbox 360 dashboard would be getting an upgrade “in the coming days.” Today, the company has clarified that statement, declaring that the revamped interface will launch on December 6th. As we’ve previously noted, the update promises to bring deeper Kinect integration (including sharper voice recognition capabilities), Facebook sharing mechanisms, and a cleaner interface. Redmond also says that the fall cleanup will introduce “a wealth of new content,” including live TV, music and movies, available for streaming. For now, the dashboard is still in beta, though it certainly won’t be long before the masses get their hands on it.

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Tags: Gaming, Metro UI, Microsoft, Microsoft Kinect, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

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Nokia to release Windows 8 tablets this June, top drawer Lumia in the works?

There’s some intriguing Nokia news coming out of France this morning, thanks to Paul Amsellem, head of the company’s Gallic outpost. In a recent interview with Parisian daily Les Echos, Amsellem described Nokia’s aspirations to regain some of the market share it’s lost within France, explaining that his firm is squarely targeting the 60 percent of French users who currently don’t own a smartphone. More salient, however, is what the exec had to say about Nokia’s plans for future releases. According to Amsellem, Espoo will unveil a new Windows 8 equipped tablet by June 2012.

Unfortunately, that’s about all he had to say on the subject, but it’s certainly enough of a carrot to raise our heart rates — as are Amsellem’s comments on the Lumia 800, which hit French stores yesterday. Comparing the handset to a BMW 5 series, the chief went on to say that Nokia “will soon have a full range with a 7 Series and 3 Series.” He didn’t elaborate much on this analogy, though its implication is rather self-evident — new Lumia cousins may be in the works. Of course, it remains to be seen when and if the company will expand upon its Lumia line, though we’ll definitely be keeping our yeux on it.

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Tags: Lumia 800, Microsoft, Nokia, Smartphones, Tablet PC's, Windows 8, Windows Phone

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Xbox 360 dashboard revamp rolls out to beta testers

Microsoft began rolling out its new Xbox 360 dashboard preview to beta testers today. The company started accepting beta testers last month for the dashboard preview, which is expected to bring several new features and an overall face lift. The new look will be reminiscent of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Metro UI and Live Tiles interface.

The new Xbox 360 dashboard will bring more integrated Kinect voice and gesture controls, Facebook storage, cloud storage for Game Saves and Xbox LIVE Profiles, as well as a new social broadcasting feature called Beacons. YouTube and Bing will be included with Bing users being able to search for movies, music, and other content on their consoles using Kinect’s voice recognition.

Microsoft will also be introducing an app market for the Xbox 360 and allow for future integration of Windows Phones. Several new Xbox LIVE TV services will also be added with the update, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, and Syfy. According to a leak, the dashboard is expected to launch on November 15.

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Tags: Gaming, Metro UI, Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

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Xbox.com upgrade is live with new Beacons and easy opt-out Auto Renewal

The newly refreshed Xbox.com is now live for one and all, offering its new Social area and beacons that were detailed previously. Of course, if you’re averse to commitment (or just like buying your Xbox Live subscription in the form of cards only when they’re on sale) the biggest new addition may be what your friends at Joystiq noticed: a newly streamlined process to disable your subscription’s yearly auto-renewal. It’s a small tweak, but if it means not feeling the sucker punch of a surprise $59 charge on your credit card then that may be enough for some.

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Tags: Gaming, Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox.com

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Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 New Trailer

A new video of Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 has been posted on Youtube by Microsoft as the game is set to launch next week on November 8. This official video from Ubisoft is much better than the previous one that came out in June, it shows different situations,  and you see more of the game – without the annoying background voice that the summer trailer.

Overall, it looks like a cool sports/fitness game, and even if you won’t become massively muscular with it, some exercise can’t hurt. In my experience, people who aren’t usually gamers may like it a lot, and the fact that they can track their progress and improve slowly is actually a very good thing. Many people try to get in shape very fast and usually lack the motivation to do so. After all, health is a long term project.

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Tags: Gaming, Health, Microsoft, Microsoft Kinect, Video, Xbox 360, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012

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Xbox 360 Kinect three-game Christmas bundle goes live

Coming to UK?

The Microsoft Kinect motion control gaming system has just shown up on Amazon.com for $149 with three games attached: now you get Fruit Ninja and Gun Stringer joining Kinect Adventures.

This deal should prove pretty popular and although it appears to be showing on Amazon.com at present, we’re sure that the UK will get something similar in time – we’re all just going to have to be patient.

The Microsoft Kinect has proved incredibly popular in its short life, selling in its millions, and this should widen the appeal somewhat.

It’s worth noting that both Gunstringer and Fruit Ninja will be downloads, so make sure you have the hard drive to do the job, and the offer is for a limited time “while stocks last” – so you might want to get your order in sooner rather than later.

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Tags: Gaming, Kinect, Microsoft, Microsoft Kinect, Xbox 360

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Kinectimals Xbox LIVE Game for Windows Phone (Video)

This week’s Xbox LIVE game comes out tomorrow, and again we’ve got an early preview for you. Kinectimals for Windows Phone is a portable version of the innovative Kinectimals game for Xbox 360 with Kinect. You can choose a virtual pet from a number of wild animal cubs, name it, train it, and take care of it. As you teach it tricks, you’ll get points and money that you can use to buy food, beverages, collars, toys and other items for your pet. Sometimes it will ask you for food, sometimes it will get a ball or jump-rope and want to play, and sometimes it will get dirty from rolling in the mud and you’ll have to clean it. The real game aspect comes from “challenges” that will unlock more tricks to learn, map locations, and other items. Challenges may include directing your Kinectimal to perform certain tricks in a series, jump rope for a certain amount of time, catch a ball, or even some photo-related challenges.

Which brings us to one of the very unique and entertaining features in Kinectimals. You can go to the photo studio, take a picture with your phone’s camera, and then super-impose your Kinectimal within the image as if it was really there.

Another unique feature is the ability to transfer your Kinectimal to and from the Kinectimals game on Xbox 360. It does this using QR codes which you either have to aim the Kinect sensor at, or aim your phone’s camera at depending on which way you’re attempting the transfer.

Kinectimals for Windows Phone will be available in the Windows Phone Marketplace tomorrow for $2.99, and of course a free trial will be available as well.

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Tags: Apps, Gaming, Kinectimals, Microsoft, Smartphones, Video, Windows Phone, Xbox Live

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ITG xpPhone 2 running on Windows 8 to be released in 2012

If you’ve never heard of ITG and their xpPhone before we don’t blame you. The device was launched last year in November and failed to create any waves, but it looks like they have not given up and will be launching the successor to the xpPhone – the rather uninspired xpPhone 2!

In terms of hardware specs, the xpPhone 2 appears to be more like a netbook packed into a smartphone form factor, and will feature a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, 2GB of RAM, 112GB of SSD storage, a 4.3” display and is said to be compatible with both Windows 7 and Windows 8. It also claims to be capable of handling up to 18.5 hours worth of talk time on a single charge.

ITG claims that they favor Windows over more mobile platforms, such as Android, iOS, Windows Phone, MeeGo, etc simply because a greater range of software is available, although with both the iTunes App Store and Android Market brimming with all sorts of apps, perhaps ITG is going with a more enterprise crowd with their xpPhone 2. No word on pricing but the handset is expected to be made available in January of 2012.

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Tags: Intel Atom, ITG, Microsoft, Smartphones, SSD, Windows 8, Windows OS, xpPhone, xpPhone 2

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Microsoft: Windows Phone Mango now being delivered to ’100 percent’ of compatible devices

We just heard last week that the Windows Phone Mango update was available on nearly every compatible device, and Microsoft has now made things completely official. In a post on the Windows Phone blog today, Microsoft confirmed that it’s “now delivering Mango to 100 percent of eligible phones around the world, regardless of carrier.” That feat was reached less than a month after Microsoft announced that that Mango was available on half of Windows Phones, which certainly an improvement on the pace of the earlier NoDo update. Included in this last batch is the LG Optimus 7 on Telefonica is Spain and the Samsung Omnia 7 on Deutsche Telekom. Now, about that Apollo update…

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Tags: Mango, Microsoft, Smartphones, Software Update, Windows Phone

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Windows XP turns 10, enjoys its golden years and slow transition into retirement

It’s hard to believe that it was ten years ago today that Windows XP first hit retail shelves. It’s even more astonishing when you realize that it was still the most popular operating system in the world until the beginning of this month. The sun may finally be setting on the stalwart OS that has powered countless home and business PCs (it crossed the 400 million mark way back in 2006), but it’s still number two — right behind it’s youngest brother Windows 7 and well ahead of the black sheep, Vista. Sure, our relationship with Microsoft’s OS has had its ups and downs, but it’s clear we’ve developed an attachment to the ol’ bird. After all, consumer demand kept it shipping on PCs until late 2010 and Redmond has pledged to support it until April 8th of 2014. If nothing else, XP will be remembered for its incredibleresilience.

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Tags: Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows OS, Windows XP

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