The dload

Review : Kinect by David Pogue

mayurkshirsagar — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 09:20:55 +0000

This is the review of Microsoft Xbox Kinect by very famous technologist David Pogue.

With 45 million game consoles sold, Xbox 360 is Microsoft’s monster hardware hit. And today, what will surely be its second monster hit goes on sale: the Kinect.

The Kinect (“kinetic” plus “connect,” get it?) is an add-on for the existing Xbox 360. If you already have an Xbox, you can buy the Kinect for $150, or you can buy it with a four-gigabyte Xbox for $300 — if you can find it in stock.

The Kinect is a glossy, foot-wide, black plastic horizontal bar. You plug its single cable into your Xbox. (If you have the bulkier, pre-2010 Xbox, you also have to plug the Kinect’s power cord into the wall.) You park the Kinect itself on, or beside, your TV. During start-up, a motor moves the bar on its stand, making it scan the room up and down like some would-be Wall-E.

It has four microphones and three little lenses: a video camera, an infrared projector and a distance sensor. Together, these lenses determine where you are in the room.

And not just you. The system tracks 48 parts of your body in three-dimensional space. It doesn’t just know where your hand is, like the Wii. No, the Kinect tracks the motion of your head, hands, torso, waist, knees, feet and so on.

The point is to let you control games with your body, without having to find, hold, learn or recharge a controller. Your digital stunt double appears on the TV screen. What you do, it does.

The Wii, by tracking the position of its remote control, was amazing for its time (2006). It’s a natural for games in which you swing one hand — bowling, tennis, golf. But the Kinect blows open a whole universe of new, whole-body simulations — volleyball, obstacle courses, dancing, flying.

It doesn’t merely recognize that someone is there; it recognizes your face and body. In some games, you can jump in to take a buddy’s place; the game instantly notices the change and signs you in under your own name. If you leave the room, it pauses the game automatically.

There’s a crazy, magical, omigosh rush the first time you try the Kinect. It’s an experience you’ve never had before.

The Kinect comes with Kinect Adventures, a suite of five starter games. In 20,000 Leaks, you’re at an undersea observatory where particularly aggressive fish keep poking holes in the glass; your job is to plug the leaks by touching them with any part of your body. There’s also Rallyball (glorified dodgeball), Reflex Ridge (an exhausting whole-body obstacle course), Space Pop (pop bubbles in zero gravity) and River Rush (control a white-water raft by lunging and jumping). Two players can play these games together, which is fantastic.

The graphics aren’t quite as simplistic as the Wii’s amputated-Weebles aesthetic, but they’re still cartoony. Don’t expect to look especially sexy while you’re playing, either. Kinect is about what you feel, not how you look. Some games make that point by snapping photos of you at especially humiliating moments. You get a quick slide show of them when the round is over.

For now, there are 17 games available, most for $48. Microsoft says many more are on the way. They’re generally simple, family-friendly, Wii-type games, not the elaborate adventure games and war simulations that Xbox fans may be used to.

Still, some are pure genius. Dance Central, for example, is like Guitar Hero for your whole body. You learn and perform dance moves by following the on-screen model, as pop songs play and the crowd cheers. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is an interactive fitness program, complete with cardio classes and personal training.

Kinectimals is a standard explore-the-abandoned-island mystery game, made charming by baby tigers and lions that accompany you, and that arch their backs and purr when you pet them.

Kinect Sports, an obvious ripoff of Wii Sports, offers Soccer, Bowling, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Table Tennis and Track & Field — hours of sweat for the whole family. The unseen commentators are a kick. When I scored a strike in Bowling, one said, “Liking the style of this bowler!” And when I bowled a gutter ball, he offered, “Interesting approach there!”

The novelty in Kinect Joyride wears off much faster. Pretty much all you do is turn an imaginary steering wheel.

You can’t play Kinect sitting down, and that’s a plus. I left my two youngsters alone with Kinect Adventures one afternoon. When I returned, they were drenched with sweat, panting hard and practically levitating. “Dad! Dad! Can we get one for Christmas? Please?”

Next thing you know, we’ll be hearing doctors say, “I think your kids really need to play more video games.”

Then again, the Kinect may not be the antidote for sedentary lifestyles. It’s connected to an Xbox, with its infinite access to movies, TV shows and a million games where all you do is sit there on the couch.

The Kinect is often compared to the futuristic holographic computer-control system in the movie “Minority Report.” But that degree of refinement is still decades away.

You should know, first of all, that the Kinect requires a lot of open space. You stand at least six feet away from the TV — preferably farther, especially if two are playing. Dorm rooms may be iffy.

There’s way too much administrative hassle, too. Games take a long time to start up, a minute or more of company logos and repetitive Wii-style warnings.

Remember, you don’t have any physical controls, so you make menu choices by “tapping” big buttons with your hand. To avoid accidental taps, you have to hold your hand still in the air for several seconds, which gets old fast.

Sometimes, you can navigate by voice instead, saying, for example, “Xbox: Sign in,” or “Xbox: Sponsored trailer.” Unfortunately, that’s slow and inefficient in its own way.

I couldn’t understand why this error message appeared whenever I completed a game: “This operation will result in a loss of player progress. Do you wish to proceed?” Come on, Microsoft. You can track 48 parts of my body, but you can’t figure out how to save my game?

Navigating the Xbox/Kinect software is baffling. Where would you guess you would go to switch games: to the Dashboard, the Guide or the Hub? And good luck trying to sort out all the different Microsoft accounts you’ll need: for starters a Windows Live ID, an Xbox Live Profile and a Kinect ID.

(This much I’ve figured out: You have to pay $60 a year for an Xbox Live Gold membership to get some of the nicer features, like playing games against people online and having video chats with other Kinect or Windows Messenger members.)

Finally, note that the body tracking isn’t as quick or precise as the Wii’s remote-tracking. When you jump, there’s a slight delay before your on-screen character jumps. My fitness instructor in Your Shape kept tsk-ing that I wasn’t in sync with her, even though I swear I was.

But few normal people will mind. The Kinect’s astonishing technology creates a completely new activity that’s social, age-spanning and even athletic. Microsoft owes a huge debt to the Nintendo Wii, yes, but it also deserves huge credit for catapulting the motion-tracking concept into a mind-boggling new dimension. Just this once, the gods have lifted the Curse of the Microsoft Hardware.

Consistently Linux Failed To Grab Even 1% Of The Desktop OS Market

mayurkshirsagar — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:31:31 +0000

Linux has been around for almost last 20 years now. It has become a resounding success as a server OS (for example as the L in the famous LAMP stack), and more recently as a mobile OS (Android). But what about on the desktop?

In 2003, Siemens Business Systems predicted that Linux would have captured 20% of the desktop market by 2008. Well, I think that was dirtiest prediction and also it is. Because, it’s now 2010, and desktop Linux isn’t even close to 20%. Or one tenth of that. Lolz. Do you know that Linux is safest OS ever. ha ha ha..!

Linux desktop OS market share

The sad truth is, Linux on the desktop has so far failed to really take off. Linux hasn’t even been able to claim a single percent of the desktop OS market.
Here is the current desktop OS market share distribution, by StatCounter:

As of July 2010 Linux had less than one percent of the desktop OS market. Perhaps this is a temporary low?

Unfortunately not. Here below you can see the last two years of Linux’s desktop OS market share. Things haven’t been moving much.

Inside Beauty Of Apple Magic Trackpad

mayurkshirsagar — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:05:10 +0000

[via ifixit]

The Olive Pad : A 7-inch Android Tablet For India

mayurkshirsagar — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 13:54:16 +0000

Android tablets are popping up all around the globe and the latest just popped up for the Indian market. The only thing that makes the Olive Pad stand out from the rest is its voice calling capabilities. It is including Android 2.1, Bluetooth, WiFi, SD card slot, mini USB port, and a front-facing camera, which may or may not be used for video chatting. The current plan as we understand it is to launch the tablet next month in India for between Rs.20000 and Rs.25000.

The iPhone4 Antenna Song

mayurkshirsagar — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:49:23 +0000

there’s an awful lot of hoopla
around the iphone 4 anttenna
when you grip it with the death grip
and you’re call slips away

the media loves a failure
in a string of success
the facts won’t ever matter
if they can make bigger messes

sure i can make it happen
but in terms of daily usage
i’ve yet to drop a call
so this whole damn thing is stupid

and you can call me a fanboy
i’ve been called worse things
but gizmodo just ridiculous
pulling their anti-apple strings

you bought a stolen prototype
get over it and move on
or hey even better
let’s all sing this song

The Social Network

mayurkshirsagar — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:35:23 +0000

Click Here to watch trailer.

Yahoo! Movies has just released the first full-length trailer for David Fincher’s The Social Network.

For those, who are unfamiliar with the premise, the film is loosely based on the book The Accidental Billionaires and it chronicles the foundation and rise of Facebook.

Although the film is about the early days of the social network, that doesn’t preclude the discussion of privacy and ownership. Sony’s campaign for the film is subtly drawing parallels between the issues facing Facebook today and the fictionalized account of its start.

What do you think about the trailer? Are you going to see the film when it hits theaters this October?

No No NO, Its Not Working

mayurkshirsagar — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:50:47 +0000

Does the just released iOS 4.1 update fix the iPhone 4’s death grip issue — or at least appear to..?

Hello… Does the just released iOS 4.1 update fix the iPhone 4’s death grip issue — or at least appear to?

And the answer is no no no…

I’m not lying to you, here is test video taken by Mobile crunch

I’m trying to make the world a more open place by helping people connect and share – Mark Zukerburg, CEO, Facebook

mayurkshirsagar — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:42:54 +0000

After 10.60 Opera Released Opera Mini 5.1 Supporting 3000+ Handsets

mayurkshirsagar — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:39:14 +0000

Yesterday Opera has released an update to Opera Mini that improves the browsing experience on many phones.

The world’s most popular mobile phone browser gets an update that allows an improved experience on more than 3000 mobile phones.

The update to version 5.1 allows for more pages to be opened at the same time.

There are no major new features introduced in Opera Mini 5.1, but this update is highly recommended for users of Nokia S40 feature phones with limited memory, such as the popular Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 6300 and Nokia 2700 handsets. This upgrade will also benefit phones with a small screen size, such as the Sony Ericsson K550i and Sony Ericsson W810i phones. In addition, Opera Mini 5.1 will improve the browsing experience for those who have encountered out-of-memory issues or the need to reload open web pages while surfing with Opera Mini 5.

To download Opera Mini 5.1, go to m.opera.com with your phone’s default browser and Opera will automatically select the optimized version for your phone.

New Firefox 4 beta rolls out

mayurkshirsagar — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:45:47 +0000

Good news for all Mozilla Firefox lovers, that Mozilla released their new version Firefox 4 beta with lots of new feature.

Firefox 4 Beta includes an updated Windows interface that’s sleeker and easier to use. (Mac & Linux version still not released). This 4 beta is with new look contents such as

‘New Tab Location’

‘Switch to Tab’

‘Firefox button’

Mozilla also introduced much more new features in this new beta version. Here are features of Firefox 4 beta :

New Add-Ons Manager

This gives you an easier way to manage your add-ons and discover new options for personalizing your browsing.

WebM and HD Video

As pioneers of HTML5 video standards, Firefox also supports the WebM format so you can watch open HD quality video.

WebSockets

Due to which developers will be able to build real-time online interactions like gaming and chatting.

HTML5 Support

Firefox 4 beta is HTML5 enabled and full support for web video, audio, drag & drop, and file handling.

JetPack SDK

This makes Add-On Development Easier means you can install Add-ones without restarting the browser, and can develope more easily using the new JetPack SDK and js-ctypes.

CSS3

This firefox is also support to CSS3. With support for new CSS3 features, web designers can make their pages both look prettier and display faster.

Web Console

With this experimental analysis tool for modern sites, Firefox allows you to peek under the hood of dynamic web pages.

Indexed DB

Due to this feature developers will be able to store application data locally, making cloud applications like Gmail or GDocs work more quickly and reliably, even when not connected to a network.

Crash Protection

Most important feature of new Firefox is its crash protected. If one of Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins, commonly-used plugins crashes or freezes, it won’t affect the rest of Firefox. Instead, you can simply reload the page to restart the plugin and try again.

[Download Mozilla Firefox 4 beta here]