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You’re right, the number sold is quite surprising.
But how many of those people would buy another after their experience with it so far?

From the dozens of people I know who bought a kinect when it first released, I think it’s going to turn out to be similar to what has happened with the Wii/WiiU; but worse. People bought a Wii and quickly got tired of the gimmicky motion controls. They stayed because of Nintendo’s first party games. Then out came the WiiU but without any good first party games yet, and just look at the sales numbers by comparison to the Wii.
Microsoft never really had any blockbuster Kinect games in the first place, so unless you have a brand new cable DVR that supports HDMI-CEC to get the TV stuff working, where’s the “pull” to bring people back instead of just writing it off as a gimmick?

I’m not trying to say that the Xbone is going to be a flop, because it’s definitely got some advantages and a lot of the things people are complaining about probably won’t be that big of a deal… All I’m saying is that if you compare what Microsoft is offering directly against what Sony is offering, only one of them is a “value”, and it’s not the Xbone.

“How do you know how many Kinect games were sold?”
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=137938

about 10 hours ago on Microsoft's Don Mattrick defends Xbox pricing: 'We're delivering thousands of dollars of value'

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Nexus4
Nexus7
Gaming Desktop – i7,32GB DDR3, HD6870, striped SSD’s

What’s Next?
Maybe a 2nd gen Nexus7 if they give us front facing speakers. :D
And eventually I’ll update that HD6870, but for now it’s still playing everything on ultra and is whisper quiet.

1 day ago on What's your phone/tablet/pc combo? What's next?

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The type of silicon/transistor/dielectric you use matters just as much as the processor architecture when it comes to raw performance.

So far we’ve only seen A15 in a mobile application on ULP silicon.
Transition that architecture to a High-K dielectric/metal gate structure and it might very well catch up to x86. We just don’t know yet.

1 day ago on AMD moves away from Intel with its first ARM processor

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I*t’s actually a decent value in two circumstances:
1) you actually WANT the kinect sensor (which has been a tiny niche audience for them so far)
2) you look at the price in a vacuum without comparing it to the competition.

He could have just said “I think we’re delivering a great value”, but the instant he said “compared to other options”, he stuck his head up his ass… again.

2 days ago on Microsoft's Don Mattrick defends Xbox pricing: 'We're delivering thousands of dollars of value' 1 reply 2 recommends

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I wonder, is cross-buy the only reason they didn’t just pop this on the Play Store?
Or does the game utilize psn in some way?
Or is it something more technical than that where games designed for Playstation Mobile require some kind of API/native hardware access/VM in order to run on android devices?

They’d have my $5 already if not for compatibility with PSM.

5 days ago on 'RYMDKAPSEL' mixes Tetris and StarCraft into one great mobile game 1 reply 1 recommend

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And this is why it’s such a HUGE deal that Sony is supporting self publishing for Indie Games.

6 days ago on Steven Spielberg and George Lucas predict ‘massive implosion’ in film industry

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Quick Settings in android Jellybean are accessible directly with a 2 finger swipe from the top (1 finger brings down notification window). And a simple swipe to close apps is also there.

You’re right that the specific example I provided HASN’T gotten any easier in iOS.
My wording was bad there. My intent was to summarize, so I should have worded it more like:
“A lot of the best features no longer feel “revolutionary” because they exist in some way in other modern mobile OS’s."

12 days ago on Update or die: HP issuing mandatory patch to save webOS device services

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When offering terms such as MFN on top of retaining a 30% profit margin to publishers, they HAD to know that publishers would make a deal between each other before even giving a single thought to accepting those terms.

So if Cook is actually telling the truth, then he’s also basically admitting to being one of the dumbest businessmen on the planet.

13 days ago on Apple ebooks trial: Amazon 'yelled ... and threatened' when publishers tried to control prices

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The exact contract terms were different, but all of them contained the core:
Apple gets MFN status, and Apple gets to retain it’s 30% profit margin.

The core is what implies that Apple is involved in the collusion because there’s simply no way in hell that the publishers would have EVER agreed to those terms (no matter what concessions were made on top of them) unless they KNEW FOR FACT that the vast majority (if not all) of their competitors were also going to accept those terms. And Apple isn’t stupid. They would have known that terms like that would force the publishers not only to collude before accepting the terms, but then collude to move every retailer to the agency model.

13 days ago on Apple ebooks trial: Amazon 'yelled ... and threatened' when publishers tried to control prices

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I think what Apple is trying to say is that if Amazon were allowed to corner the market and drive out all other competition that prices would suddenly skyrocket as Amazon looked to make more money and there was no competition to drive prices back down.
So in order to prevent a drastic increase in prices later, they had to raise prices a little now.

Of course that’s just conjecture based on a wild assumption with no evidence to back it up, so it’s not much of a defense and only an idiot would fall for it.

13 days ago on Apple ebooks trial: Amazon 'yelled ... and threatened' when publishers tried to control prices

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The roman numerals stand for 2013…

13 days ago on WWDC 2013 preview: Apple prepares to unveil the future of iOS, OS X, and more 1 reply 11 recommends

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It WAS different and great.
A lot of the best features eventually got integrated into Android and/or iOS, so it’s difficult to look back and understand why people were so enamored by it.

An example off the top of my head:
Quitting an app in WebOS was a simple swipe up on the card. At the time, quitting an app on iOS meant hitting home twice to bring up the app list, then tapping and holding until a [ – ] button appeared, then tapping the [ – ], then hitting home again. And on Android it was even more convoluted.

By now of course, it’s just as easy in iOS and Android as it was in WebOS. But back then, WebOS had the leg up.

13 days ago on Update or die: HP issuing mandatory patch to save webOS device services 1 reply 4 recommends

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The price jump happened before the tornadoes started.

15 days ago on Apple lawyers put judge in ebook antitrust case on defensive

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How about when Gas prices in Oklahoma were 20% higher than any surrounding state around the Memorial day weekend?
If not for collusion or price rigging, what could possibly cause that?

16 days ago on Apple lawyers put judge in ebook antitrust case on defensive 5 replies 1 recommend

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We have plenty of recourse. Fire Congress.
Unfortunately, idiots seem to continue voting in incumbents even when they have the lowest approval rating EVER, in the entire history of congressional approval rating measurements.
: /

19 days ago on Google must obey FBI's warrantless requests for user data for now, judge rules 1 reply 2 recommends

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Dear FBI,
JUST GET A FREAKING WARRANT! It’s not rocket science. It’s not like this is some new process that you’re not familiar with. If you think the process of obtaining a warrant is too slow, then find ways to speed it up. Don’t try to bypass it just because it’s not convenient.

-Signed
Everyone.

19 days ago on Google must obey FBI's warrantless requests for user data for now, judge rules 1 reply 1 recommend

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Push. Gmail supports it, exchange supports it.
Push email is immediate.

19 days ago on Best New Apps: Google Hangouts

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Maybe in 20 years, but we’re nowhere near that point now.
Shipments of new desktops may be down, but Microsoft’s potential market for new iterations of windows is the entire PC install base, not just new machines. That install base is over a billion strong! That’s a GIANT market by any standard. The desktop/laptop still dominates business/enterprise and both Microsoft and Sony are about to start pushing the “desktop” into your living room with their next consoles as well.

Ignoring good desktop UI design in favor of tablet/touchscreen designs was premature. They release a new OS every few years, so there was simply no reason to concentrate on the tablet interface this time around. They are finally starting to realize that fact, but the question is: Are they doing enough to keep companies from simply sticking with Windows 7?
And I think the answer is: No.

20 days ago on Windows 8.1: Microsoft brings back the Start button with options to appease desktop users 1 reply 1 recommend

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I think he describes it as “locked down” because Microsoft charges an arm and a leg not only to post a game to XBLA, but again any time you want to update it. So it’s pretty much impossible to improve your game once it’s posted unless you call it DLC and charge extra for it.
So if you don’t want to be stuck with a DLC model, you’re SOL.

23 days ago on Sony woos 'Minecraft' creator with golden PSone, VIP invite to E3 1 reply 1 recommend

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Indeed.
Without being able to easily tell who is currently available it is nothing more than an asynchronous messaging service. And guess what, they already have one of those. It’s called Gmail.

27 days ago on Best New Apps: Google Hangouts 1 recommend

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Then how is it any different than email?
Concentrating the UI on the asynchronous aspect makes no sense because they already have a service that does that (gmail).

We NEED to be able to sort by who is currently available or it simply cannot replace Talk.

27 days ago on Best New Apps: Google Hangouts 1 reply

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If you look closely you can see the light sensor next to it.
So the blinking light is actually just the camera on the top of the current Nexus7 and it looks like they just added the light as an effect on top of it. :(

27 days ago on Best New Apps: Google Hangouts

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They haven’t actually shown us the ports on the new kinect itself (they had them covered in all the demos), so are you saying you think the kinect they sell with the Xbox One will have both the proprietary port AND a usb connector? So that if you want to hook it up to the Xbox you use the proprietary cable or if you want to hook it to your PC you use a USB cable and a separate AC adapter?

That would be fine I guess.

27 days ago on Microsoft's new Kinect will be coming to Windows 1 reply

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tl;dr if you can have a box that plays games, or a box that plays games + lots more, why would you choose the first one?
A: Because the second one charges me a recurring fee to use any of the “lots more”?

28 days ago on Xbox One is powered by Windows, but can Microsoft make you care?

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The Xbox One is x86-64 architecture with USB support yet they continue to use a proprietary Kinect port on the Xbox and you have to buy a different version if you want to use it on PC?

Is there ANY reason outside of money that they couldn’t have just shipped the Xbox One with a USB kinect that you could also use on your PC?

28 days ago on Microsoft's new Kinect will be coming to Windows 1 reply

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If you have to use a J in your slide instead of a G to tell people how to pronounce it correctly, maybe you are pronouncing it wrong…
Gust Sayin’…

28 days ago on Inventor of the GIF uses awards ceremony to remind us how it's pronounced 1 recommend

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The G is short for graphics, which uses a hard G.
So why would you change the pronunciation for the acronym? It makes no sense.

28 days ago on Inventor of the GIF uses awards ceremony to remind us how it's pronounced 2 replies 7 recommends

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That is extremely disappointing.

Not exactly “Complete” if you have to have a cable box or DVR in order to use the live TV features.

29 days ago on Microsoft brings live TV to Xbox One with voice navigation 2 recommends