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Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV

By | December 6, 2011, 8:09am PST

Summary: Give your Xbox 360 a ‘Metro’ look, voice and motion controls via your Kinect sensor, and even a WP7 phone remote control with this December 6 update.

If you’re one of the 750,000 people who picked up a Kinect sensor for your Xbox 360 this past Black Friday, your sub-$100 purchase will feel like an ever better deal with Microsoft’s latest Xbox update available in America, Canada and the U.K. beginning today.

  • Metro UI: For starters, your dashboard will go from a top-to-bottom view to a side-scrolling, left-to-right UI that looks just like the Metro style of the Windows Phone 7 Mango OS.
  • Voice and Motion Controls to Control the Console: Forget pushing buttons to control your console. If you own a Kinect sensor along with an Xbox, you will be able to use your voice and gestures rather than a controller to navigate Zune video, Xbox LIVE Marketplace and apps like Netflix. Sounds too good to be true? Watch Gamespot’s video that demonstrates how you can interact with the system with just your voice and motions.

    Don’t have a Kinect accessory yet? “Text search [using Bing] will be available in Xbox LIVE markets,” according to the press release.

  • Send ‘beacons’ to roundup your friends: Rather than texting or calling each friend to join you in a game, you can beam your latest status to all of them at once via Facebook or Twitter, so you spend less time looking for your buddies and more playing with them.
  • Windows Phone 7 ‘Xbox Companion’ App: As Matthew Miller reported yesterday, if you also happen to have a WP7 phone, you will be able to download the free Xbox Companion app via  Marketplace. Not only will you be to use Bing to learn more about the movie, TV show, music or game that is running on your console, you’ll be able to see your friends’ Xbox-related activities, scoreboard, as well as use your phone as a remote control for your console — when playing games, music and even videos.
  • New Content Coming Dec. 6 and Beyond: In case you need a break from gaming on your Xbox 360, you can now stream the following on-demand shows via your console starting today, with more coming later this month and in early 2012:
    • EPIX. United States
    • ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States
    • Hulu. Japan
    • Hulu Plus. United States
    • LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom
    • Netflix. Canada, United States
    • Premium Play by (MediaSet). Italy
    • Sky Go (SkyDE). Germany
    • Telefónica España - Movistar Imagenio. Spain
    • TODAY (MSNBC). United States

Voice and motion commands for your Xbox may get old and tiring quickly, but there is enough in this update to keep the console fresh and forward-looking. Perhaps Microsoft will sell a lot more consoles, Kinect sensors and even a few WP7 phones this holiday because of this update. What do you think?

[Source: Microsoft press release, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson, Gamespot's YouTube channel]

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Topics

Microsoft Kinect, TV, Microsoft Xbox 360, Windows 7 Phone, Microsoft Xbox, Game Players, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Gloria Sin

Gloria Sin is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

Disclosure

Gloria Sin

I have no stocks or investments in any companies or interests which may lead to a conflict of interest in my coverage.

Biography

Gloria Sin

Gloria Sin is a New York-based freelance journalist who writes about the tech toys that you can't live without for ZDNet. She has little patience for poorly designed user experiences, and is not afraid of opening the guts of her own machines for repair or hacking her gadgets for new uses.

She has written for FastCompany.com, Popular Science, Olympic News Service; she currently covers the startup scene in the Tri-State area for NYConvergence.com.

Prior to ZDNet, Gloria was the online editor for Dance International, and dabbled in web design and social media consulting. When she is offline, you will find her at an ice rink living out her figure skating dreams. Follow her on Twitter.

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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
Rob.sharp@... 8th Dec
@toddybottom

Agreed...I just fooled around with the voice commands and connect integration and i'm loving it. Like the Bing feature too! Makes it easier than hunting and pecking input via controller. The Xbox companion for Windows Phone 7 is defintely nice to have. I can sit in my dining room talk to my exbox or use my phone to navigate. Very cool stuff! Xbox has the ultimate entertainment package hands down!
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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
Ididar 6th Dec
Voice search and/or typing is what I'm looking forward to most in terms of kinect integration. The gesture commands will be, by nature, gimmicky.
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It is just another input method
toddybottom 6th Dec
@Ididar
While it is possible that kinect gestures will not become the primary input method, it is certainly better than any other TV ecosystem in the world. While every single other TV ecosystem in the world forces you to pick up your remote or your iPad or your mini keyboard in order to navigate your TV, only MS gives you an ecosystem that augments this with voice and gesture capabilities. Apple certainly doesn't. Apple's solution is to have you hook up an Apple TV, pair it with iTunes, buy an iPad and / or iPhone, pair those with Apple TV and iTunes, and now you are setup. Then, every time you want to interact with your Apple TV, you must reach forward and pick up your 1.3 lb iPad, hold it up with 1 hand, and then navigate with the other one. That will lead to gorilla arms.

While remote control options also exist for Xbox (dedicated remote or WP7) if I quickly want to accomplish a task without having to lift a 1.3lb remote, I can speak my command or make a quick gesture.

This is so much more advanced than what Apple is offering. This is true innovation.
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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
kenosha77a 6th Dec
@toddybottom

You did forget to mention other Apple input options. For example, an iPod Touch or an iPhone could act as a substitute for an iPad. Or, for basic Apple TV menu selections, the small remote control Apple provides will work.

The new additions and upgrades to the Xbox 360/Kinect systems improve the Windows Home Entertainment ecosystem. No doubt about that.
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Go back under the bridge, troll: you know well what 'Gorilla arm syndrome'
dderss Updated - 6th Dec
@toddybottom: ... means -- nothing to do with iPad, but exactly with waving your hands in the air in the attempt to switch the channel (what would only require one click on Apple Remote or any other remote control).
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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
toddybottom 6th Dec
The comment was aimed at dderss and look at that, the troll made an appearance.

dderss continues to state that the only way of interacting with the MS TV ecosystem is by waving your arms for hours a day which will give you gorilla arms. I was calling him out and he obliged. If he can ignore all the other options for interacting with Xbox and wants to make the case that the occasional wave of your empty hands will cause gorilla arms then I feel very justified in claiming that the only way of interacting with Apple TV is by waving a 1.3 lb $500 remote control causing elephant arms (even worse than gorilla arms).

Regardless, the ability to interact with entertainment systems with little remote controls is not innovative. Apple simply copied what has been possible for more than 20 years. MS innovated here and the combination of voice control with gestures as an enhancement to traditional remote control methods is far more innovative than anything Apple has to offer in this market.

Thanks again to dderss for helping me prove my point. His Apple fanboi troll posts can always be counted on.
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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
Rob.sharp@... 8th Dec
@toddybottom

Agreed...I just fooled around with the voice commands and connect integration and i'm loving it. Like the Bing feature too! Makes it easier than hunting and pecking input via controller. The Xbox companion for Windows Phone 7 is defintely nice to have. I can sit in my dining room talk to my exbox or use my phone to navigate. Very cool stuff! Xbox has the ultimate entertainment package hands down!
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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
statuskwo5 6th Dec
I wish I had a Kinect sensor. This looks cool!
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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
Dodgson1832 6th Dec
@statuskwo5

I agree, when it came out I thought it mostly seemed gimmicky, but once all of the hacks began I realized that there are some really cool ways it can be used.
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Important advertising feature
P. Douglas 6th Dec
I believe an important thing MS should work on, is supporting the promotion of apps / games in a unique way. E.g. if a user clicks on an ad for DailyMotion on Xbox anywhere on the web, the web page he is taken to should include a button or option to have the DailyMotion app be included among the featured content the user sees displayed on his Xbox. Therefore after clicking a button / option within a DailyMotion app ad on the web, the user should see the DailyMotion app included among featured content when he goes to his Xbox.

I believe the above will be crucial to content owners, trying to get their apps / games promoted on the Xbox service.
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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
wp7mango 7th Dec
@P. Douglas

That's exactly how it works on Windows Phone 7 Mango. So it wouldn't be difficult for Microsoft to implement the same thing on XBox. The feature is called App Connect - check it out on WP7.
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What does this do for the average user?
sanderrose 6th Dec
This looks cool and has me considering a Kinect sensor.

However, the question is...does the new update add value for the average xbox user? Sure the metro UI looks great. But the voice and gesture? Personally, I don't have enough content on my xbox to be searching for games, movies, etc. I would simply be saying "Xbox, Call of Duty 3" or "Xbox, ESPN". I can do these with a controller pretty easily.

I do think it is innovative and believe the sky is the limit for Xbox...but for now I will pass on the Kinect until I see some more popular games taking advantage of the technology.
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Until You Try To Use It
m0o0o0o0o 7th Dec
Maybe you should try using it. There is nothing magical, revolutionary, or otherwise compelling, yet, unfortunately. It is still FAR faster and easier to use a controller. When you fire up your 360 and you want to do something, do you reach for a controller, or stand in front of the Kinect and wave to it or talk to it? You use the controller. Just signing in and being recognized by the Kinect takes longer than it does to fire up a controller and complete the tasks. The children - they do the same thing. So here's your Steve Jobs moment: until the kids or I or you default to using the Kinect instead of a controller, it isn't good enough. Here's to the next version of Kinect being compelling.

That said, I think that Microsoft is doing most things right with the 360 to make it my main entertainment box - certainly far more than Apple is with AppleTV. Unfortunately, there is still no blu-ray (nor is there likely to be) and I still need a digital cable or satellite converter. I hope they deal with those issues as well. I have six boxes in my TV stand. I'd really like to get it to just two (I think the amplifier for the home theater is going to have to stay).
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RE: Xbox 360 update brings Kinect controls to your TV
techU Updated - 8th Dec
"Voice and motion commands for your Xbox may get old and tiring quickly, but there is enough in this update to keep the console fresh and forward-looking."

ooh so they finally updated their internal codecs and containers to actually play high profile 1080P above the crappy 10Mbit/s inside mp4 containers limit they advise originally, and/or actually allow generic local playback of content in MKV containers, or even refreshed their internal codec's to play better than stereo AAC, what's that you say... "NO THEY DIDN'T" so that makes your claim Gloria Sin invalid. they cant even play current generic x264 encoded high profile L4.1 standard content only something custom encoded at some far lesser bit-rate, never mind "fresh and forward-looking" today

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