Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced that the company will begin selling its Kinect gaming accessories for Windows in twelve countries worldwide from February 1 for $249.99.
The announcement, that was made during Ballmer’s keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) today, was confirmed up by an announcement on the Kinect blog which provides futher details.
The launch will see the gesture-based product made available in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. However, at this stage, there is no mention of whether these markets will be expanded to cover more countries.
The cost may surprise some, but Microsoft points out that the technology is more expensive for Windows because Kinect for Xbox 360 “is in large part subsidized by consumers buying a number of Kinect games”. That, of course, includes includes Xbox LIVE content and transactions made through the Xbox 360 ecosystem.
The company also points that is was designed specifically for the console:
Indeed, the system has proved to be hugely popular, selling 18 million units as the company reveals:
Microsoft has grand plans for the technology, which will initially support Windows 7 and the Windows 8 developer preview (desktop apps only), as well as gesture and voice on Windows Embedded-based devices. The company is developing the device for Windows to “allow other companies to integrate Kinect into their offerings”, and it is clearly looking to encourage the developer community to run with this ball, and the SDK to develop on Kinnect for Windows will be free.
The development has already started as Ballmer revealed that Microsoft is “working with hundreds of companies with the integration process”. Talking of the potential that the introduction could make, the company CEO said that “like Kinect revolutionized entertainment, it is going to change even more”.
Incidentally, the Windows gear will not be compatible with the Xbox 360, which is a shame but we’re sure that Microsoft would have made that possible if it could.
Kinect for Windows is already listed in Amazon, where it is to pre-order for $249.99, you can find it here .
This could prove to be a fascinating move, and we can think of a number of ways that Kinect’s unique approach could be used on a PC.
You can keep up with our CES posts at the dedicated tag here .
The Apple iPhone 5 has reportedly been jailbroken
Just hours after the new Apple iPhone 5 was released, it has already been jailbroken. While iOS 6 has been jailbroken on other devices, this development means hackers have already found and exploited security holes to run custom code on the sixth-generation iPhone, which is the first device to actually ship with iOS 6.
iOS developer and hacker Grant Paul posted the following message on Twitter , which shows the iPhone 5 running the Cydia Store for jailbroken devices:
It’s certainly possible Paul faked the Cydia icon (by simply renaming a Web app and giving it the appropriate icon), or via some other clever trickery, but he stands by his claim. When Stefan Esser , another iOS hacker, asked about it directly, he said he had indeed jailbroken Apple’s latest and greatest:
On Wednesday, iOS 6 was released to the masses . On Thursday, Redmond Pie reported that iOS 6 had received a tethered jailbreak for the A4-based iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and the 4th-generation iPod touch.
The iPhone 4S, the iPad 2, the iPad 3, and the 5th-generation iPod touch are not supported by that iOS 6 jailbreak. Furthermore, it’s a tethered jailbreak, meaning you have to boot into tethered-mode every time you reboot your device.
It’s thus very surprising to learn that on Friday (today), the A6-based iPhone 5 has already been jailbroken. We’ll be following this one closely.
Jailbreaking an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch makes it possible to install apps that aren’t available in Apple’s App Store. Even if this jailbreak is confirmed by others in the community, the tools to do it for your own iPhone 5 won’t be available for a while. Nevertheless, this first step means the software will be developed sooner rather than later.
Update at 8:35PM EST : Paul has posted more proof of his feat.
Naysayers may still question the authenticity of this hack, but this should shut them up:
Quite an achievement!
See also: TNW’s Complete Review: iOS 6 bets big on Maps and Siri
Image credit: stock.xchng .
By the way, Samsung’s ‘Smart Window’ is also solar-powered [video]
Yesterday, we told you about one of the coolest items at this year’s CES conference in Las Vegas, the Samsung Smart Window . The company has posted an official video demo of the product and we learned another juicy tidbit about it; it’s partially powered by the sun . The thing only requires 10% of normal power consumption.
Makes complete sense, since the gorgeous transparent device is a geeky replacement for a window. Not only is this thing “Minority Report” cool, it’s eco-friendly. Unsurprisingly, the Smart Window won a well-deserved CES 2012 Innovation award. If the other wasn’t enough to make you want to get one of these things, this one just might:
http://www.youtubeom/watch?v=mTVPVobDrms
The only thing missing is a release date and price for the Transparent Smart Window from Samsung. The video suggests putting it in the kitchen, so maybe it won’t be overly pricy. Who am I kidding? They could put any price tag on this baby and I’d at least contemplate picking one up.
Even though the conference is over, you can go back in time and catch up on all of our CES 2012 coverage !