One of the coolest parts of E3 a few years ago when Microsoft officially unveiled Kinect to the world was the ability to control media like Netflix via motion control —  a feature that has been absent since the peripheral’s launch last November.  Until now.

It was announced this morning at CES that the update would be coming this spring, along with the previously announced Hulu Plus service.

Kinect program manager Ron Forbes demonstrated the tech during a Microsoft’s press event this morning.

At a panel last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in sinful Las Vegas that debated the effects of adult entertainment in the Internet era, Ron Jeremy, the legendary skin-flick actor, offered a harsh critique of the medium we hold so dearly.

He said:

“We don’t want kids to watch porn, though if they do, there are far worse influences out there – like video games. Studies have found that violent video games are much bigger a negative influence on kids.”

Okay, perhaps I’m biased because I write about video games all day and play them all night, but I just do not think Mr. Jeremy’s argument holds any significant weight. I could play Scribblenauts on my DS on a plane ride and when someone looked over my shoulder I wouldn’t attempt to conceal my actions. But if I had my laptop up and was viewing some hardcore porn and someone saw, I think the situation might be a little different.

Source: Joystiq

Microsoft believes even the hardcore gamers will love Project Natal, or so a higher-up said yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

What we saw at E3, that being a girl playing a ball-kicking game by flailing her arms and legs, looked like something no Halo-head or Call of Duty enthusiasts might want to do, but Microsoft sees its new motion-control tech in a different light.

President of Entertainment and Devices Division Robbie Bach, during Microsoft’s financial analyst briefing, said that the targeted demographic was “everybody,” including those who play Halo: Reach when it releases this Fall.

“Take your hardcore gamer, they’re going to love Natal,”Bach explained. “Now, they’ll play a different style of game on that when they’re doing it. When they play Halo: Reach, they might be back with their controller doing some very, you know, targeted things. But the style of game they will play will be different.”

“But they will absolutely love Natal,” he added.

What’s even more interesting is that Bach stated over 70 percent of publishers are in some way working on Natal-based games, including developers like Bethesda, Capcom, Konami and Ubisoft.

Well, it’s all fine and dandy to say hardcore gamers will enjoy the new technology, but until we see it, I’m not quite ready to believe.

Source: IGN

Kaz Hirai, a Sony higher-up, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas yesterday spoke about all things Sony and the future of the brand.

During his address the man said this past Holiday was the most successful span of time for the PlayStation 3.

It now makes money!

What he meant by most successful was that after the last week of November, Sony amazingly sold over 3.8 million PlayStation 3′s worldwide, 1.7 of which in the United States, representing a 76% spike from this time last year. Clearly a cheaper, slimmer, PS3 console had at least something to do with those upscaled figures.

Hirai also announced what we’ve waited years to hear; that your PSN ID will soon be integrated to lots more devices for many more functional uses.

Your PSN account: No good in more than 1 place!

He said starting next month, those with a PSN account can “stream "100s" of PSN-available movies in HD and SD directly to their Sony Bravia and Blu-ray devices, as well as their Vaios and Windows-enabled PCs.”

Source: Destructoid

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in sunny Las Vegas yesterday with a keynote address from none other than Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, and outside of a lot of talk about Windows and Windows-based applications, the man dished lots of intriguing information about the future of the Xbox 360.

Here’s a rundown, for those who didn’t watch the livestream last night, of the highlights of the speech.

Project Natal-Microsoft’s “your body is the controller,” motion-control gaming movement, was announced to be released Holiday 2010, so we can probably expect the new technology about 10 months from now.

No controller...oh wait, you are the controller!

Coming soon, during Spring 2010, is Game Room for Xbox Live and Games For Windows. This online destination, compared to Sony’s Home, will be a place to play classic arcade games…for a price. You can either buy one of the thousands of retro titles at a low price point of between 240-440 MS Points, but can also fork over only 40 Points/50 cents, if you want that true retro feeling of popping in a couple quarters, but only get to play the game once. Additionally, Microsoft is promising a new game every week and that this Game Room will be a popular hangout for your Xbox Live Avatars. We’ll see.

If you build it, they might come.

In bloody, war news, announced last night was yet another timed exclusive for the mighty corporate brethren at Microsoft, this time involving everyone’s favorite FPS, Modern Warfare 2. When the first batch of DLC hits for the shooter this Spring it’ll be available first for paying Xbox Live members. No mention of what the DLC will actually be however, though it’s likely a combination of new multiplayer environments, and or more Spec-Ops missions.

More of this. Coming soon.

Finally, Ballmer said there are now 39 million Xbox 360s in the wild and between Christmas and New Year’s this year, Xbox Live had its busiest week of all time. During this time a new member signed up for XBL every second and at one point over 2.2 million members signed on at the same time, and XBL didn’t crack under the server stress like last year.

Xbox Live. w00t

Stay tuned later today for what Sony had to say and show at CES.

The notorious Windows boot time can be an onerous necessity when all you want to do is check e-mail or hit up your favorite magazine (like Blast) for a quick hit of news.

Phoenix Technologies latest product, debuting at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, is called HyperSpace. It’s a slick, compact Linux based platform that circumvents the Windows load time by booting straight from BIOS. It installs alongside Windows, and allows the user to switch between the stripped down but aesthetically pleasing HyperSpace interface — which boasts instant web connectivity — and the hard drive based Windows platform at will.

Think of it as a 3G phone version of your laptop.

The boot time for HyperSpace from total shutdown is comparable to bringing a Windows machine out of sleep mode, which is a few seconds. Because the program boots from BIOS, it doesn’t require a spinning hard drive, which saves on battery power by up to 30 percent, according to Phoenix.

HyperSpace boasts a robust security system administered by Phoenix Technologies, disallowing any downloads not cleared by the Phoenix Technology auditing system. For more advanced users, such electronic handholding might not be ideal, but it comes with the package. Time will tell if it’s a winner, but from early glimpses of the system it appears to be a nice solution for those wanting to save on battery power and circumvent hard drive based apps by living online.

The HyperSpace platform starts at $39 for the basic system which runs on single core processors and $59 for the hybrid option which runs on dual core processors.

We’ve done some listening to Anthony Gallo’s speakers in the past (Blast, Globe). So we’re happy to take a look at the first photos and specs on his new Strada main and center speakers.

The Strada will feature a new impulse correction system as well as the latest version of the company’s patented tweeter: the CDT 3.

“Current market research indicates that size and price are the two most important criteria when buying a loudspeaker,” Gallo said. “So, the challenge was to make a small, visually attractive speaker that would sound great just about anywhere, in multiple applications, and still be affordable. We have tested them in a multitude of environments with a variety of mounting options and the Stradas have always exceeded our expectations. We can’t wait to audition them for the industry professionals at CES. Personally, I have a Strada surround configuration in my own family room and could live with that forever.”

The Stradas measure 6.5″ D x 12.5″ H x 5.5″ W. Each can handle 150 watts RMS of unclipped music power.

$1,000 each, so save your pennies.

You can watch the whole CES keynote address here. Also Gizmodo has a better quality video than most.

Bill Gates put together a funny, fitting farewell video starring Matthew McConaughey, Brian Williams, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jay-Z, Bono, George Clooney, Al Gore and more.

In one scene, Gates cell phones Bono during a show and tries to get in the band. Bono says to Gates,”Yeah, I know, I know, but I can’t just replace The Edge because you got a high score in Guitar Hero.

The video and keynote were given in front of 4,000 people Sunday night at the Venetian Hotel’s Palazzo Ballroom in Las Vegas.

Not a bad start to CES this year.