“If you see it, just say it,” says Microsoft’s Kinect, but only in the US, UK, Mexico and Japan to start — those are the only four countries that will support Kinect voice control by the motion-sensing peripheral’s November launch. So said Microsoft PR manager Lidia Pitzalis in an interview with Eurogamer Spain, adding that Germany, Italy, France and even Canada and Spain would have to wait for a Spring 2011 update for additional language support. Microsoft claims it’s a matter of accents throwing off the voice recognition, as the company’s already had to build separate software versions for US and UK English, but if you’re an Italian who can fake a good Cockney, you’re still out of luck, as Microsoft’s reportedly disabling voice control entirely in said regions until it can formally support it. And game companies wonder why we try so hard to hack those DVD drives…
Update: Canada will in fact have voice support, according to Microsoft. So long as you speak English and not French.
Kinect won’t support voice recognition in some countries until 2011, putting on airs won’t help originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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“If you see it, just say it,” says Microsoft’s Kinect, but only in the US, UK, Mexico and Japan to start — those are the only four countries that will support Kinect voice control by the motion-sensing peripheral’s November launch. So said Microsoft PR manager Lidia Pitzalis in an interview with Eurogamer Spain, adding that Germany, Italy, France and even Canada and Spain would have to wait for a Spring 2011 update for additional language support. Microsoft claims it’s a matter of accents throwing off the voice recognition, as the company’s already had to build separate software versions for US and UK English, but if you’re an Italian who can fake a good Cockney, you’re still out of luck, as Microsoft’s reportedly disabling voice control entirely in said regions until it can formally support it. And game companies wonder why we try so hard to hack those DVD drives…
Kinect won’t support voice recognition in some countries until 2011, putting on airs won’t help originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Joystiq | Eurogamer Spain | Email this | Comments
Thought the page-turning Macallan was nifty? You ain’t seen nothing yet — The Astonishing Tribe (the brains behind the look of Android) aims to give you billowing, rippling cloth-like curtains of clever interactive content with their concept Velvet UI. Pull out a widget or Google Maps query, and a sheet of your desired result waves with the virtual wind, before stretching out flat for you to more comfortably interact with. Running on MeeGo (and apparently possible on Android) it’s built with the company’s proprietary UI framework, so don’t expect it to hit tablets anytime soon unless someone throws them some bucks. Also see: TAT’s other impressive concepts. Video after the break.
Continue reading Pay no attention to that playful UI behind the Google Maps curtain (video)
Pay no attention to that playful UI behind the Google Maps curtain (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink MobileLivingRoom.de | TAT Mobile User Interface Blog | Email this | Comments
We’ve already gotten a glimpse at MeeGo’s prerelease stock UI for handsets, but just like Symbian, there’s no guarantee that the experience is going to be consistent across manufacturers — and a new video apparently captured from an online survey makes it seem like Nokia might be looking to go in a slightly different direction. The one minute, twenty-nine seconds of footage walks us through five parts — starting up, the “powerful multitasking UI,” getting connected, the Ovi Store experience, and the music player — and as you might imagine, it’s the Ovi Store portion that has us feeling like this is a thoroughly Nokia-customized experience (not to mention the copyright in the lower left). It generally looks richer and more functional than what we’ve seen before, and parts — like the webOS-esque multitasking — remind us of Maemo 5′s thumbnails, which makes perfect sense considering MeeGo’s roots. Follow the break for the full video.
[Thanks, MTA]
Continue reading Nokia’s treatment of MeeGo smartphone UI revealed?
Nokia’s treatment of MeeGo smartphone UI revealed? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
One of the more recent trends in UI design has been the attempt to make the digital appear analog. It arguably started with the NeXT OS, which had photorealistic icons and used clever grayscale techniques to give three-dimensional depth to windows, scroll bars and other elements. Today, Apple’s iPhone compass app looks like it might be more at home on an 18th-century clipper ship, and the voice recorder app looks at home in a recording studio somewhere around 1950 — tap on the “microphone” and the VU meter will react much as it would in real life. Google’s added subtle 3D effects to Android’s app scrolling. I haven’t thought that much about this trend until I recently spent some time using Windows Phone 7.
It’s perhaps a minor issue but one of the things I like about WP7 is that it’s not a digital UI pretending to be analog. The user interface is flat. There are no photorealistic depictions of real world items, no shading, and no 3D effects. Everything is conveyed through the use of fonts, shapes and color. It’s digital and it’s proud. Overall, I like it, and the more I use it, the more I prefer it. Returning to a more digital approach means Microsoft was able to rethink the nature of applications and services and create the concept of hubs, where like functions meet similar functions without the need for separate applications. It takes some getting used to, but the more I use it, the more natural it feels.
Continue reading Entelligence: Let’s get digital
Entelligence: Let’s get digital originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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There’s not much to your average prototype Windows 7 tablet — just a netbook running the vanilla OS with a touchscreen instead of keyboard — but if you’ve been wondering why you might care to buy one, just get a load of this Macallan UI. Developed by a third-party firm named UI Centric specifically for Windows tablet devices, it features a clean, finger-friendly interface capable of Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, and uses the crowd-pleasing page flip gesture for multitasking functionality. Perhaps most importantly, however, UI Centric claims it will actually appear on a real slate — come Q3 2010, a “major manufacturer” will debut the first Macallan-topped device. We’re curious to see how it (and a bottle of fine scotch) will stack up against September’s ExoPC. Video after the break.
Continue reading Page-turning ‘Macallan’ UI will hit a Windows 7 tablet this year (video)
Page-turning ‘Macallan’ UI will hit a Windows 7 tablet this year (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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There’s no question that NVIDIA’s Optimus system — which enables a discrete GPU to operate when a machine is taxed and a power-sipping IGP to function when you’re involved in less strenuous tasks — has changed the way the world looks at laptop graphics, but it hasn’t been able to avoid a fair amount of criticism about the controlling interface. With the July release of the monthly Verde drivers, the company has just rolled out a revised UI that provides “even more visibility into how Optimus is working and allows you even more control over how Optimus operates.” The newest Optimus control panel, as well as a brief demonstration of what’s been tweaked, is available for viewing just after the break, but it’s on you to hunt down drivers for whatever rig you call your own.
Continue reading NVIDIA’s refreshed Optimus interface sheds more light on what your GPU is doing
NVIDIA’s refreshed Optimus interface sheds more light on what your GPU is doing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Some cried and some cheered when Microsoft revealed that handset manufacturers couldn’t reskin Windows Phone 7 devices wholesale. But as it turns out, at least one major OEM is still banking on software to help differentiate its phones. HTC’s Drew Bamford told Forbes that Sense UI will still appear in the company’s Windows Phone 7 creations, and believes it will live on in Android 3.0 (Gingerbread) as well. “Microsoft has taken firmer control of the core experience,” acknowledged Bamford, who added that Sense wouldn’t be fully integrated into WP7 phones, but that HTC would “augment” the Microsoft experience with as-yet-undisclosed functionality of its own. As long as it doesn’t eat up too much memory and processor time, right?
HTC Sense coming to Windows Phone 7, after all originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This one’s been kicking around the interwebs for a few weeks now, but it has managed to grow into something of a beast during that period. Frankly, we couldn’t think of less fitting way to send the glorious Nexus One out than to completely deface it and ruin what Google has worked so hard to perfect. But regardless of what we think, that’s exactly what has happened here. One rolle3k over at xda developers clearly has a masochistic gene or two planted inside of his skull, but at least his APK doesn’t require your N1 to be rooted before providing you access to a TouchWiz user interface. Feel free to hit the source if you’re up for seeing what you’ve been missing out on, but only if you literally cannot think of a single better thing to do with your time.
Tweaker ports Samsung’s TouchWIz UI onto non-rooted Nexus One for reasons unknown originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink The Gadgets | xda developers | Email this | Comments
How does Jamie Zigelbaum, a former student at MIT Media Lab, celebrate freedom from tyranny, drool-worthy accents and “standing in the queue?” By creating Slurp, of course. In what’s easily one of the most jaw-dropping demonstrations of the year, this here digital eyedropper is a fanciful new concept that could certainly grow some legs if implemented properly in the market place. Designed as a “tangible interface for manipulating abstract digital information as if it were water,” Slurp can “extract (slurp up) and inject (squirt out) pointers to digital objects,” enabling connected machines and devices to have information transferred from desktop to desktop (or desktop to speakers, etc.) without any wires to bother with. We can’t even begin to comprehend the complexity behind the magic, but all you need to become a believer is embedded after the break. It’s 41 seconds of pure genius, we assure you.
Continue reading Slurp digital eyedropper sucks up, injects information wirelessly (video)
Slurp digital eyedropper sucks up, injects information wirelessly (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink MAKE | Spime, YouTube [zigg1es] | Email this | Comments
