.::REALITYRECALL::.

Quick refreshing of Microsoft’s E3 landing page has apparently revealed some of the things it will be announcing within a couple of hours at its E3 press conference, including new features for Xbox Live like Voice Search and new look for the service. With the explosive popularity of the Kinect add-on, it looks like the system is being refashioned with support built in from the ground up as opposed to the current menu system that’s more of an afterthought. Also mentioned on the page are Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports Season 2 and most importantly, two new Halo games. One is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which appears to be the HD (& possibly 3D) remake leaked by Joystiq previously, while the other is Halo 4 — no explanation needed. We’ll surely find out everything when the press conference kicks off live at 12:30 p.m. Eastern and of course we’ll be covering all of the news live right here.

Update: Microsoft’s just confirmed some of the leaked information onstage at its E3 keynote, with demonstrations of a deeply integrated voice command setup powered by Kinect. YouTube has been announced as an Xbox Live partner, while Bing is coming to the console to let users search across Netflix, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Hulu all at once.That universal search also extends to new live TV partnerships with Sky, Canal+ and Foxtel.

[Thanks, q & Pradeep]

Microsoft’s Kinect-based UI for XBL has Bing voice search across Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and live TV originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinect is almost as popular for its hacks as it is for actually playing games, but Microsoft and its third party developers are making a hard push for motion and voice-controlled games on the Xbox 360. Popular EA Sports franchises Madden NFL, FIFA World Cup, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour will all join the motion-gaming parade. No longer will you have to punch obscure sequences of buttons to pick plays, you’ll actually be able to call out running patterns to your offensive line. Plenty of others are also getting in on the shouting and arm-flailing action, including Mass Effect 3, Forza Motorsport 4, Fable: The Journey, and Ghost Recon — in fact, we were told, “all future titles in the Tom Clancy franchise will leverage Kinect.” Crytek also offered a sneak peak at Ryse, a Roman-era brawler that will have you headbutting the air to take out baddies. Looks like you’ll have to start stretching before firing up your console from now on.

The following games will also be coming to Xbox 360 with Kinect Support:

• Minecraft
• Disneyland Adventures
• Kinect Star Wars
• Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster
• Kinect Fun Labs
• Kinect Sports: Season 2
• Dance Central 2

Update: We’ve got a slew of demo videos of Kinect Fun Labs after the break — it’s Kinect hacks for the masses!

Continue reading Kinect support explodes, EA Sports, Mass Effect 3, and more hop on board

Kinect support explodes, EA Sports, Mass Effect 3, and more hop on board originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android: We were pretty excited when Read It Later first debuted for Android, but now that the price has gone up to $2.99, some of you may be a bit less excited. If you’d like to save and read articles offline but you don’t know if you’re ready to plop down three bucks yet, Read It Later now has a free version of Android that you can try out. Like the Pro version, you can save articles from just about anywhere and read them on your phone, whether you’re online or off. The free version only lets you view a limited number of articles from your queue, though, and you can’t search or sort through them. You also can’t view your list of unfinished articles, scroll with your volume keys, or lock your phone’s rotation. If you don’t really need those features, then it’s great; otherwise it’s a great way to see if the app is right for you. [Android Market via AddictiveTips] More »

Lightning is seen amid a cloud of ash billowing from Puyehue
volcano near Osorno in southern Chile, 870 km south of Santiago, on
June 5, 2011. Puyehue volcano erupted for the first time in half a
century on June 4, 2011, prompting evacuations for 3,500 people as it
sent a cloud of ash that reached Argentina. The National Service of
Geology and Mining said the explosion that sparked the eruption also
produced a column of gas 10 kilometers (six miles) high, hours after
warning of strong seismic activity in the area.

More info here.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered a new way to deal with chronic pain. And it’s not medical marijuana.

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Canada Post workers in Montreal began strike action at 11:30 p.m. ET Sunday, the third in a series of rotating strikes that launched Thursday night in Winnipeg.

The ASUS UX21, that 11.6-inch cake slicer that doubles up as an ultrathin laptop, is coming in September with a price tag of less than $1,000. That’s according to the Commercial Times, which cites supplier sources in identifying ASUS’ aggressive pricing strategy. Word is that the Taiwanese company is aiming to price the UX21 at 80 to 90 percent of the cost of Apple’s competing products, namely the MacBook Air family. Of course, with a second-gen Intel Core i5 (or i7) CPU inside it, ASUS’ new laptop has a significant spec advantage over Apple’s similarly aluminum-encased laptops, so we’d argue simply matching the MBA’s price will ensure the UX21 flies off store shelves. ASUS has a fine recent history of breaking through price barriers, as shown by the $200 Eee PC X101 that was announced alongside the UX21 at Computex, so if anyone was going to give us a 17mm-thick slab of up-to-date gorgeousness for less than $1,000, it probably had to be Jonney Shih’s crew.

ASUS UX21 to be priced at less than $1,000, says Commercial Times originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobotap has released a new version of its browser for Android. Dolphin HD has reached version 5, and it brings a slew of updates. The web browser currently competes with alternatives like Miren and Firefox Mobile. Unlike the alternatives, however, Dolphin HD uses the Android’s built-in web rendering. This means…

When treated as protagonists, Androids fill a tale with themes of the roles and definitions of humanity. When included as tertiary characters they are often symbols for "the other."

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Continue reading Windows logo planted on upcoming Apple Store in Germany (video)

Windows logo planted on upcoming Apple Store in Germany (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Jun 2011 18:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since it’s weekend, let’s start with some good news we can all be happy about. The United Nations has declared internet access a human right, and has called upon all nations to not instate any laws that have the power to cut people off the internet, with France and the UK being singled out because they passed three strikes laws.

With its double-decker design and posh interior perks, this concept train from Australian firm Hassell could one day zip the denizens of the land down under across the outskirts of their island continent at hundreds of miles per hour. More »

Windows: If you manage photos, music, or even lots of documents, you know what its like to have copies of the same file in different folders. Duplicate Commander can scan those folders and remove the duplicates, but it can also take things a step further and replace the dupes with hard links, so you’ll never open a folder and wonder where the original document lives. More »