Microsoft’s bringing the Kinect back (as a business device)

Honestly? We’re serious fans of Microsoft’s first Kinect, from back when the Xbox 360 was the undisputed gaming champ. So it’s kinda nice to see that it’s still doing well for itself. Only kinda, because the Kinect’s newest incarnation as the Azure Kinect Developer Kit (DK) has been designed with business in mind. The new Kinect system hosts some of the Hololens 2’s sensors, like a time-of-flight depth sensor, 7-mic array and dual camera sensors (a 12MP RGP and a 1MP depth sensor) — which sounds kinda standard but Microsoft’s changed its purpose. Kinect will be powered by the cloud and it’s going to be used for AI purposes. Whatever those are. Microsoft has already partnered with a medical company, Ocuvera, which will use Kinect to track whether patients in a hospital have fallen and will alert nurses to the fact. We’re sure some other AI-powered intelligent functions are coming soon. In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of the device.

Source: The Verge

Lenovo debuts its first Active Noise Cancelling headphones

It was bound to happen. Computer (and phone) maker Lenovo makes just about everything else, so some peripherals for your head were almost a certainty. The company has come out with headphones for its ThinkPad (you can see the X1 Active Noise Cancelling cans above) and Yoga lines of computer — which means that you’ll be able to match your ear-wear with your machine. If you want, that is. Both headphones will be more or less the same, with support for Windows as well as Android/iOS and similar tech inside — think USB-C (yay) and Bluetooth 5.0. They’re intended as boardroom devices, though, so expect them to be optimised for online calls and video conferences. At the moment, they’re only dated for Europe (dropping in June 2019) so we’re keeping our eyes peeled on some local info for you as well.

Source: The Verge

Someone is attempting to bring Android to Nintendo’s Switch

Usually when you try to install Android on a piece of hardware that doesn’t already support it, it’s to improve that hardware in some way. Or because you can. Someone’s attempting to bring Android to Nintendo’s Switch console — mostly because they can, we think. A couple of developers have managed to convince an early version of Android Q to run on Ninty’s hardware, though the port is not quite finished yet. Gaming isn’t certain to function (at all) and there are a collection of compatibility issues to iron out still. Devs Billy Laws and Max Keller are working on that at present, a move that could see Nintendo’s gaming hardware being used for… a fair few out-of-warrantee functions. If you’re feeling adventurous (and don’t mind possibly sacrificing your Nintendo hardware in the name of upcycling), check out the link below.

Source: via Engadget

There is going to be another… Angry Birds movie?

Who knew that the first Angry Birds movie was popular enough to warrant a second? Or that the second would drag up music from the depths of the 90s for its first teaser trailer? At least The Angry Birds Movie 2 feels like a video game sequel, even if it happens to be the sequel to a Donkey Kong game. Seriously, didn’t Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze do this but with some kinda Viking critters? Anyway… the teaser doesn’t tell us much but it looks like like there is a new villain in town — even if said villain looks likely to be more the misunderstood sort. Hopefully the film will hit all the right notes with the kiddies though. There’s a lot of visual humour packed into just over a minute, so we’re hopeful on that front. Expect it to drop later this year.