Windows 8: Mar 5, 2012

Monday, March 5, 2012

Commercial release of Kinect for Windows hits Feb. 1st

The sales for Kinect for the Xbox 360 have been amazing with 18 million sold this last year. The end result has been countless hours of incredible fun with family and friends dancing and playing sports in the confines of their living rooms. Kinect has also opened the door for developers and businesses to create new and innovative experiences through natural user interface (NUI) on the PC. The explosion of imaginative ideas that can be done with Kinect is something we call the Kinect Effect.

And to encourage the expansion of the Kinect Effect, early in 2011 we announced the Kinect for Windows SDK and in November it was announced that a commercial release of Kinect for Windows would happen in early 2012. Today at CES, we are announcing even more details for the commercial release of Kinect for Windows.

Starting on February 1^st, the Kinect for Windows hardware and software package will be available in limited quantities (at first) at a variety of resellers and distributors for the suggested retail price of $249 (U.S.). It will be available in 12 countries - United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and United Kingdom. The price of the Kinect for Windows hardware and software package includes a one-year warranty and access to ongoing software updates for both speech and human tracking. Later in 2012, academic pricing for Qualified Educational Users planned at $149 will be available.

In addition to support for Windows 7, Kinect for Windows will also support the Windows 8 Developer Preview (desktop apps only) which is available for developers to download today at the Windows Dev Center.

For more information on the commercial release of Kinect for Windows, I suggest reading this blog post from the Kinect for Windows Team. Also, check out the Kinect for Windows website.

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Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Best Buy’s February Deal and More #win7tech

I love a good deal. I’m queen of discount shopping, double coupons and re-using everything in my home. So, one shouldn’t be surprised that I’m psyched to have Best Buy join us for this week’s Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat. The specialty tech retailer has had a great deal running this month where you will get all the data transferred from your old PC to your new one if you buy any PC in the Microsoft Premium Collection for FREE. Yep, that saves you $99.99.

For those who don’t know, the Microsoft Premium Collection at Best Buy is a collection of sleek, powerful laptops and Ultrabooks that have our stamp of approval and the support of Best Buy’s Geek Squad. Devices include the HP Pavilion with a 15” screen for $549.99 and this beautiful Asus 14” for just $799.99. Best Buy will be on hand to answer your questions about PC purchases, share their product line up and discuss data transfer. Plus, we’ll be giving away a Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook to one lucky winner!

To participate in the Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat:

Join us from 12-1 PT (3-4 ET) on Twitter
Follow the hashtag #win7tech
Follow @windows, @kristinalibby, @brandonleblanc, @bestbuy, @daniellaycock, and @windowsblog to make sure you get the whole picture.
Answer Q1-Q4. Full legal Terms and Conditions here.

Note we will only be talking about the outlined topic each week and we will not be answering questions outside those topics. Questions for this week may include: What is the data transfer offer? What are the best PCs for me from the Microsoft Premium Collection? Where can I purchase a Samsung Series 9?

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