Should Santa Bring Xbox 360 Kinect This Year?

One of the latest and greatest gadgets for whole family entertainment is without doubt Microsoft's Kinect controller for their Xbox 360 gaming console. Maybe you haven't heard about it yet, so here's short description what it is: previously you've always needed some gaming controller (gaming bad, keyboard, mouse etc.) for playing games - Kinect is the thing that changes all this. With Kinect all you need to do is to stand on front of your TV and use your own body for all the movements needed in the game.  Kinect requires a small sensor that you should be placed near your TV. With this sensor it can see your body, hand, head, leg and other movements and transfer them into the game you're playing.

Kinect Sensor

Kinect sells currently at about $150 (i.e. at amazon.com) and you usually get some game with the sensor package too.

So what kind of games are there available for Kinect? It probably isn't a surprise that many of the games try to get you moving as much possible. You can try for example doing some fitness practices or maybe dancing? The cool part is that instead of passively sitting on front of TV, you are actually standing up and moving. Many of these games are also great fun to play with your friends. Little bit lengthier video review of Kinect sports probably shows best the little flaws that the system still has, but also the huge fun factor that playing with your friends can bring :).

The part that I like the most is that Kinect brings back some of the old school fun to the games. Many of the Kinect games are quick to start and you don't need to play countless hours to "finish" them. Instead you can just start, play for and half an hour and be done with it. Multiplayer games are also more like they used to be before Internet. Instead of playing online with other anonymous people, you can ask your friends to come by and have for example short Kinect sports session with them. And seeing your friends or kids swinging their hands in air like crazy when trying to complete some movement is definitely much more fun than any online game!

Kinect Dance

 

 

 

-K-

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Fish Too Hard to Keep Alive? Try Ants!

Are you wondering what would be such thing that your neighbors don't have and what your kids would love? Have you heard about ant aquariums? Well, now you have. Ant aquariums are small containers that are filled with gel that ants like to eat. You can purchase such aquarium for example from Antworks or ThinkGeek. Aquarium costs around 40 dollars. Once you've received your aquarium, you can send your kids on for a mission: seek 20-25 ants for their new habitat!

After finding the ants, you can drop them into the aquarium. That might be harder than it sounds. If the ants are really stubborn, you can place them into a refrigerator for a small while to cool down. After that they should be little less eager to run everywhere and you should be able to place them into the aquarium. Once that is accomplished you can just sit back and relax while your new ants do their work, the digging. It's surprisingly fun to watch them go around!

Ant aquariums can be found in different colors. Many have also some led illumination.

As usual, you can check youtube for: instructions, different colors and for some actual action.

-K-

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Google TV

During last 20 years of technological revolution in our homes TV stays pretty much the same. Yes, we have larger and flatter screens and better sound but the principles are same like before 20 years, we have to search through large schedules in order to find when our favorite show is played and then wait on that time. There are attempts of interactive TV but it is still too much complicated and nearly every producer has his own solution. People from Google start to think how to make all these things much more simple. Their build their TV solution on the technologies which they already developed: search engine, YouTube, Chrome browser and Android OS. The main idea is that when we want to watch something we just google it on our TV similar like on PC. And we get timetable when it is played, where is possible to download it, related videos on YouTube etc.

Google TV Website

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Arcade Coffee Table

Do youremember the good old arcade games played on machines in amusement parks? Nowyou can again enjoy that feeling at your home with Arcade Coffee Table. For first timenormal looking coffee table but with integrated computer, sound system,19" flat screen and flipping arcade control panel with joysticks andbuttons for two players. On the website of the company Surface Tension you can choose fromtwo prepared designs or order your custom table. The integrated computer systemis in fact normal PC with Windows 7 so you can use it for browsing theinternet, listening music and watching movies. If the integrated sound systemor screen is not sufficient, you can also connect table to your home cinemasystem.

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