Now that the celebration is over, we can get into the stuff that really matters on the Kinect for Windows front – software. Over on the Microsoft blog, the Kinect team detailed changes being made to the beta 2 SDK that will move the Kinect software up to version 1.0. As previously reported during CES, the retail price of Kinect for Windows is $250 with special academic pricing being set to $150.

The list of features added to version 1.0 really helps to set Kinect for Windows development apart from its Xbox 360 equivalent. People should be able to take the device to new highs with these new features. As an aside, it can be assumed that some of these features will be showing up in Kinect for Xbox 360 dev kits as well.

Support for up to four Kinect sensors plugged into the same computer.

Significantly improved skeletal tracking, including the ability for developers to control which user is being tracked by the sensor.

Near Mode for the new Kinect for Windows hardware, which enables the depth camera to see objects as close as 40 centimeters in front of the device.

Many API updates and enhancements in the managed and unmanaged runtimes.

The latest Microsoft Speech components (V11) are now included as part of the SDK and runtime installer.

Improved “far-talk” acoustic model that increases speech recognition accuracy.

New and updated samples, such as Kinect Explorer, which enables developers to explore the full capabilities of the sensor and SDK, including audio beam and sound source angles, color modes, depth modes, skeletal tracking, and motor controls.

A commercial-ready installer which can be included in an application’s set-up program, making it easy to install the Kinect for Windows runtime and driver components for end-user deployments.

Robustness improvements including driver stability, runtime fixes, and audio fixes.

Microsoft hopes to release updates to the SDK and runtime two to three times a year. The team is already working on the second update as you read this. They are also continuing to invest in other programs like the Testing and Adoption Program and the Kinect Accelerator. They will continue creating new programs in the future to support their developer and partner ecosystem.

With the amazing stuff people have already put out using the beta drivers, it will be interesting to see what developers do with custom-tailored for Windows software. It’s also safe to assume that whatever the Kinect for Windows team cooks up will make its way to a Kinect for Xbox 360 near you as well.

Related Article: Kinect Star Wars: May The Force Be With Scott Pratt

To see what Kinect for Windows can already do, have a video of Skyrim on PC being controlled via Kinect:

The development kit will aid developers in building innovative mobile phone applications. Started by Google, the Open Handset Alliance has over 30 partners. They introduced a platform for developers called Android earlier this month that allows developers to create applications that will work across many different mobile phone networks. As of today developers can start testing, extending, and providing feedback on the platform.

Rather than a Google phone, this will bring Google and other applications to different phone platforms. And rather than spending money to develop a phone themselves, Google will let the community build and constantly innovate on the design and functionality.

To kick off the new development, Google is giving developers an incentive with a $10 million challenge. There are two phases to the challenge. Submissions for Challenge I will be accepted from January 2 through March 3, 2008. At that point the top 50 entries will each receiving $25,000 to fund further development. Those 50 can then apply for the next round of awards. Ten awards worth $275,000 each and another ten worth $100,000 each will be given away in Challenge II. Recognition for the top apps among those entries will be announced by end of May 2008. Additional information about the Android Developer Challenge can be found at http://code.google.com/android/adc.html

Google hopes developers will extend, replace, and reuse the existing software components of Android to create new services for mobile consumers. They are encouraging collaboration and the entire platform will be made available under the Apache v2 open-source license in 2008.

The SDK has tools for developers who want to build applications for the Android platform. There are development and debugging tools, a rich set of libraries, a true device emulator, in-depth documentation, sample projects, tutorials, FAQs, and more.

As Google does, they created an Android developers blog and a forum for developers to communicate about their projects. For more information or to download the SDK, see http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/developers.html.

It’s almost funny because it covers developer culture so well, but you can get more information about what the new platform can do from this video about Android. It features Sergey Brin, President of Technology and co-founder of Google along with OHA Engineering Director Steve Horowitz.

You’ll see the features of Android – and they have other videos with tutorials for developers. There are many features already developed including text messages that show up on the main screen, so you don’t have to open the message to read it. There are touch screen features so you can move around graphics or web sites with your fingertips as well as zoom in or out on pictures or maps. Developers will be excited when they see how good 3-D graphics look and how games will look on their phones.

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Google Flashes $10M At Android Developers

The time-honored motivator, money, comes into play for application developers intrigued by the possibilities of the Android mobile platform. Android’s opening came as part of the Open Handset Alliance announcement from earlier in November.

“We’ve built some interesting applications for Android but the best applications are not here yet and that’s because they’re going to be written by developers,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in a statement. “We’d like to reward these developers and recognize them as much as possible.”

Those rewards come in the form of the Android Developer Challenge. Prizes from $25,000 to $275,000 await those developers whose work grabs the attention of the judges overseeing the entries in the Challenge.

Developers will first need the Android SDK, which became available for download today. The first round of entries will be accepted between January 2 and March 3, 2008.

Fifty of these will be picked for awards, and invited to apply for the next round of the Challenge. Google said ten awards of $275,000 and ten awards of $100,000 will be up for grabs in that second round. Those winners will be announced at the end of May 2008.

Google also noted the first handsets built on the Android platform will become available in the second half of 2008. Once that takes place, Challenge II will be announced for mobile application developers.

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This thing has been coined "Gphone" in many of media’s (often misleading) reports on the product, though Google’s Steve Horowitz says it’s not a Gphone, but allows to create "thousands of Gphones."

The presented demo looks quite good, but Android’s capabilities depend on the hardware; in a relative large-screen, high-power phone environment it’s coming close to the iPhone, while on lower-end hardware it might be more comparable to the Symbian mobile OS. But even with Android, it might well be that usability-wise, nothing will play in the league of the iPhone for quite some time to come.

Developer Kit Released

Google’s SDK (software development kit) for Android is live now too. The tool is a 55-59 MB download for Windows XP/ Vista, Mac OS X and Linux. "Developers will also need Eclipse 3.2 or later, with Java Development Tools and the Android SDK’s plugin, or Java and Javac 1.5 or 1.6; Apache Ant; an integrated development environment; and Python 2.2 or later," Google adds in a press release.

"The dev environment (Eclipse) even has a nice emulator, so you can see how it’s going to work on an Android phone," Reto Meier comments in the forum.

A $10 Million Android Competition

Also, Google announced a 10 million dollar heavy developer competition for the best programs people create for Android. Individual prices range from $25,000 (as recognition for the 50 "most promising entries", as Google’s press release on the subject puts it) to $275,000. The first phase of the competition runs from January 2nd through March 3rd, 2008. The second phase will take place in the second half of 2008, Google says. Clearly, Google’s money is intended to push the platform by creating buzz, but also by generating potentially useful applications that pull end users.

You want to join the competiton? Here’s a bit of Java source code Google presents as "Hello World" introductory sample (I removed the comments) – if this looks like it might be something for you, I suppose $275,000 is *cough* not shabby (I usually prefer creating web apps, as they can – theoretically – work across devices, even on cellphones… but this API may give you the power to access the full phone and all its capabilities):

package com.google.android.samples.app;import com.google.android.samples.R;import android.app.Activity;import android.os.Bundle;

public class HelloWorld extends Activity {

    @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {        super.onCreate(icicle);        setContentView(R.layout.hello_world);    }}

The actual contents of the Hello World aren’t in that source bit, but contained in XML files probably similar to this XML and this other XML. There’s also a video demo for creating your first Android application.

[Thanks Reto!]

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