If you look at the Smart TV landscape today

Microsoft’s Kinect platform didn’t just breath new life into the Xbox 360, it introduced a rapidly adopted way to interact with your television free of a controller. As we explore new ways that this same system can be used, a demonstration of how it could be implemented for use on Windows 8 offers a hint of what to expect from Kinect 2.0.

If you look at the Smart TV landscape today, you’ll see the effect Microsoft had with Kinect. Several companies are trying to implement an embedded voice and gesture solution into their living room experience right now. Samsung’s Smart TV line has an embedded camera that you can use to navigate, though it’s terribly crude when compared to Kinect. Google implemented voice search into their Google TV platform, which is great for the few people that still use it.

On a gaming platform, Kinect works well. In an environment like Windows 8, there’s a need for faster and more accurate methods of interaction than just holding your hand still in a specific place for a little while. It turns out that what Kinect really needed was to be able to pay closer attention to your hands.

Right now, your Kinect is about as aware of your hands as it is your kneecaps. when you open and close your fists, or wiggle your fingers around, the Kinect doesn’t pay attention to them at all. The three camera system deployed by the Kinect isn’t accurate enough to pick out your individual digits, so to your Xbox there’s just a densely packed mass at the end of your arm it can’t really do anything with.

The only thing the Kinect could detect with reasonable accuracy as you move around would be the difference between your hand when it was open versus when it was balled into a fist. By adding in this functionality, you gain something that feels much more like a click, which is needed for something like Windows 8.

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Windows 8 is built for touch, and so is Dell’s new XPS 18

Windows 8 is built for touch, and so is Dell’s new XPS 18: an all-in-one desktop that can also undock and be used like an 18.4-inch Windows 8 tablet. It’s very similar to the Sony Tap 20 that was unveiled last fall, but there’s one key difference beyond the display diagonal. The XPS 18 weighs less than five pounds — less than half what the Tap 20 weighs.

Dell has posted few details about the XPS 18 on its website so far, but it looks like a pretty solid machine. According to Engadget, the XPS 18 base system features a dual-core Intel ULV processor and a 320GB hard drive to go with the 18.4-inch 1080p touchscreen. Other configs will be available, with processing options up to a Core i7 chip, as much as 8GB of RAM, and a massive 512GB SSD as options.

Dell’s page does mention “excellent” battery life, but doesn’t provide the mAh or hours to back up that claim. Based on the dramatic drop in weight over the Tap 20, you’d suspect that the battery — generally one of the chief culprits in adding excess ounces to a device — will have shrunk slightly.

The Tap 20 can only squeeze about two hours from its power pack before a recharge is needed, and it, too, utilizes an Intel ULV chip. That should be plenty for systems like these, and the XPS 18′s smaller display should give it a slight boost.

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Since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT

Since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT, users haven’t had wide-open access to Adobe Flash content on the web. Microsoft had opted to restrict Flash playback to certain sites that it believed to offer an acceptable “Windows experience for touch.”

That’s changed today, with Microsoft announcing that Flash playback will now be switched on by default for Internet Explorer 10 on both Windows 8 and Windows RT. The change applies to both the immersive and desktop versions of IE10 On Windows 8. Additionally, the IE10 desktop browser on Windows 8 will play all Flash content by default.

Other versions of Internet Explorer 10 will follow a new list. While most content should just play, certain sites that are known to be incompatible will be blacklisted. Microsoft says it’s a small list, but doesn’t offer any specifics. If you happen to stumble across a site that streams video using Flash and it doesn’t work, you’ll know you found an IE10 blacklist entry.

One reason Microsoft cites for making the change now is that web developers have clearly been working hard to make sure their Flash-based apps are working well with Windows 8. Fewer than 4% of the thousands of domains that Microsoft tests for compatibility are still causing issues just six months after the Windows 8 retail launch.

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