Steven Spielberg (right) joins Xbox 360 head, Don Mattrick, to introduce ‘Project Natal’ - a revolutionary way to play with no controller required, during Microsoft’s press briefing at E3 in Los Angeles yesterday.

SHOWCASE: Microsoft held its pre-E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 2009 conference (with guests like Steven Spielberg, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono)  just hours ago and already the gaming and entertainment fraternities are abuzz about what’s in store for the Xbox 360.

Besides on-demand full game downloads (using credit card payments of course) via Xbox Live, the one thing that would give the Nintendo Wii a run on its WiiMote is Microsoft’s Project Natal. Technically, it’s a camera system that senses your body movements in 3-D and translates them into control actions in-game. The system even recognizes your voice and face.

According to Microsoft, Project Natal’s camera system combines the use of an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor hooked up to the Xbox 360. It tracks full-body movement and individual voices, giving gamers a controller-free environment.

But of course, no mo-cap jargon is complete without a demo of what it does exactly. Here’s a video to give you a better idea. For more details on what Microsoft announced at E3, look here. (Editor opinions: 1)

Paolo Manzano, Managing Editor, HWM Philippines

Paolo (HWM Philippines): Project Natal seems to be an evolution of what the Wii has started. It could very well be revolutionary if Microsoft gets it right the first time around.

Although I am not aware on how far motion sensing and recognition technology has advanced, hopefully Microsoft, with their large cachet of resources and vast experience, will come up with a product that does not disappoint. Despite all these reservations though, the price point it ships at and the quality of games that supports it when it launches will also be a big difference maker. All in all, a winning announcement from Redmond.

The main Bing homepage will be the quintessential starting point into a world of wiser decision-making.

SHOWCASE: Microsoft is set to unveil Bing.com fully on June 3 - its latest incarnation of what the next landscape of search should be. While the company prefers to classify the Bing service as a ‘decision engine’, the intention is to position it as ‘not just another search engine’. See here for a quick video ad on what Bing is about.

Microsoft intends for Bing to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but move beyond this with a new approach to user experience with intuitive tools that allow for better decision-making. The site will initially focus on four key verticals: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition and finding a local business.

Here’s a quick video explaining the philosophy behind Microsoft’s Bing. This video requires Silverlight which you can download here.

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CORP TALK: Microsoft has finally made available the Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7 operating system in downloadable form to MSDN and TechNet subscribers yesterday. The public will have access to it by May 5 from the Microsoft Download Center. The RC download, interestingly set with an expiry date for June, 2010, indicates that the Windows 7 operating system is entering its final phases of development and will be ready for partners to develop new apps, device drivers and services.

According to Microsoft, Windows 7 has garnered strong industry support. The beta of Windows 7 showed significant promise but Forrester Research released an independent report in April 2009 recommending that IT professionals within the enterprise deploy Windows Vista first in order to prepare for a smoother transition into Windows 7.

According to an online report by The National Business Review, Windows 7 official launch date is still set on January 2010 but a separate report today indicates that Acer might release their notebooks with Windows 7 earlier in October 2009. The buzz on everyone’s lips seem to steer towards an October 23, 2009 launch date, if the early release of the RC download yesterday was any indication that Windows 7 is on track and done. (Editor opinions: 1) (more…)

PC makers like HP, ASUS and Dell might consider running Android on future mini-notebooks but will this move disrupt the mojos of dominant players like Microsoft and Intel?

T&A: Wall Street Journal online published a report today (could be an April Fool’s joke but you never know…so check the link for updates), where PC makers like Hewlett-Packard (HP) and others have considered using free software developed by Google to run smaller computers.

For instance, they have been testing Google’s Android operating system (OS), now accessible on mobile phones, in new versions of their mini-notebooks. The problem however is that the OS isn’t exactly compatible with most popular PC applications, which is one of the reasons why Microsoft’s Windows continues to dominate in this space, which according to research firm NPD Group, sits in more than 90% of new mini-notebooks.

Besides HP, Taiwan-based Asustek might be considering using Android in its mini-notebooks while Dell has been customizing Android software in a range of its devices which it plans to launch next year, including mobile phone, mobile Internet devices and so on. (Editor opinions: 1) (more…)

IE8 Accelerator lets you search text phrases through apps like Live Spaces, Encarta, Live Maps, Translate or developer-based links.

SHOWCASE: Earlier today, Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of the full version of Internet Explorer 8, the new Web browser of course, after being on beta for quite some time now. Downloadable from here starting from noon EDT on March 19 (or about 3:00am South-east Asian time on 20 March, Friday), IE8 will be available  in 25 languages and feature a faster, easier and leading-edge security-focused browser (or so the PR says here).

The Singapore team from HardwareZone.com attended a media preview of the announcement earlier this morning, which includes a run-through of features like Accelerators, Web Slices and an Instant Search Box.

The team has covered the Beta version before and you can read about it here.

If you’re not the type to read, check out our Gallery of screenshots which explain some of the key features of IE8 after the jump. (more…)