This 2012 Mustang Is Powered By Microsoft Xbox, Kinect and Windows Phone [VIDEO]

This 2012 Mustang Is Powered By Microsoft Xbox, Kinect and Windows Phone [VIDEO]
By Emily Price on Mashable

Last month Microsoft announced plans to create a concept car to inspire developers to build apps and automotive technologies for the future. Now, with the help of a company called West Coast Customs, Microsoft made good on that promise with this 2012 Ford Mustang.

The company took the vintage ride to the next level using all items available to anyone form their favorite electronics retailer, and a little code.

The Mustang has Kinect sensors hooked up to the front of the vehicle which can also be used to look at pedestrians or objects surrounding the vehicle. The sensors also allow you to log in from a cell phone from wherever you are and see what’s going on in front of your ride.

The inside of the Mustang sports two Windows 8 tablets –something not available to general public until later this year– on the dashboard. One tablet takes the place of your traditional gauges, and can be swiped across to be given a new look. A tablet mounted on the passenger side of the car can be used to send messages and surf the web, as well as create messages that are displayed on the rear window of the car for other drivers.

The car also has a projection screen hooked up to the rear — which is hooked up to an Xbox for gaming.

You can locate, unlock, and start your wheels all from the Viper SmartStart app for Windows Phone, and another Windows Phone application allows you to speak through the vehicles external audio PA system. Accent lighting, and the Mustangs horn sound can also be customized from an app.

What do you think about the tech Microsoft had added to the car? Are any of the features something you’d like to see come standard on your next vehicle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Microsoft's New Xbox 360 Update

Here's The Skinny On Microsoft's New 360 Update

Mike Thompson | 5 Dec 2011 1:45 pm

Filed under: mike thompson, bing, dashboard, hulu, kinect, microsoft, netflix, update, xbox 360

Are you curious about what the upcoming Xbox Dashboard update will contain? We've got the details, and the changes are massive.

Back in 2008, the New Xbox Experience took the 360's user interface and spun it firmly on its head. Now, just over three years later, Microsoft's planning to give the UI another overhaul. The update is about to launch in a couple of days, and it's pretty dang substantial.

Microsoft's key goal with this redesign is threefold. First, it wanted to bring all the forms of entertainment you could want into one convenient setting, including games, music, movies, and sports. Second, there needs to be a simple and easy way to quickly find the content you want. Third, the media experience needs to be "better, more personal, and more social."

The new Xbox Dashboard is based on the Metro design featured in the Windows Phone, with various hubs being assigned to different forms of media, including subjects like music, television, games, and apps. Microsoft is clearly planning to make Metro its cross-platform system of choice, as it's the style that Windows 8 is set to feature. The goal of this is to give users a "unified experience across all Microsoft platforms."

One of the big new features with the Dashboard is that the interface has been designed to fully take advantage of the Kinect. Up until now, the Kinect's use has been somewhat limited outside of games; this has been especially frustrating with apps like Netflix, where it's actually a hassle to try and get anything done. According to Microsoft, though, app developers are now required to integrate Kinect with their programs. Microsoft's even integrated Kinect with the new integration of Xbox Live and the Bing search engine: By saying "Xbox: Bing search: [search term]" you'll suddenly find yourself looking at the Bing search results for whatever it is you wanted to look up.

The Bing search feature will also apply to media consumption. After asking for Bing to search for a movie or a TV show, the search results will display the various options you'll have to view it - examples include streaming the media through services like Hulu and/or Netflix, as well as downloadable options like the Zune Marketplace.

While new features are certainly a large part of the new Dashboard setup, the number of media/social partners that Microsoft has joined up with is also impressive. So far, there's a huge list of companies that are scheduled to be integrated between the December 6th launch and "early 2012." In the United States, groups like Syfy, HBO, Facebook, and YouTube are scheduled to make an appearance. Meanwhile, international audiences will be able to enjoy services like MediaSet in Italy, Movitar Imagenio in Spain, Sky DE in Germany, and MUZU.TV throughout most of Europe.

Some of these partnerships will also allow you to customize your media experience, too. One example is with ESPN. When you use the group's app, you can specify what sports you want to follow, as well as which teams you'd like updates on, and which highlights you actually want to watch. Essentially, you can create your own version ofSportscenter.

Finally, there are a couple of cool new features specific to gaming: Beacon and the Roaming Profile. Beacon is designed to help you find people to game with, putting out a call (acting like, you know, a beacon) to let your friends know that you're hoping to game with them. The notice will appear on both Xbox Live and Facebook, letting your friends know that you're looking for some folks to play with. From there, your friends can offer to join up with you

Meanwhile, the roaming profile utilizes cloud gaming to allow you to take your Xbox Live account with you on the go: Not only will you be able to log in to your profile on a friend's Xbox, but you'll be able to bring your saved games over to that console, too. The way this all works is that you'll select the cloud as the storage device of choice for your game saves. Exactly how much you can save to the cloud isn't apparent yet, but Microsoft will probably announce a data limit.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 dashboard update is set to launch on Tuesday, December 6th.

The Xbox 360's new dashboard

 The Xbox 360's new dashboard: what you need to know
The Xbox 360's dashboard is about to undergo a transformation. Nick Cowen takes a look at the new features and analyses the reasons behind the change

The new-look dashboad for the Xbox 360

At some time in the next 48 hours, Xbox 360 owners will notice the appearance of their console's dashboard has changed considerably. The list of tabs that they are used to navigating exclusively with a control pad will have been replaced by a format that resembles a giant version of the Windows Phone 7 interface.

That is, the dashboard will be a series of squares that encompass different functions and aspects, such as gaming, social music and video. Players will lose none of the functionality they currently have, but they may need a couple of days to familiarise themselves with where everything is.

Facebook and Twitter, for example, will be positioned in the menu marked "Social", along with Kinect's video calling functionality. They'll also notice the dashboard boasts quite a few new features.

The Bing search engine is also bundled into the dashboard, although players can only use it to search for content on their own Xbox 360, and anything on offer in the dashboard – VOD services, Xbox Marketplace and so on.

Xbox Live Gold members gain access to Cloud Storage, where they can save games and also upload their profile, enabling them to log in to any Xbox 360 with their Gamertag (provided the console is connected to the internet).

Gold members also have access to the console's new on-demand services, which are all bundled together in the Apps menu. These include Lovefilm, YouTube, 4 On Demand, Channel 5 On Demand, Blinkbox and Crackle among others, as well as Sky, Last.fm and Zune, which are already available on Xbox Live.

Players can download apps from the Xbox Marketplace to add to the list as more content is rolled out (such as the BBC iPlayer, which is expected some time in 2012).

The new menu system also offers a better level of integration in functionality between the Xbox 360, the Windows Phone 7 and Kinect.

While the new dashboard isn't any more or less difficult to navigate using a control pad, it's far easier and faster to do it using a Kinect controller.

Unlike the current dashboard, where Kinect's functionality is relegated to a small sub-menu, players are able to use voice commands to access every menu available.

So, for example, a brief process that involves flipping through a couple of menus with a thumbstick to find Bing and then entering the phrase "Harry Potter" into the engine to find all content relating to the bespectacled wizard, can now be accomplished in seconds with Kinect by saying, "Xbox, Bing, Harry Potter".

The new dashboard, in fact, may be the one instance on the Xbox 360 console, where the Kinect module has the edge over traditional control pads.

Changing the dashboard to resemble the Windows Phone 7 is also a pretty canny move on Microsoft's part. It familiarises users with that device's interface and may poke a few undecided smartphone purchasers in the direction of a Windows rather than Android or iOS device.

Players can also earn Xbox Achievements in games on their Windows Phone 7, as well as share music they've downloaded on it with both their Xbox 360 and their PC. There are already several WP7 titles that connect with Xbox 360 games, including the excellent Fable Coin Golf, which allows you to earn in-game currency to transfer to and then spend in Fable 3.

The pet sim, Kinectimals, also lets you transfer your favourite cubs between console and handset versions. Gamers can even use their Windows Phone 7 as a remote control device for the Xbox 360.

So the new dashboard increases the functionality of both Kinect and the Windows Phone 7, and offers greater integration between those devices and the Xbox 360.

While the console's new interface makes neither device essential, it does make the prospect of owning them a tad more enticing. It's also further proof – if any were ever needed – that Kinect is set to play an even greater role than ever in the Xbox 360's future, which only fuels more speculation that the sensor will probably be bundled into the next iteration of the console.

The Windows Phone 7, for its part, is more has more integral functionality with the console than before, which is a clear enough indication that Microsoft considers the smartphone to be a gaming platform of the future, and is quite happy to let Sony and Nintendo duke it out in the handheld console market.

There are bound to be some gamers who don't like the new dashboard, as should be expected when a perfectly good system is changed for what seems, initially, no good reason.

But it shouldn't be too long before this resistance transforms into enjoyment or, at the very least acceptance, and looking at Microsoft's overall vision of the Xbox 360 as a central hub, the changes make sense.

They also offer more integration between Microsoft's hardware and software and it's a safe bet that if the changes help to shift a few more Kinect units and smartphones, that'll be just fine with them.