We knew Kinect interoperability was coming to Windows Phone 7, but Microsoft has remained relatively tight lipped about the technology. Today, they"ve shown off some of the new features that Mango will support with Kinect.
WPCentral reports that a video on YouTube shows off the two features. The first being a "live tv" scheduling feature. For example, if the user is watching Live TV through Windows Media Center on their Xbox 360, Kinect pops up a notification at the end of a show that says; "Say Xbox Schedule to get a reminder to tune in to the voice." From there, it automatically adds it to the Windows Phone 7 calendar, presumably through Live Calendar.
Secondly, the video shows off a form of interactive adverts. For example, when an ad for Toyota is being displayed, a toast saying; "Say Xbox Near Me to see the Toyota dealerships near you." The Xbox then shows a Bing Maps overlay, with dealerships close to the user -- and offers to send an email or SMS with the information. If the user selects SMS, it"s delivered straight to the device.
While the demo was impressive, the connectivity could work on any device that has SMS and can subscribe to a Windows Live Calendar, but it"s good to see Microsoft bringing its services together and making them work with each other seamlessly.
Mango is expected to be released in September this year, and brings 500 new features to the Windows Phone 7 platform, including Multitasking, IE9, OS-wide IM integration, deeper social networking and more.