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Next Generation Kinect from Microsoft will be able to read lips of the consumers and even detect emotions of the gamers, according to report from Eurogamers.

Kinect 2 can track the pitch and volume of player voices and facial characteristics to measure different emotional states.

Kinect 2, however, can feed the next Xbox more information, and thus a higher resolution CCD [charge-coupled device].

“It can be cabled straight through on any number of technologies that just take phenomenally high res data straight to the main processor and straight to the main RAM and ask, what do you want to do with it?” our source said.

According to a Digital Foundry report on GamesIndustry.biz, the first is a “pared down machine” to be released as cheaply as possible. It is likened to a set-top box, and will act as a Kinect-themed gaming portal.

The second is a “more fully-featured machine” with optical drive, hard disk and backwards compatibility. This would be aimed at hardcore gamers and released at a higher price-point.

There are also reports that Next Generation Kinect and Xbox will be launched in 2013 in multiple SKU’s. Again, these are just rumors and we have to wait until Microsoft opens its lips.

USA Today yesterday posted a news about Windows Phones. It was a post from Mark W. Smith titled “Windows smartphones a joy to use”. Its evident from his post that its his first experience on Windows Phones after using iPhone and Android. Here is an excerpt from his views on Windows Phones,

It’s the best phone experience that you’ve never tried.
TellMe does do several things that Siri can’t yet, though. You can tell the service to open an app. You can also ask for the most recent professional sports scores. Siri can’t do either of those things.
The Windows Phone platform is a total joy to use. It makes me wish that iOS and Android hadn’t settled on such similar navigation systems.
We should all feel a bit cheated. There are better ways to operate a smartphone.
And, for the first time in a while, Microsoft knows something its competitors do not.
Its not anything new to see people praising Windows Phones, but we hope that some high profile website’s like USA Today’s views may impact consumer minds.

The number of users of Microsoft’s Facebook Integration in Windows Phone 7 proven to be a pretty accurate measure of how many Windows Phone 7 users are out there, correctly predicting the number at around 5-6 million.

Now the latest data shows a sharply upward spike in the number of users, increasing from 1,000,000 Monthly Active Users on the 11th November to 1,100,000 on the 25/11/11.

If our previously calculated multiple holds true that would correspond to around 600,000 new Windows Phone 7 users, presumably buyers of the Nokia Lumia 800, and HTC Titan, Radar, Samsung Focus S and Focus Flash, although I suspect the massive Nokia push would have the lion share of the numbers.

Of course Android activates more than this in one day, but for Windows Phone it is a pretty big deal, and about 3 times faster than sales in the two weeks preceding.

Hopefully with further promotion the spike will turn into the norm, and we will see Windows Phone 7 continue to grow strongly.