Say what you will about Steve Ballmer's swan song CES 2012 keynote (and the ridiculous, mostly made-up hype preceding it), at least we got a launch date and price for Kinect for Windows. It's about time, too: Microsoft released the Windows SDK beta, which works with any Xbox 360 Kinect sensor, last June.
You can lay hands on the Kinect for Windows bundle come February 1 for $249, which...wait, isn't Kinect for the Xbox 360 just $149? $119 discounted (brand new) at places like Amazon? Well under $100 if you pick one up used? What gives?
Microsoft says the Kinect for Windows kit comes with a Kinect sensor (which, if you voted Xbox 360, you probably already own), development software, a one-year warranty, software updates for speech and human tracking and "our continued investment in Kinect for Windows-based software advancements" (hey, give the company credit for admitting flat-out that they're charging us R&D costs).
If you're a "qualified educational user," you can have the thing for $149 "later this year," so if you're a student or educator, due diligence (and patience) should save you $100.
Anticipating pricing backlash, Microsoft writes on its Kinect for Windows blog that it's "proud to bring technology priced in the tens of thousands of dollars just a few years ago to the mainstream at extremely low consumer prices," adding that "
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