Not that the Xbox One will be spying on you, that’s always sounded a little overly-dramatic to me, but if you’re the type to assume the worst – but still, um, buy the console regardless – then this is the peripheral for you.
PDP will be releasing a $US20 TV mount that in addition to letting owners of slim/sloped TV sets stick a Kinect on top of their unit will also feature a sliding privacy shield, designed to cover the camera’s lens when not in use.
Perfect for those times when “Xbox, don’t film me in my underpants and send the images to advertisers” isn’t recognised by the console.
PDP Kinect TV Mount – Xbox One [Amazon, via Gamespot]
Comments
29 responses to “Kinect Accessory Will Stop The Camera Spying On You”
If you’re REALLY that paranoid, then I suppose a 2 dollar roll of duct tape will do the exact same trick?
Or a towel or blanket of some kind…that or just unplug it.
Yup. We can file this under ‘most useless add on ever’. I mean I was against the idea of it being on all the time, but now they’ve allowed it to be unplugged etc (incase it breaks etc) I have zero problems with the xbox one.
I think that front panel flips open so it’s easier to turn it ‘on’ after you’ve covered it. A towel will hang in front of your TV which sucks, tape has to be taken off and reapplied, even unplugging it would be a pain for a lot of us. Once something is plugged in I don’t dare to go back there. =P
Plus it comes as a bonus with from what I can tell is a pretty nice mounting bracket. I’d have to buy one of those to put anything heavier than a Wii sensor bar on top of my TV anyway.
Tape attached to a tiny bit of cardboard that folds down. Done. 😛
I think you guys are shooting down this nifty $20 add-on a little to quickly. Maybe it has wifi?
Or an empty toilet roll tube
Tinfoil hats are a necessity
You’re missing the point. It is a TV bracket for the Kinect first and foremost. The privacy shield thing is just an extra. If the product was JUST the shield then yeah, it would be aimed at morons.
Or just don’t plug it in, since it’s not a requirement anymore… Wow, I hope that no one buys this stupid accessory. What a load of crap.
I would have thought the mike would be the bigger problem… is there a ‘break the damned thing, and tell MS “it was broken during shipping, so can you please disable the requirement until I get a replacement sent out?”‘ option yet?
Last I heard, it’s not a requirement for the console now.
Yep its allowed to be completely physically unplugged.
yeah but the games were coded with it being compulsory. You need it to game. EA, Dice etc etc did not remake sections of game to not use it after the backflip. So it can be unplugged yes but like a controller it is needed for gaming.
That’s assuming they even bothered. Especially EA, I can just imagine the meeting now.
“So, Jenkins, you want another 2 months in the schedule?”
“Yes sir! Since every Xbox comes with a gimmicky kerjigger, I want to fart about recoding parts of the game for the sake of an unpopular peripheral on one of the consoles we’re releasing the game on. Here’s my estimate for the budget increase we’ll need!”
“… Jenkins?”
“Yes? You want to give me more time and money?”
“Not quite… I want you to clean out your desk by closing time.”
“Oh boy, I’m getting a corner office!”
“…. Get out.”
Lol. Nice.
To tell you the truth the BOTH MS and Sony have told devs they need to support the camera in all games. Difference being PS4 games will work regardless of the purchase. But both dev kits require that a feature exists.
Maybe I’m a cynic, but the whole thing reminds me of gimmicks like R.O.B and the SNES mouse.
Hopefully they’ll be as successful, so MS and Sony get the hint and focus on gameplay.
There’s no actual confirmation on that though, it’s just speculation at this point and we won’t know until it’s released.
See my reply above to dustwind if you are curious dude.
Ah – last time I checked, it was a “must be plugged-in to play games” shrug. I’m most likely waiting until next year to pick up one of the consoles, so I trail off when I hear spec-talk and the such.
You heard correctly, but they back tracked on a lot of their policies.
My way around this is i’m not buying one. PC for ever!
I don’t care if MS want to spy on me, if they are that interested in watching me sit in front of the TV playing games or watching movies then so be it. If they pay me I will even give them a show.
Dude if they log in after 11pm they’re gonna get ‘Weresmurf ‘up’ late’ and get a show wether they *like* it or *NOT*.
My bloody aging Samsung LCD has proprietary wall mounts and would be too thick for a Kinect mount like this. Guess it’ll go on the low entertainment unit like the old one.
Then the next morning you wake up and the cover is on the floor and your Kinect is hanging over your bed, having watched you while you slept.
I would just open the Kinect up and disconnect the wires that connect to the camera and the microphone. Still connects to the Xbox but no video or audio can be detected, Microsoft will be none the wiser.
or get the PS4 because PS FTW
doesn’t the connect have an infrared sensory as well. Would this still work?
It may stop the wife distracting me while I try to play Xbox 😛