Pizza and gaming are eventually likely to evolve into a single pursuit, like football and touchdown dances or movies and popcorn. Now, Pizza Hut is working with Microsoft Xbox to move the process along a little bit.

Today, Pizza Hut is debuting an app for Xbox Live that lets users order a pizza through their Xbox 360 with just the game controller, voice input or Kinect gestures—once they've chosen the nearest pizza parlor. Custom orders are also available.

"If you look at our audience, they love pizza," said Xbox's Larry Hryb, according to Mashable. "I mean, who doesn't? It has international appeal, and Pizza Hut is a recognized brand that matches up well with the Xbox brand."Continue reading...

You may soon need to be extra careful when you wave your hands around—and it’s not because you might hit somebody. You may be sending your computer and every other digital object you own a message of some sort or another thanks to the growing market for gesture controllers.

Nintendo’s Wii got the world swinging its body around to control images on their screens. Microsoft’s Kinect allowed users to control their Xboxes and PCs with hand gestures and now a new wave of controllers and interfaces are planned to hit the market this year.

In May, the Leap Motion 3D gesture controller, which allows users to control their PCs with hand gestures, will be found in Best Buys for $80. The company sees itself as different from Kinect because its controller can follow "all ten fingers up to 1/100th millimeter at up to 290 frames per second" and is "200 times more sensitive than existing motion-control technology," according to pcpro.com.

Thalmic Labs is releasing MYO, which goes around a person’s forearm and can sense their movements, allowing for control of actual devices rather than just computers. QZ.com has it that “this raises the stakes in the gestural interface game.” It’ll be on the market in late 2013 for $149. Continue reading...

2012 was a momentous year for Microsoft, building its devices and services foundation for the year to come. The company introduced the world to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, its family of Surface PCs, a new version of Microsoft Office and “Halo 4,” Microsoft celebrates "a steady rhythm of advancements across its most popular products for individuals and businesses" throughout 2012. See more in the video below and slideshow, and don't miss Bing's top searches of 2012.Continue reading...

It was only a matter of time before Korean pop phenom Psy's "Gangnam Style" dance craze, which has become the Macarena of our age thanks to its YouTube-busting popularity, came to Xbox Kinect's Dance Central. Naturally, Psy is in the running for TIME's Person of the Year 2012, with readers invited to weigh in.

Google turns in soft quarter as PR fail pummels stock.

HSBC hit by worldwide cyberattack.

McDonald's profit falls as U.S. growth slows.

Abbott study of kidney drug is halted.

Apple's iPad Mini poised to cannibalize sales.

Lance Armstrong endorsement implosion toll reaches $30 million.

BBC director general to testify on Jimmy Savile scandal, as new head of BBC Worldwide named.Continue reading...

Like specialty food trucks, vending machines seem to be having a little bit of a resurgence in the past few years. You’ve got your cupcake vending machine; a machine that will spin cotton candy for you right there; and Pepsi's next generation vending machine will charge your mobile device, send virtual gifts, and allow you to play games.

Now, through the wonders of modern technology, Coke has built webcams and Microsoft Kinect sensors into some of its vending machines so that it can give free colas to anybody who shakes a tailfeather for it, according to SingularityHub.com.

The whole effort has been helped by the efforts of South Korean boy band 2PM, whose virtual selves help lead consumers through some dance moves that will result in some caffeine at no charge. Sweet.

Nike execs must think that they don’t have enough market share or aren’t known by enough consumers or need more clout with the digerati. Unthinkable, we know. Be that as it may, the sporting-goods maker announced at the E3 video-game conference this week a partnership with Microsoft to get into the video-game business together. 

“We’ve moved from being a product company to a services and product company,” commented Stefan Olander, Nike’s VP of digital sport. "Nike+ Kinect Training’ gives everyone access to the same training we give professional athletes. It combines our unique understanding of the greatest athletes in the world with the amazing sensor technology of Kinect for Xbox 360.”

The new product, Nike+ Kinect Training, will hit store shelves before the 2012 holiday shopping season and will only be able to be played on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect. The new add-on, Bloomberg reports, will allow “users to receive feedback from on-screen personal trainers and have a workout designed for them."Continue reading...

Ever heard of Beer Nuts? The brand of bar peanuts, redolent as it is of junk foods and calorie-laden alcoholic concoctions, is typical of male consumption of nuts.

But now Kraft has another approach in mind. Leveraging the increasingly understood association between nuts and health in a new way, the Planters brand has signed a deal to co-brand a nutritious nut mix with Men's Health magazine, as we noted here yesterday.

Planters Nut-rition Men's Health Recommended Mix has rolled out with an advertising campaign on the back cover of the May issue of the magazine and a TV spot (watch it below) that's now running on ESPN and other US cable networks.Continue reading...