The last four of five weeks have brought about quite a bit of news and speculation surrounding Microsoft’s Kinect motion detecting hardware. When Microsoft took to the stage during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas at the beginning of this month, they announced that the original Kinect hardware had amassed more than 18 million sales during its first year.

Video games are a big business, and the mobile video game industry is growing at an alarming rate. You just need to look at the iPhone App Store’s top fifty applications to see just how popular games on mobile devices are, and again, they are growing faster than we actually hoped for. It is no wondering that developers are starting to invest a lot of time and money into producing highly polished and professional looking mobile games which in some instances even feature professionally recorded soundtracks.

We all use a variety of technology during our daily lives, and no more so than in the living room. If you look under your TV then you’ll no doubt see plenty of set-top boxes, DVRs and games consoles along with various audio equipment and the like.

With the Xbox 360 being initially unveiled to the world in 2005, the time is fast approaching for Microsoft to bring their next generation Xbox console to the market place. There can be no denying that consumers are more than ready for a new gaming console, but the prospect of a new gadget from Microsoft inevitably bring about a flurry of speculation surround the specifications.

It’s certainly no secret that Microsoft is hard at work developing a successor to its Xbox 360 games console. With Sony’s PlayStation 3 still in the middle of its life cycle and Nintendo already having announced its upcoming Wii-U, Microsoft is planning its next move deep in a bunker in Redmond.

ZappoTV is a media streaming app for the iPhone and iPad, along with Android hardware, which can push video content to any number of supported devices including the Xbox 360, Western Digital set-top boxes and a selection of internet enabled televisions.

According to a report by The Daily, Redmond-based Microsoft is plotting a set-top box which includes Kinect features, whilst also linking up with various music and video services.

Regardless of whether or not you are a gamer, I am sure you are aware of the astronomical rise in popularity of video games in the last decade. In 2007 the estimated vale of the worldwide gaming industry was approximately $41.9 billion, with that total expected to rise at a rate of 9.1% annually. To give some scale as to how far the industry has come, in 1982 the gaming sector was valued at $1.5 billion, in 1990 it was $4.7 billion, in 1997 it was $7 billion and in 2004 it had risen dramatically but was still only valued at $25.4 billion.

According to a new report published earlier today, Microsoft and Sony will be announcing their next-generation at this year’s E3 conference. Details available after the jump!

Don’t you just love the rumor roundabout? We live in such an age where technology plays such a huge role in our everyday lives that the public is literally chomping at the bit to snap up the latest gadget or piece of kit, if not only in the hope that it can make our lives a bit easier, but to hold our heads high knowing we have the latest tech. The technology industry has been focusing on Cupertino based Apple in the last few weeks with iPad, iPhone and iTV murmurings floating about, but today is Microsoft’s turn to get some of the rumor action.

While Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has breaking all sorts of records, its ex-developers are actively working on an all-new project which they have teased today in the form of a blurry image. Check out the image, and a little analysis from yours truly after the jump!

The holidays are coming, and for most us that means time off work, school, college or whatever other activity takes up most of your normal daily routine. Aside from eating, drinking and generally being merry, how are we supposed to adequately fill our relaxation time? Step forward, Microsoft with the announcement that they will be offering Xbox 360 owners special price cuts on Xbox LIVE Arcade games for the next twelve days in the run up to 2012.

We’ve been hearing from various different sources and tech sites around the web that Microsoft may, or may not be working on bringing the Xbox 360′s replacement to the market as soon as some time during 2012. We weren’t really sure about that here at Redmond Pie, especially considering Microsoft’s console was expected to go on for a little while longer than that.

Microsoft is on a roll these day! First, they pushed out the official My Xbox LIVE app for the iPhone and iPad, then they released Kinectimals; which is the first game ever by Microsoft to land on iOS, then they released SkyDrive for iPhone, and now they’ve pushed out a big treat for all Halo: Reach fans out there.

Microsoft rolled out its Dashboard update to Xbox 360 users just last week, with strong emphasis on streaming media and video related content.

Modern Warfare 3 – the latest title in Activision’s popular Call of Duty series of first person shooters – went pass the $1 billion sales mark in just 16 days, Redmond Pie has learned.

After seeing its biggest sales week in history during Black Friday, Microsoft has announced that they sold over 1.7 million Xbox 360 units in USA in November. Details after the jump!

Although a Dashboard update is always seen a welcome visitor by Xbox 360 users across the globe, not everybody is completely stoked by one or two of the features Microsoft added with its latest one.

It’s been a big few days in the world of Microsoft’s Xbox 360. There was the whole Xbox Dashboard update palava, where the update was scheduled to go live and then was delayed for less than a day and now there is a whole new iOS app in Apple’s App Store which is Microsoft’s first Xbox related app to be released for the iOS devices.

Microsoft has made some significant changes and announcements this year, most of which have been met by favorable public opinion.