Well was looking forward to using my new Christmas present to myself, an XBox Kinect. You know the the fancy gixmo that connect to the Xbox allowing your whole body to become a controller. If you are feeling a bit lazy after a workout with EA’s Active 2 the Kinect also allows you to contrl the Xbox via Speech Recognition.
WWWWOOOO UP. What is that prompt that just came up. SPEECH RECOGNITION IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR YOU LOCALE.
This is the response from support and my reply. I have posted them just to show the diregard Microsoft has for Australia. What is so crazy is
that it is enabled for the UK. The accents vary so much there from North to South the whole thing is a joke.
Email addresses removed for privacy
From Support:
________________________________________
From: SUPPORT
To: ME
CC:
Subject: SRXxxxxxxxxxxx – Xbox 360 Hardware
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:34:29 -0800
Hello Andrew,
Thank you for contacting Microsoft online support for XBOX. I am Joseph and I will be helping you today with this issue.
We have received your email and understand that you’re inquiring if there is a work around with Kinect voice recognition not available in Australia.
In regards with your issue, your only work around for this is either to change the language settings of your console or of your account.
Speech recognition is supported in the following locales and languages:
Locales Language
US English
Canada English
UK English
Japan Japanese
Mexico Spanish
Words on the screen appear in the language set for your Xbox LIVE account or in the language set on your Xbox 360 console.
To find the Xbox 360 console language and locale setting
1. On the Xbox 360 console, go to My Xbox, and then select System Settings.
2. Select Console Settings and then select Language and Locale.
• Learn how to change your Xbox LIVE account language
• Learn how to change the console language
If you need to replay to this email and, please reply ‘with history’ (include any previous email) or reference to Service Request Number 1145989729 so we can expedite our service to you.
For future questions on Xbox products or services, please be sure to revisit our web site xbox.com, as we are continually adding information to enhance our service.
Best Regards,
Joseph
Microsoft Xbox Support Services
http://support.microsoft.com
My Response:
From: ME
Sent: Saturday, 1 January 2011 3:11 PM
To: SUPPORT
Subject: RE: SRXxxxxxxxxxxx – Xbox 360 Hardware
Thank you for your response. You didn’t answer my question: Is Speech recognition going to be enabled for the Australian locale? If not why not?
I was already aware of the workaround, however, I find it an insult that you tell me I have to portray a country of which I am not a part of just to get your product to work the way it has been advertised.
Are you aware you have to change the locale setting on both the console and XBox Live to get it to stick? If you just change the console, the minute you log into XBox live, speech recognition will disappear. I certainly aren’t going to change my XBox Live account. I live in Australia so thats the way my account stays.
Are you aware this has become a big complaint in Australian by thousnads of Australians, disappointed kids and very irrate parents? Probably enough to start filing a lawsuit, without having to go it alone, for breach of the trade practices act. Microsoft is fully aware this is a big issue as I am advised they have been telling retailers to not accept returns for refund. Another breach of the trade practices act.
I want to no Is Microsoft going to permanently fix the problem by enabling Speech recognition for Australia? A locale which is the easiest to write speech recognition for according to industry experts. Why have you enabled it for UK where the dialect from north to south and is like comparing german to korean?
I am still not happy you have an adequate response. If it is going to be enable in the near future then fine I can wait however you did not advise that.
disgruntled Kinect customer
I will post futher responses
-35.352909
149.228989
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Thu 18th April I did a combined tour. This started with a walking tour of Hollywood Blvd to view the walk of fame and Chinese Theatre. Then jumped in the van and headed up into the Hollywood Hills to get some good views. Next stop was Beverly Hills to see how the other half live. The journey for the first tour finished at the farmers market.
In the arvo it was off to Universal Studios. Universal Studios is divided into and upper and lower section. The upper section seems to be more for public entertainment. The lower section seems to be where most of the production is done and most is closed to the public. I decided to do the studio tour which took you through more of the lower studio. They demonstrated how they setup an earthquake and flooding of a subway and the flash flooding of a village. They also had a full sized plane broken up to film plane crash scenes. Went on the Transformer 3D ride and also Shrek.
Well that is 9:00pm Los Angeles time which is 2:00pm 17th Aus EST.
