Infernal Lawyer said:
Considering I've already read the article in question and thought that it was ridiculous at the time, that's pretty embarrassing of me. Thanks for the heads up.
Not remotely your fault. You rightfully assumed the author wouldn't possibly waste your time with a statement as idiotically self-evident as "Kinect is not a self-contained nuclear reactor with a half-life of several million years, so you can still disable it by turning off the console." Although this has been par for the course with all Xbone messaging; you need to vigilantly read between the lines to suss out anything resembling the truth because MS and their mouthpieces are hell-bent on obfuscation - as are most people with nothing but bad news.
I've talked to staff at EB Games (I think it's the NZ equivalent of Gamestop) who've told me the mandatory Kinect, despite the fears of spying and privacy, isn't an issue because you can 'just cover it up or turn it around'. I already thought that was a pretty poor excuse, seeing as I'd rather not buy an Xbone rather than bother working around my 'paranoia' of being constantly watched... But if there's any truth to what you just said, I wouldn't touch the thing with a 5-foot pole.
They haven't confirmed or denied the rumor that the console will cease to function if you cover the Kinect sensor/microphone. Based on immediate prior experience, this is as good as an admission, but who knows. I'd be supremely confused if they allowed you to muffle the thing because then there's really no reason they shouldn't simply allow you to turn it off - which they have confirmed they will not do. At the same time, consistent internal logic isn't "safe grounds" for supposing anything when you're dealing with fanboys.
The proliferation of ads across the entire XBL experience will only ever cease if people stop buying from Microsoft. There's no reason for them not to stuff as much as they can in as many places as they can unless we show them it will hurt their bottom line. For whatever reason, people just aren't very sensitive to this one. They're fine being inundated with advertisements on a service they're already paying for because the corporations who benefit continually tell us there's "no other way". There is, of course, but you'd need a more principled consumer base than North America to inspire change.
Microsoft has gotten so ballsy with the ads that they've even started trumpeting the Kinect/ads synergy as a feature. Apparently my experience is enriched when the things I don't want to see grow ever-more inextricable from actual gaming.
Wait, this was about the Government spying on us, right? Um... In any case, I'm not sure how much I trust Microsoft, seeing as they opted into PRISM in the first place. I'll not be getting a Xbone unless there are some VERY big changes... though of course I'm keeping my PC.
I'm honestly not so put out by the government attempting to gather information through these devices IF they're following proper protocol AND said protocol is both reasonable and democratic. I'm more annoyed at Microsoft gathering and benefiting from my personal information without my say so. If they want to incentivize me for participating in opt-in data farming programs, maybe I'll consider them. But I'm not keen on the idea of them harvesting my info and using it to their financial advantage while my sole prize is an unwanted invasion of privacy.
That last bit is emblematic of Microsoft's overriding failure in marketing the Xbone thus far; they simply haven't brought enough legitimate positives to justify all of the new invasive and restrictive policies. If they'd promised us lower prices on a relatively free market, all-digital distribution might have made more sense. If they'd offered advantages and incentives for allowing Kinect to scope my living room on behalf of advertisers, maybe I'd have been more amenable to sharing. If they'd sold me on the importance of Kinect instead of routinely deploying the circular logic of "you need it because we put it in there because you need it...", maybe I wouldn't balk at the price.
Instead, they're offering up a bunch of new "features" no one asked for/very few people want, restricting or removing stuff we definitely do want, and giving us nothing but nebulous promises regarding any potential "good stuff".