Microsoft on Wednesday announced plans to redefine television as a medium that viewers can control by waving their hands and talking rather than clicking on remotes.In a speech to open the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, company CEO Steve Ballmer also said he aims to make TV more social -- letting viewers chat with each other as avatars in virtual settings and place live bets on sporting events from the TV screen.At the center of this new vision for the living room is the Xbox 360, Microsoft's internet-connected gaming system that, thanks to an add-on called Kinect, can read and interpret players' motions."Your Xbox is becoming the hub of your living room," he said. "It is your gaming system. It is your movies. [Read the full article]

Patrick Miller loves the idea of three-dimensional images jumping out of his living room TV, wowing his family and friends.But, like many tech journalists and analysts, he's found 3-D TV to be completely "underwhelming" so far. There aren't many 3-D movies available at home. The images give people headaches. The glasses are nerdy, expensive and uncomfortable, since they use "active shutters" to toggle images between your eyes."Generally speaking last year was kind of a bust as far as 3-D TVs go," said Miller, who is a staff editor at PC World and who covers TV trends."It's been an epic failure to date," said Kurt Scherf, principal analyst at Parks Associates. [Read the full article]