Asus Windows 8 prototypes feature baked-in Kinect

We might all be flailing wildly at our laptops to open documents soon as at least two prototype Asus laptops exist that incorporate Microsoft Kinect sensors.

The Daily was lucky enough to snag some time with what a Microsoft insider confirmed were two official Microsoft prototypes running Windows 8.

The gesture control sensors sit where the webcam would normally be (in the centre of the panel above the screen), with what looked to The Daily like LEDs beneath the display.

The Daily Flail

Unfortunately the Murdoch-owned iPad newspaper didn't manage to grab any pictures nor use the gesture control, but it does seem to confirm that we'll see Kinect functionality baked into portable hardware at some point in the near future.

Kinect is already compatible with Windows, with the necessary hardware being released in February 2012 after developers were given access to the SDK late last year.

The motion-sensing peripherals have been a massive success for Microsoft on the Xbox 360, bagging well over 10 million sales and a T3 Gadget of the Year award to boot.

Facebook may be baked-in to next iOS 5 release

The next version of iOS 5 may include deep Facebook integration after references to the social network were uncovered in the latest developer build.

The iMore website have done a little digging around iOS 5.1 Beta 3 and discovered the presence of Facebook within the contacts app, alongside Twitter.

The screenshot could represent "legacy code" according to iMore, or could spell full-integration in iOS 5 or perhaps iOS 6.

Baked-in Facebook could give iOS users the opportunity to direct upload photos to the social network, while easier status updates would surely be included

Baked-in

Twitter was, of course, baked-in to iOS 5, while Facebook was left out when the two sides were unable to come to an agreement.

Rumour and speculation would have us believe that this decision led to more friction between the two companies, which began when Apple launched the iTunes Ping social network.