You may have read that Kinect for Windows will be arriving on 1st Feb. This device is the only one to be supported on the commercial full version of the Kinect for Windows SDK.

Many have said this is a good thing, and in some ways they may be right. However I think Microsoft have missed a serious trick with this.

By denying developers the ability to make commercial applications for Windows that use the Xbox 360 version of the device (which will be stuck on the beta – and noncommercial – SDK until 2016 when it is deprecated and they become useless) they have basically immediately limited the market for Kinect commercial apps from the potential 18 million+ that have already been sold, to the mere hundreds in comparison that they may or may not sell in the Kinect for Windows plan.

Microsoft say this is because the Xbox 360 version was not designed for PC use. Why the beta SDK then? What exactly are the hardware differences (other than a different label on them)?

I can see this being something to do with licensing or similar. Nonetheless, Microsoft will need to take action to either explicitly say exactly why this has happened or reverse the situation if developers are ever going to take them at their word that they are serious about Kinect outside the Xbox 360.

I was reading this interesting (and bravely-titled) post on cross-browser testing earlier and scrolling down this memory-jogging infographic detailing the history of modern web browsers when I got to the bottom where Chrome came into existence and thought back to that day in early September 2008 when Chrome was first leaked then announced and the internet went wild. Now where was I that day?

I was deep inside the heart of Microsoft UK. And the reaction was priceless.

The full release of WebMatrix is now available. It’s a great tool designed to be easy to use to build great websites. It comes with a load of built in project templates including DotNetNuke, Joomla, WordPress and more. You may have noticed this list includes PHP software – WebMatrix and the servers that support it can handle both .NET and PHP based websites, which is super cool.

If you’re new to WebMatrix, the video below will give you a solid introduction – well worth checking out.

The videos from PDC, Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference back in October are now online. Channel 9 were live at the event, and had some extremely interesting interviews in the “backchannel” for the conference.

They spoke to Scott Guthrie, head of the developer division at Microsoft, who covers all kinds of topics including how to get started developing with Windows Phone 7, and some great demos of Windows Phone 7 apps to inspire developers looking to work with Windows Phone 7.

Check out the video below for the full interview and demos.