Microsoft gets ahead with Christmas showcase in July

It's summer and so the ideal time for companies to talk about Christmas. No, I don't fully understand it either but it's better than hearing about products too late. Spurred on by the prospect of getting a Santa hat and slice of Christmas cake, I sauntered over to the Saatchi gallery to see what Microsoft has to offer for the festive period. Read on to find out more about mice, Xbox Kinect and whether I did, in fact, get our Christmas cake.

Microsoft had done their homework and the event was firmly focused on home users. Unlike a recent Windows Phone launch there was no mention of corporate exchange servers. There was a demo of Office 2011 for Mac and the interesting thing about this version is that although it includes the Office Ribbon, the old menus survive. This is because the menu bar is built into OS X and always appears at the top of the screen no matter what the program. Buying a Mac seems a little extreme for avoiding the Ribbon, but I know that there are plenty of people who don't like it.

There were lots of mice, keyboards and webcams. The Touch Mouse was given pride of place in the inner sanctum of the gallery. It may look unassuming but it has a multi touch capable touchpad where the buttons normally go so there are all kinds of clever tricks it can play. You can quickly minimise or maximise open windows and use Aero snap to arrange them. Flicking with a thumb on the side of the mouse will skip by page, which is handy in long documents.

The Arc Touch mouse is still around (see our video review here) though the Explorer Touch Mouse looks like a more comfortable alternative for the desk. I found the lack of body on the Arc Touch a little uncomfortable after using it for long periods.

I'm also loooking forward to the Comfort Curve Keyboard 3000. As well as curving the keyboard layout to better match how you hands want to rest on the keyboard, it now has a slight hump, hopefully making it even more comfortable. To be honest I still miss the extreme curve of the original Natural Keyboard but this is hopefully a step in the right direction. At £20 it'll be worth a go.

There are also plenty of webcams all the way up to a full 1080p model, the LifeCam Studio. The Microsoft webcam software is pretty good and we know that the Editor is still known to have a chuckle over the wig effect in this video review.

There were two rooms full of games for the Xbox covering a wide range of interests.

Forza Motorsport 4 is due out on 14th October on the same day as the Wireless Speed Wheel Xbox controller. It will include content from the BBC's Top Gear, including their track. Expect an unwilling video review where I prove to be slower than Richard Whitely in the next three months.

Combat orientated games will include Gears of War 3 in late September and an idiosyncratic game called the Gunstringer. This is a Western Shooter whose lead character is a Thunderbirds-eque marionette who also happens to be a zombie. All the makings of a good laugh with the lads then.

Eager to have proof for the wife that an Xbox isn't just for blokey games, I dragged the rest of the journalists unlucky enough to be in my group to take a look at Kinect Disneyland Adventures. Available at Christmas for £40 the game simulates a Disneyland park that can be explored, playing all kinds of games along the way. It is claimed to include all the magic of the real park along with extra magic that is only possible with a computer games.

A new deal has been struck with Sky so that Sky programs can be watched on the Xbox without having to connect it to a satellite receiver. Kinect can also be used to control the media centre interface. It's all very clever, though you do spend quite a lot of time waving at the Xbox.

The Xbox Fun Labs is a collection of small apps that show off new Kinect programs. There are four programs at the moment: Kinect Me, Bobble Head, Build a Buddy and Kinect Googly Eyes. The latter can scan an object using the camera built into the Kinect sensor and then animate it to follow your movements. I can see that keeping my children occupied for hours.

I suppose the trouble for Microsoft with this event is that there haven't been any really big launches this year. Windows 7 and Office 2010 are pretty much no brainers and tweaks to Kinect are unlikely to make the headlines, however impressive.

Finally, there was a Santa hat and cracker but no Christmas cake this year. Instead we got a Gingerbread man, and very tasty he was too.