When I'm in my living I speak in a casual manner in a normal speaking voice, when I was in the kitchen with my back turned I had to speak slightly louder.

Out of curiously I spoke a sentence and put "Xbox Kinect" in the middle and while singing along to a song in Last.fm I through in a "Xbox next".

For the sentence, it worked fine.  That's neat but could be annoying because if I say Xbox casually in a sentence the Xbox knows it.  Right now it's not a huge deal because the dictionary is small, we'll see if that's an annoyance later (luckily it only listens when it's on, in the dashboard, and using certain applications).

For the singing, it worked if I didn't really draw out the words (as in xboooooooooooooooooooox) but didn't seem to care about pitch or volume (assuming I was singing in at least normal speaking volume).

My voice commands have been limited to "XBOX: Kinect" and XBOX: Play Disc", but I said them both naturally.  I said them clearly, but I didn't have to be robotic about it at all.

While the motion control dash and voice commands are cool, the thing that seems super-futuristic to me is when you jump in a game and your 360 pops up with "TRios Zen recognized".

The potentiality there...well it seems really cool to me.

Pretty uplifting thread.  Haven't played Kinect but this thread makes me want one even more.

So far I am really pleased with Kinect.  I got it on launch day, but I didn't really get a chance to mess with it until yesterday.  Kinect Adventures is a blast and was a great pack in choice.  The demo of Dance Central on the disc blew me away.  I have never played a dance game in my life.  My only intention of purchasing it was for my wife and daughter....but after playing the demo, I can see myself playing it quite a bit as well. 

And like you mentioned, the voice commands are awesome.  It puts a smile on my face every time I use them.  All I can say is that the people hating on Kinect are looking for reasons not to like it.  Is it perfect, no.  But for being a first attempt by Microsoft in bringing a controller free experience home, they have done a hell of a job.  With the upcoming patches and developers growing accustomed to producing games for it, it will only get better (I can't wait for Netflix integration).

Edit:   I would also like to add that I love the fact that the camera adjust itself for positioning.  I have Move as well and when I am playing a game with my daughter (She is 4), I have to reposition the camera a lot when playing games with her or when swittching in and out of a game.  So that is a big plus for me as well.

Didnt realize how much I would appreciate how the games just let you step in and out.  Voice commands are extremely cool as well, but the holes annoy me.  Like you get into Zune then need to login to a profile. That doesnt appear to be setup with Voice commands.  I look forward to updates so that all very common and common scenarios are voice command supported.

Dance Central working fantastically well. Incredibly precise detection and great menus.

Really the only true complaint I have right now is Kinect Sports' bipolar menu system. Half the time it works, and the next it just goes insane. The games themselves work fine, but the menu could use some work.

Best part about the system is how good it is at parties(Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, Dance Central). That thing, literally, keeps the room echoing laughter. Lack of sleep helps too.

I haven't actually used the voice commands much, but they work very well. I like putting the disc in the tray, walking away and saying "Xbox Close Tray" as I do. Its nothing amazing, but its cool.

I've really enjoyed navigating the menus with my hands and voice.  It's just so cool that I haven't got tired of it yet.  That and Dance Central is a killer workout.  I am in great shape and I started to sweat after just 2 songs!

The other day I was watching something on Zune and had to go to my kitchen.  I got up and then realized I could pause it with my voice so once I reached my kitchen I said "Xbox Pause" and sure enough it heard the command and stopped the movie for me.  Little things like that just make my day

I can't wait till they expand the Kinect dashboard to include Netflix. Then make the standard dashboard also navigable via Kinect similar to the way  Dance Central's menu's work.

Is there a set time frame as to when specific updates are going to happen? I know I'm gonna love that voice commands as well as menu navigation via hand gesture. 

@twesterm some of the E60 stuff is pretty cool on ESPN.

I posted this in another thread but I agree about the voice commands. 

I had taken a break from playing and left the Xbox on at the dashboard with Kinect Sports in the drive.  As I was walking back towards my TV area I said "Xbox play disc" and by the time I settled in the game was already booting.  It's hard to explain how cool it feels unless you do it but it's very slick.  In a normal situation I would have had to find the controller, wait for it to turn on and then started the game.

I also love the automatic sign in with Kinect ID.  It's amazing when you step in front of a game and it just recognizes you and brings in your avatar.

Of course the games themselves have been a lot of fun.  I've played Kinectimals for a lot longer than I should probably admit!

@Skeeuk - You can talk in a regular voice, some people have reported it even working with a whisper.  Kinect has a very advanced listening system and what most people don't know is it uses the depth sensor to figure out where your head is (when you're in view) so it knows where to pinpoint it's listening and filter out stuff coming from other parts of the room.

Check out this video to see how it works even while loud music is playing - http://kotaku.com/5680932/examining-kinects-minority-report-effect

I did the same thing yesterday when I started playing Your Shape.  I turned on the 360 and then left the room to finish something realized I forgot to start the game.  Without even turning around I said "Xbox, Play disc" and when I came back in the room the game was already started up and most of the way through all the intro screens.

And yeah, I forgot to say the facial recognition stuff is pretty cool and pretty impressive.  My 360 easily recognizes me now and when I had my friends over Friday night it even recognized them even though they had no profiles!  Every time one of them sat down and another took their place, it remember which avatar to use!