No. Its using the IR Blaster from Kinect. I believe you can change songs from another room with the media remote on Xbox Music. Unlike traditional remotes that have to point at the device.

If you need an extra accessory to control media functions, then Kinect's "mandate" (to revolutionize precisely that,entertainment/media accessibility) HAS FAILED.

No, with an IR blaster remote you need to be pointing it at the reciever in order to use it. It's RF remotes that will work out of the line of sight.

I think you failed to realize that the remote is using Kinect's IR Blaster to control the other devices.  (Read it again.)

The ensures that Kinect WILL ALWAYS be on the Xbox One.

Kinect is King.  The sooner you accept the easier your life will be.

Kinects 2.0 IR Blaster is powerful, it doesn't need to be pointing at anything.  It's an IR Blaster.  It is quite powerful.

"Actually, an IR signal of sufficient strength will bounce off of walls just fine, and since the vast majority of homes do not have their entertainment gear stored away in a closet or otherwise inaccessible locations, this feature should be of use to a huge number of people, especially when using voice commands to change channels for instance."

http://www.technologytell.com/hometech/99243/kinect-2-ir-blaster/

Come on over and Visit!  My Xbox One will prove that wrong.

Or you could to Microsoft Labs in Seattle.   Either way, I'm sorry if this sound rude, but you do not know what you are talking about and shouldn't be spreading information that isn't true. 

I have a TV on a different wall, behind a case, and Kinect can still turn it on an off.  Think of it like a flash from a camera - it will light up an entire room for a second.  But it's infa red so you can't see it.  But if you had a pet pit viper it might get upset (they since infa red.)

But, cute as they are, I wouldn't want to have a pet rattle snake in my house!

You don't seem to understand how an IR remote works. In order for the remote to work the IR light from the remote needs to reach the reciever on the Kinect. So you could for instance be facing away from the TV and use the remote, because the light would bounce off of the wall and back towards the kinect. It would not however work if you were to go into another room with no line of sight for the IR light to bounce to the reciever. Which is the scenario that Selnor was talking about. You would need an RF remote for that.

You're right it was incorrect for me to say that it needs to be pointing at the reciever. But it will not work in the way Selnor described.

Edit: You mean "sense infared" I imagine.

We in some ways are talking about different things.  The IR Blaster doesn't need to be pointing at anything, but something in another room, yea, that's going to to see it.  Back to the flash analogy.  It the IR Blaster works much better than you think it would.  Point it at a wall, still turns on the TV when you say, "Xbox On."

But do we know how the remote is connecting to the Xbox One?  The Xbox One is controlling the other devices, but the remote could be using WiFi Direct or something else.  Do you have any stats on how it connects to the Xbox One/Kinect?

Haha yup we're talking about different things. You're talking about the IR blaster in the kinect itself controlling the devices it's hooked up to and I'm talking about the limitations of an IR remote. I actually have no idea why I thought the Xbox One remote was IR. It could very well be, but I don't know where I got mixed up in assuming it was. My mistake.