One thing that has confused me is that it does seem that the UI just doesnt work as a decent UI if Kinect wasnt there - if you didnt have that voice shortcut it looks like youd be delving into icons just to find stuff. Im not sure how good that makes Kinect if its more the case its good because it works around the UIs flaws.
You can pin anything you want to the front screen. Start dashboard is in front of you, go left for your pinned stuff, right for non pinned store and apps etc. In any area there's a dedicated "menu" button on the controller to give you context sensitive options for whatever it is you have highlighted. Still, people couldn't work out how to use windows 8 I suppose complaining about the lack of a start button despite having had one on every keyboard for the last 18 years
As much as I hate to say it, like anything not everyone will like change and of course you do have to get used to it over time just like 360. I don't say that in a "too stupid" way, just like anything it takes time to work out and when all you want to do is get into a game or straight to friends it's frustrating if it's not immediately obvious (and perhaps it should be although I don't think everything can be). NGE wasn't universally popular when they updated 360, no one could find where the old blades had gone for settings etc. It's just one of those things. Most of the things I've read people find annoying have a answer (like pinning etc) it just takes time to get used to it.
To be fair some just won't like it because it's "metro" and will carry over the "i'm not going to use it, it's stupid" from the PC. It's something you'll always have with any kind of change.
Give it a year and people will wonder how they ever managed to use the incredibly basic/rubbish GUI on PS3 & 360 compared to the new systems they now know.
The best UI is always the one you are used to, even if it's only because you've learnt to work around it's drawbacks and problems.
It's early days for Kinect 2, but do you know what, I think it is genuinely the start of a change, a bit like touch on tablets and laptops. There will be some bumps but already using a controller seems cumbersome for some things compared to just telling XO to do it. As the voice recognition continues to get refined it will become a natural way of working with a console, even Sony have the capabilities for PS4.
I'm old enough to remember the carnage of introducing people to a mouse for a PC
