The official Kinect for Windows SDK beta is out now and available for download. It’s for non-commercial use only, aimed at researchers, academics and hobbyist developers, but the download is free, and available in both 32-bit and 64-bit formats.
The SDK was originally announced in February and will make Kinect hacking much simpler than the raw data extraction that had been required until now. The original round of Kinect hacks was already fairly mind-blowing, but it should be exciting to see what comes down the pipe with the new SDK now that you won’t need such an advanced set of coding skills to get started.