Bill Gates has been giving the kickoff keynote speech at CES for many years now. It is incredible how a guy who has put a computer in every home has taken such a firm hold in the consumer electronics marketplace. With products as diverse as cell phones, PDAs, game consoles, PVRs, portable audio/video devices, and even watches, Microsoft has truly spread their tentacles. There are no signs of them letting up.
[sidebar: This year's keynote was incredibly polished. Unlike previous years, where Microsoft's presentations have been plagued by computer crashes (last year, the XBOX crashed while showing a beta version of Forza Motorsports), one can practically consider these faults to be a hallmark.
Team Microsoft seems to have hired a professional video team this year. When transitioning between different camera angles and cuts to different screenshots, they used the Windows Vista logo in a left-to-right swiping motion. They also had a guy with a steadicam device which allows him to do smooth camera pans around their subjects while walking around them. It looks like Microsoft really made an effort this time to make sure things wouldn't go wrong.]
The entire transcript and archived webcast of this event is found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx
Highlights
_______
There is a big push on Windows Vista, the next generation of Windows. Vista is expected to be released by the end of 2006. It seems to be tweaked more for the consumer/home market with a focus on better management of documents, images and music. Searches will show thumbnails of matching documents, giving you full previews.
Media Center Vista edition will be released as well. There are plans to have an HDTV add-on box with an slot for a cable card.
(to be cont'd)
This is a prototype touch sensor LCD/plasma panel on a kitchen wall. It shows the current weather, a news channel and above that is a desktop space with what looks to be widgets (ala Konfabulator or Mac Dashboard)
He moved things around the screen with just a finger and easily whisked down the "user desktop" to the very bottom.
As part of the announcement of the Microsoft / MTV partnership in the new URGE online music store, they had Justin Timberlake come out briefly onto the stage. After Justin left the stage, some loud music was piped in and you could see Bill briefly and awkwardly bopping his head a few times. The crowd broke out in laughter.
Bill shows off the Treo 700w that is already available through Verizon. It uses EV-DO broadband service and was already shipping by the time of this official announcement.
Gates and Ballmer duked it out on their XBOX 360. It was hilarious how Ballmer was jumping from his corner (not unlike the "ape" dance he was famous for many years ago) and Bill was feigning punching jabs as he was introduced out of his "corner." I'm sad to have witnessed this, but he looked like he was swinging like a little girl, and again, the crowd was cracking up. I'm sure there's a video clip of this somewhere. Bill played Mohammed Ali, and Ballmer chose Joe Frazier. Of course Bill got to win.
Microsoft is pushing their HD DVD format. Notice the spooky little head on the right of the screen? This is all came about because of the commentary tracks that are often included with major DVD releases. It's Microsoft's idea of utilizing HD DVD's capabilities to actually watch the commentator's expressions as he speaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment