Live-blog: Bill Gates takes the stage at CES

Posted January 5, 2006 at 05:21 AM by Doug Berger

Section: Features, Live Blog, Trade Shows, CES

Thanks for joining us as we live-blog Bill Gate’s keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show.  The show is set to start at 6:30PM PST.  To check out our updates, click the refresh button every couple of minutes and you’ll be right up to date.

Here we go…

6:36 - Cool little video intro taking us through the different categories that CES covers.

6:39 - Gary Shapiro (President of the CEA) gives us an intro.  Talks about the great keynotes that they are hosting this year.  “Our world cup of technology.”

6:41 - Shapiro introduces Bill Gates and gives a pat on the back to Gates and Microsoft for everything that they’ve introduced at CES in the past.  He then talks about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and how they are Time Magazine’s People of the Year.

6:43 - Microsoft’s “digital vision” video takes our attention as Gates prepares to come on stage.  The video highlights various Microsoft employees and how they’re living the dream.  My eyes are turning yellow from the background.

6:45 - Gates comes on stage and talks about the stiff competition he and his wife had for Time’s Persons of the Year.  He talks about 1982 when the PC was on the cover of Time.

6:47 - This is the “digital decade.” He talks about the Xbox 360 that they’ve been building up for 5 years.  Mentions Office 12 in 2006.

6:48 - Has a touch screen LCD that he’s playing with.  It has a TV, and doesn’t look anything like a Microsoft product.  You can use it to keep track of the family schedule and watch news channels.  Kind of like an enhanced Media Center PC.

6:50 - He has a tri-screen desktop setup that is about 2’ x 9’.  He also has a tablet PC that he moves things to his desktop or to the video conference that he’s in with Thomas Anderson (the creator).  This kind of looks like a Steve Jobs keynote to me…

6:52 - Traffic information comes up automatically on his desktop telling him that he might want to leave a little early for the airport.

6:53 - Moves on to the “airport” where he puts his phone down on a table and the screen pops up what’s on the cell phone’s screen.  Business card information is scanned and then automatically entered into his phone.  The system is called “BlueYonder.” “I get the benefit of the full screen when that phone normally has a smaller screen.”

6:55 - Shows image of devices that he used… PC, Smartphone, and Xbox 360.  Talks about the great sales growth we’ve seen in the “digital decade.” Broadband overtook Dialup… over 100,000,000 broadband users.

6:56 - Describing a digital home/office environment where information follows you wherever you go.  Talk about this as a “cross-device approach.”

6:59 - Personalization, empowerment, everything moving to the internet.  Mentions IPTV and security that goes along with it.

7:00 - Going to introduce Windows Vista by the end of the year.

7:01 - Aaron Woodman, Group Program Manager (in charge of Vista) shows us Vista.  You can now see all of the applications in full motion when you click Alt+Tab.

7:03 - Flip 3D gives you a visualization of the programs that you have open.  Gadgets are shown in the sidebar and can be dragged to the desktop to see a full version.

7:04 - Slideshow: can see your calendar and other information without even powering on your laptop.

7:05 - The implementation of “Tabbed browsing… but with a twist.” You get to see all of the tabs that are open in an Alt+Tab style.  Kind of like a PowerPoint slideshow.

7:07 - Parents can now block different levels of games without even having the games.  If your kid buys a game and its above the allowed level, it gets automatically blocked.

7:08 - Gaming, memories, and music:  Gaming… Microsoft Flight Simulator demo.  Uses Xbox 360 controller with the Vista PC to control the Flight Sim.  They have a little bit more than a year to finalize the product… but “Gaming is going to be awesome on Windows Vista.”

7:09 - Memories: Photos and videos… looks like iPhoto with a Vista theme.  You can crop an image in the photo viewer without opening up any type of editor.  Vista “always saves the original” so you can revert back to the original if you want the content that you cropped out.

7:11 - Motion video can be played in the Windows Slide Show.  On to Music… the next generation of Windows Media Player.  “Nice… clean user interface.” Digital Stacks… you can see exactly how many songs are in each album, genre.

7:12 - Brings Bill back out and the Van Taffler, President of MTV networks to discuss some things they’re doing with music.  Shows picture of Napoleon Dynamite and Bill Gates and says they’re “twins separated at birth.”

7:15 - Announces URGE.  “URGE will offer a customized relationship with music.” 100 radio stations with customizable soundtracks.  Subscribers will drive the service (feedback).

7:17 - “Please… take note… we are trying something new with URGE.” BTW, this is Taffler speaking.  Aaron is now giving us a sneak preview of URGE.

7:18 - The music service will have 2 million tracks… you can buy the songs or you can have “all you can eat.” Plus 100 CD quality radio stations.  Editorial blogging is integrated in the music store.  They’re also doing this for MTV, VH1 and CMT… for example TRL.

7:20 - “There’s no stale music in your experience.” They play Justin Timberlake and then Justin Timberlake comes out and cracks a few jokes.  “URGE offers artists like myself a way to connect with the listeners.” URGE and Timberlake will be doing some “new and creative things together.”

7:23 - Gates comes back and talks about Tablet PCs (which they’ve been pushing for some time now).  As you use the Vista Table version, it will learn your handwriting so it gets better… and better.

7:24 - Talks about the Palm 700w and how amazing it is with its shortcuts.  Mentions that Verizon approved the device early so it will come out sooner than they expected.

7:26 - Has an in-home cordless phone by PHILLIPS that uses the Windows Live phone service so you can use Live Messenger without being on your computer.

7:28 - “Individualized video feed to your TV.” If you’re in a hurry and you’re in the middle of a show, new software will pick the highlights of the show and condense it so you don’t feel like you missed anything.

7:30 - You’re going to want to bring your information and content onto one screen anywhere you are in the house.  “This is where Media Center comes in...” 130 manufacturers using Media Center.

7:31 - Microsoft will take full advantage of the new Intel VIIV processors.  Over 150 partners have designed different parts of the Media Center.  “Any show, any time, anywhere” Gates announces partnership with DirecTV…

7:34 - Video on demand will work with Media Center with DirecTV’s help.  Joe Belfiore now takes the stage to introduce Media Center… where we are today and where we’re going.  “Texas 16, USC 10”

7:35 - Shows Comedy Central “MotherLoad” and announces 5 partners for their online Spotlight guide.  Play clips from The Daily Show, The Chapelle Show… and old shows.  Good way for channels to have a good connection with their viewers.

7:36 - Shows a PC from Averatec that’s about the size of a Mac mini.  They will be available this spring for under $1000 with a TV tuner and $499 without a tuner.

7:39 - Show the upcoming Toshiba Gigabeat (30 GB, 4 hour battery life) and shows how it uses the “familiar media center menu.” Purchased movies from Starz!/VONGO service can be transferred onto devices like the Gigabeat.  About 1000 movie titles.

7:40 - LG Electronics portable media device is now being demo’d… and now it’s done.

7:42 - We’re now looking at Live.com and the movie and TV show content recommendations that are integrated in the site.  Allows you to set Media Center to record a show for you through the internet (similar to TiVoToGo).

7:45 - Windows Live Messenger has integrated “Activities” that will give you recommendations of shows and movies that your friends like.  The service automatically offers you promotional content such as trailers right in your Live Messenger buddy window.

7:46 - HD-DVD: Joe shows Toshiba’s new HD-DVD player… there’s a demo coming on now.  Plays the “Bourne Supremacy” in the Toshiba player.  You can now choose scenes while you’re still watching the movie.  HD-DVD has an interactivity layer that will show you the actors that are in the scene you’re watching.  It also gives you a bio on the actor.

7:49 - With the producer commentary option, you can actually see the person talking in the corner.  (Kind of looks like a floating head in the middle of the screen)

7:50 - HD-DVD players will allow you to copy high-def version of the movies over to the player.  Joe moves on to cable card device by Dell.

7:52 - Windows Vista Media Center demo… high-def content is available on any compatible device in your house (PC, Xbox 360, etc...)

7:54 - Media Center allows you to select albums by album-art instead of the song name.  You can also view by Artist or Year.  “Don’t forget… all of this is available on the Xbox 360 through it’s extender capabilities.”

7:55 - The movies that he copied before (Bourne Supremacy) is now available on your PC.  Hands it off to Peter Moore (Corporate VP of Xbox) to talk about the Xbox 360.  We’re now watching a video intro to the presentation.

7:58 - Xbox 360 had an “Unprecedented Global Launch” Forecasted to ship 4.5-5.5 million units worldwide by June 2006.  Moore announced they now have a 3rd manufacturer for the 360.

7:59 - More than 50% of Xbox 360s are connected to Xbox Live.  Since the launch, there have been more than 4 million Live Marketplace downloads.

8:03 - Later this year, “we will be launching an external HD-DVD player.”

8:04 - By June of this year, Xbox 360 will have 50 HD games.  Al Bernstein comes out to demo EA Fight Night Round 3.

8:05 - Bill Gates comes back out to take the place of Mohammad Ali, Steve Ballmer comes out to fight him… Ballmer is actually trash-talking Bill Gates.  Ballmer looks like he tweaking out as he handles the controller.

8:08 - Joe Frasier (Ballmer) goes down and gets knocked out.  Ballmer just threw his controller.  Who would’ve guessed Gates would win.  Fight Night demo will be available on Xbox Live immediately following the show.

8:10 - Gates is back going solo.  Themes of tonight’s show: High Definition, Partners that create the content, and that all of this has to work across all of the devices… “User-centric.” Biggest investments: Security, Privacy, speech recognition.

8:12 - “Microsoft… Your Potential, Our Passion”

Thanks for joining us for tonight’s live-blog of Bill Gate’s keynote speech at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show.  We’ll see you back here for some more live action as it comes in.  Have a good night.

Photo courtesy Engadget.