Gates CES Summary 1

This year, for the first time, I gave technology gifts not only to my friends who are very sophisticated, but to my friends who are not sophisticated, things like digital cameras, because I think they really are ready for prime time, music and photos, those experiences are changing permanently in a way that puts the user in control.

...Now, one thing that is very important here is by moving the Windows software in the PC up to use our Windows 2000 technology, which we'll be doing in the next release of Windows, we create a machine that you'll be leaving on 24 hours a day, a machine that can continue to service the different peripherals, the picture frames, the music playing devices, the different control things you have around the house, it will continually service those devices.

...So I'm talking about an extended PC, a PC that reaches out, talks to the set top box, for example, talks to the pocket PCs, talks to those different screens that are out there, the picture frames, that are out there, talks to your music type player devices, coordinates with other PCs that are in the home, so that you don't have to explicitly move that information around.

...So, once we've saved them within the home, we're working with digital picture frame partners, using UPnP technology, so they can talk to each other very seamlessly, you can just plug the picture frame in over whatever network you're using, wireless, or other ways, and the pictures are immediately available.

...I'm going to go ahead and click on Northwinds Traders, and what I can do then is listen to this station, it's been kind of preprogrammed for me, or I can potentially buy some songs from this and download them into the local network so I can listen to them, or a third option it gives me to do is to create a custom station where I can take the music that I've got here, plus add some other things, and I'm going to add headlines, weather, and traffic.

...Now, again, as Universal Plug and Play devices grow and they can connect and work with the PC, I have the opportunity then here in another room to go a touch pad, and assume there are speakers in the wall in the room, and I'll go to media, and they can look for the different streams that are in the house.

...So, in essence, what we've done is, we've talked about the movement towards next generation of PCs that are truly durable, lots of cool hardware that's going to come out with them, the ability to really make my personal digital media, the photo stuff from end to end, from the photo all the way out to the frame. We're working with the frame manufacturers for the next generation to make it really seamless in your home and easy, and then beyond that very personalized services, and then another set of hardware in the future as peripherals that can leverage those personalized services, whether they be music or communications or any of the things you noted.

...We're also taking the interface and saying that we want to make this a device that you can actually read for long periods of time by having screens that are detachable, you can put in your lap, by having the right resolution, by having new font technology we call ClearType, those things will allow this device to be where you would look at a magazine, or where you would look at a long report.

...Now, there are still things to be done to get the price down, get the setup to be easy, and making it clear for the different scenarios what has to go on. One role that Microsoft sees itself in is going out to the high-end consumer electronics retailers, and really talking through the scenarios.

...Before I do anything, we're talking about the rapid pace of innovation, and this is going to focus on a lot of the innovation that's happened over the last year, when our research group, and other groups had the opportunity to work with a new device like the Pocket PC.

...At the same time we've been doing this, our music guys, the guys that run our digital media division, they've been working on the Universal Plug and Play technology, making it so that when I bring this device into the house it can talk to other devices, and it recognizes the other devices like the computer, and they can share certain applications and talk to each other.

...Now, I'm going to put this down for a second, and as we're dealing with innovations, the one nice thing is, as Windows CE becomes a much more mature platform and the tools become much more mature, it's easy for our hardware partners to develop new devices that can support similar functionality.

...So, I'll go ahead and pause at this time, we've seen it, and I didn't put the sound out, and I'll go ahead and shut this down for now, but I think you start to get an idea of the types of things you can do in terms of software, the wireless world, new devices, very cool stuff, and it continues to advance at just a phenomenal pace.

...One key point we want to make is that these consumer experiences, when they're put into digital form, they're not just more convenient, they really start to change in ways that we can expect, and I think for each one of these experiences, there will be things that happen -- now that the user is in control, now that it's digital -- that we don't expect. In the world of music, we talk about people setting up playlists, and sharing those with each other, we talk about having demo versions of the song at low resolution that are available for people to try out, or being able to listen to the radio and just click and say, yes, I would like to buy that music.

...I would like to ask one of the people who has been working with the gaming community, Seamus Blackley, to come on out and give us a glimpse, show us a couple of the kinds of games that we're going to have available on Xbox.

...And I think that everybody knows that Xbox has the hottest technology that exists in gaming today, but you don't need to listen to us. And, in fact, it's important to realize that the most important guys you can get excited about this technology are the guys who make the games, and they're some of the most enthusiastic people I've ever spoken to about Xbox technology.

...Now, Oddworld Inhabitants, which is the name of the company that made that game, is a group of artists and game designers who have an incredibly detailed vision for this world that, Abe, the character you saw unfortunately get shot in the back, lives in. And that vision is so big that they really felt that they could only bring it to life on the Xbox.

Last update: 2/22/08; 2:02:00 PM.