So Bill Gates did his final keynote speech: "The next Digital Decade". But not before we had to stand in the line from hell. I’ve stood in Bill Gates keynote lines before going back as far as Comdex 1996 and at least this one was the most organized.
The Line… God help us all.
The lines wrapped around and around and around. IN total, the wait time to get a seat was about 5 hours but at least line cutting was made EXTREMELY difficult due to the broadly separated curves in line (see photo) and everyone was handed a wrist band in order to get in.
Once in, the room filled very quickly, with press, media, bloggers, and the general population (in that order unfortunately).
The Past Analog-to-Digital Transformation
Once the keynote began, he highlighted how in the past digital decade many technologies had been transitioned from analog to digital technologies: Music, Movies, Books, TV, Phones, Radio, etc. He then discussed Microsoft’s role in all of this including advances in Zune, Xbox, Sync, VOIP Phone technologies, Microsoft TV and IPTV, etc.
The Next Digital Decade
Bill then asserted that the next coming Digital Decade will focus on:
- Connecting People
- Being user centric
- Applications that will depend on both software that runs onn both the PC and in the cloud
Bill’s Windows Live Demo
He talked about Virtual Worlds on Internet existing in 3D using photographic imagery that is collected from the Internet, new types of Interaction focusing on User touch like the iPhone and Microsoft Surface and then had Mika Krammer (Director of Windows Product Dev), do a demonstration of Windows Live, and in particular how the Windows Live services integrate with each other to provide a seamless way to link all of one’s information together.
- Windows Live ID sign in
- Sign in provides seamless identification across 6 different services
- IDs can be cross linked to other Windows Live IDs
- Calendar overlay
- Demonstration of Mom’s calendar, your calendar, and Husband’s calendar all viewable in a single calendar to see "who’s available" for dinner
- Windows Live Events
- Demonstration of coordinating events like parties leveraging photos from Windows Live Photo Gallery, invites based on Windows Live Contacts, and date scheduling using Windows Live Calendar.
- Windows Live Photo Gallery
- Free, downloadable PC application
- Allows Stitch, Email, Publishing to Windows Live Space
- Windows Live Video Search
- Autopreview videos by hovering over one video photo amongst dozens in a browser window
(And it should be noted at this juncture that for once, all the demos in Bill’s keynote worked perfectly.)
Bill’s Hands-on Live Demo of Surface
Bill then proceeded to do a demo of his own, on his own. (Oooh… executive demo) They brought out a Surface computer where Bill demonstrated how he could use Surface to design his own Snowboard including:
- Color, size
- Add drawn art or signatures
- Send via phone (Placed on desktop)
Silverlight & the Olympics Announcement
Bill then talked about interactive user experiences and the effort Microsoft will be making in that arena. He started to talk about Silverlight, describing it as a runtime that brings development and design (MSN & NBC Olympics will be exclusively over the Internet using Silverlight) Bob Costas video on Broadband coverage NBCOlympics.com 3000 hours of live video
VIDEO: What the last day of retirement might be like for Bill Gates
A video Bob Costas, Matthew McConaughey, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Jay-Z, Al Gore, George Clooney, Bono from U2, Jon Stewart, Brian Williams from NBC, was played to the delight of those in attendance.
Robbie Bach & the Xbox
Robbie had the following MediaRoom and Xbox Live announcements:
- Xbox Live had reached 10 Million Subscribers.
- ABC and Disney are coming to Xbox Live with all their movies & TV content available on-demand through Xbox Live Marketplace.
- MGM movies will be available on Xbox Live
- The addition of Disney & MGM to XBox Live Video Marketplace means that Xbox on-demand video has 2x as many programs than any other service provider cable or otherwise)
- Samsung/HP Extender for Windows Media Center will be available this year
- Microsoft MediaRoom now has 1M subscribers
- MediaRoom will provide "DVR anywhere" – essentially recording tranmission to any device on home networks
- TNT, CNN and NASCAR will be providing MediaRoom-enabled Interactivity during broadcasts
- British Telecom (BT) will be the first to make the Xbox 360 a full DVR for their MediaRoom enabled customers.
(Who will be the US’s first customer? Wait and see… although this should be obvious for some.)
Robbie Bach and the Zune
Because Apple doesn’t attend CES, the public was a thorough dose of Zune at the show, and Robbie talked proudly about the end to end experience that the Zune provides. Molly O’Donnell came on stage to demonstrate the Zune "Social".
- Zune card: A identifier that shows a photo,
- Zune tag
- Listened to artists, songs, Favorites, Most played Social music discovery Zune social site for Shins Top fans for the Shins (Shows what music they like)
- Purchase and sync to Zune directly from Zune social site
Robbie Bach & Microsoft Auto "Sync"
- Lincoln, Ford, Mercury
- Plug and Sync for any music player
- Phone control over BT
- Announced upgradability 911 assist
Robbie Bach & Windows Mobile
Robbie talked about how Windows Mobile outsells Blackberry both IPhone
He also talked about how Microsoft considers voice recognition to be very important and announced "Say and Search":
- Find Movies based on GPS. Speak phrase, "movies"
- Buy tickets directly Speak phrase, "buy 2 tickets to Sweenet Todd"
- Send text message to invitees.
Robbie Bach & Bill Gates on Gaming
The two of them announced the Xbox and Windows are the number 1 platforms in gaming and to celebrate, they had a Guitar Hero 3 contest on stage but Robbie brought out Kelly "TipperQueen" Law-Yone while Bill brought out Slash from Guns & Roses. (See photo below taken from Joystiq)
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