Gates Pushes Idea of Windows Everywhere

Biz.yahoo.com ^ | Sunday January 6, 11:07 pm ET | By Brian Bergstein

[Swordmaker]

Gates Shows How Microsoft Is Expanding Into More Platforms and Interfaces

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. might not be the unbeatable giant it once seemed to be, but Chairman Bill Gates made the case Sunday night that its technologies are becoming even more flexible and powerful as they seep into automobiles, Internet-based TV networks and living rooms.

A few months away from leaving his daily duties at Microsoft to focus on his philanthropy, Gates used his traditional kickoff keynote at the International Consumer Electronics Show to highlight how Microsoft is extending the reach of its software beyond desktops and servers, and incorporating alternative inputs like voice and touch.

"The first digital decade has been a great success," he said. "This is just the beginning. There's nothing holding us back from going much faster and much further in the second digital decade."

Traditional PC programs got less airtime than in previous keynotes. That contrast stood out considering not only the tepid response for Microsoft's year-old Windows Vista operating system but also the way that Web-based applications are threatening Microsoft's hold on desktop computing.

Instead Gates bounced from cars -- Microsoft's Sync technology for playing music and making phone calls should be in all Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles in the 2009 model year -- to the living room. Gates and Robbie Bach, who heads Microsoft's entertainment division, announced an expansion of the high-definition Hollywood movies and TV shows that can be downloaded through the Xbox video game console's online service.

Those include shows from ABC television and other properties of Walt Disney Co. (which, by the way, counts Microsoft uber-rival and Apple Inc. chief Steve Jobs as its biggest individual shareholder).

Gates also explained how Mediaroom, the Internet-based television platform that Microsoft created for telecommunications companies to sell, will work with TNT and Showtime to let users select their own camera angles when viewing sports. For example, a Nascar fan could maintain a constant view from his favorite driver's car, or plug into a certain ringside shot in a boxing match. For now, though, Mediaroom is mainly used for TV services in other countries.

Microsoft will have another chance to show its video talents this summer, when it runs NBC's online Olympics portal, which is designed to let people zero in on specific events that interest them.

"Building great connected TV experiences is not just a hobby for Microsoft," Bach said.

Gates and Bach talked up improvements in ways for people to interact with software by voice, touch and gesture. In addition to the speech-recognizing functions in Sync-enabled cars, Microsoft plans to soon upgrade the voice-activated information searches available through its subsidiary Tellme. It also will augment the system underlying Surface, Microsoft's computer in a table that responds to users' touches and gestures.

Surface is debuting as a virtual concierge in hotels, but Gates hopes it will soon be used in retail stores. For example, Gates showed how an outdoors-shop customer could use a Surface table to customize a snowboard and transfer an image of his creation to a mobile device simply by putting it on the table.

It was that kind of demonstration that inspired thousands of techies to begin lining up for the speech more than four hours before it started.

What they might not have expected -- and what they clearly relished -- was a self-deprecating farewell video in which Gates mocked the idea that he would desperately cast about for things to do after retiring as Microsoft's chief software architect this July.

It showed a giddy Gates rapping, trying to lift weights, pleading for a spot in U2 and lobbying for a place on a presidential ticket. The video's cameo appearances from the likes of Brian Williams, Jay-Z, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Jon Stewart, Steven Spielberg and George Clooney provoked uproarious laughter -- not a common occurence at a tech conference.

[bajabaja]

Not that I dislike Gates (as a devoted cadre of UNIX and Apple users seem to be) but I switched to one of the Linux distributions and am doing fine. I found a minor frustration or two along the way, but enjoy the power and flexibility of my new operating system. I will eventually retrofit my classic car with a computer, but it will be a open source.

[endthematrix]

"ways for people to interact with software by voice, touch and gesture "

Such promise...

[DB]

Vista.

[dayglored]

Just so's ya know...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1949420/posts

It's been long enough (5 hours) it's not a big deal... but check some of the comments. ;-)

Like this one of mine:

The all-time classic Bill Gates BSOD at the Windows98 show presentation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgriTO8UHvs

[RussP]

I have no use for MS, and I have long been perplexed as to why others think they need MS.

[ReignOfError]

Windows everywhere? Just stick the knitting needles in my eyes to spare me the pain.

Open standards are our salvation. Standards that can be adopted by anyone, by Apple, or a Linux distro, or a cell phone provider. Open standards, open source, and open the door to boot Microsoft in the ass.

Sweet Mary, mother of God, don’t let me get stuck with a car that runs Windows. When a computer crashes, it’s a pain. But it doesn’t land me in the hospital. I’d hate to try to find control-alt-delete at 80 mph on the interstate.

[Swordmaker]

Thanks. I did a search on FR for both Windows and “Bill Gates” and nothing came up. FR’s search is hit or miss on some things...

[IronJack]

Java is already there. And, unlike Microslop products, it works.

[Gorzaloon]

"The first digital decade has been a great success," he said. "This is just the beginning. There's nothing holding us back ..."

Like a fool I was on here with a Windows box yesterday, and hit that malware on the Washington Post link.

THEN, there is the matter of Vista™...The DRM Suppository.

[ken21]

whatta pos!

i don’t even have audio on this installation of xp at the moment.

[norwaypinesavage]

When Microsoft first started, I was its biggest fan. I eagerly awaited the latest version of DOS. It was always faster, more capable, and cheap. That image died, for me, with Windows 98. From that time forward, the newer versions of Microsoft were always slower, more complex, and expensive; and they didn’t do anything more than I needed to do with what I already had. I am typing this on Vista - a slow, locked screen, expensive nightmare, that does many things I don’t want it to do, and doesn’t always do what I need it to do. I bought it only because my Tax software stopped supporting my last OS. I hate Microsoft, now, based strictly on my experience with their products.

[CORedneck]

I am a convert to Apple but also always been in the Unix world for many years. On M$, I can leave it ! I recently help my brother-in-law/sister-in-law with their computer. It has M$ Vista. Vista is a piece of $h!t. Could not hardly do anything with it. One problem I could not solve was getting the .xls to “hook” into MS Excel. It refused to hook ! This is where you double click on a file with an .xls extension and it opens the application with the file there.

[Paleo Conservative]

Chairman Bill Gates made the case Sunday night that its technologies are becoming even more flexible and powerful as they seep into automobiles, Internet-based TV networks and living rooms

That's just what I need, the blue screen of death in my car at 70 mph.

[CORedneck]

I think that was the time when the marketers took over. I remembered when a lot of things such as the specific interrupts were published. I converted to Apple back in late 2002 but also been a Linux / FreeBSD / OpenBSD fan for a long time.

When Microsoft first started, I was its biggest fan. I eagerly awaited the latest version of DOS. It was always faster, more capable, and cheap. That image died, for me, with Windows 98. From that time forward, the newer versions of Microsoft were always slower, more complex, and expensive; and they didn’t do anything more than I needed to do with what I already had.

[Swordmaker]

Re: Tax software stopped supporting...

Reserve some of your hatred for your tax software publisher who forced you into looking into the Vista and finding you need to buy a new pair of glasses.

[DB]

I have Vista. No problem with Excel .xls file association. Did something go wrong with the installation of Excel (older version of of Office on Vista)?

[Paleo Conservative]

I will eventually retrofit my classic car with a computer, but it will be a open source.

So what will it do in your car?

[bajabaja]

So what will it do in your car?

Vintage cars can be retrofitted with fuel injection, with oxygen and other installed sensors electronically monitoring fuel/air mixture and other parameters. These and other variables can be optimized on a laptop which in turn reads the data drawn from these sources.

Then pretty much anything you use your computer for regularly can be handled from a retrofit, including checking email or searching for directions at hotspots. Another example: a trip log could be electronically and automatically made for tax records.

The beauty of an open source operating system is that I can learn enough/borrow enough of the code necessary to do these tasks. It gets interesting.

[Tunehead54]

4 am bump! ;-)