CES 2007: Gates Keynote Liveblog

We’re not going to lie. We’re in the comfort of a Bellagio suite with a 12 mbps down pipe, watching the Gates keynote stream on a pretty massive TV. And we’re liveblogging it. Some very cool things coming up, including Avalon applications, Xbox IPTV “channels” and hot, Bill Gates action. Stay tuned, refresh a lot, and have fun.

[6:48pm] We’re being welcomed to the social with a cool Vista-esque video showing off some of the new things we’ve seen this year.

[6:50pm] “Sure, I’ll keynote next year, but I’m not sure they’ll want me, because I’d likely talk about infectious diseases.” Oh, Bill.

[6:51pm] “Over 40% of US homes now have multiple computers.” Clearly, a large amount of credit due directly to Gates for this.

[6:52pm] He’s talking about the incredible increase in bandwidth, capabilities, high definition and all the fun we’re seeing lately. “The graphics revolution is letting us think about representing reality on the screen.”

Check the rest, after the jump:

[6:53pm] “People aren’t talking gigabytes anymore. They’re talking terabytes, or petabytes.” “I love walking around the CES floor saying, alright, who’s got the biggest plasma, who’s got the biggest hard disk.”

[6:54pm] It’s all about connected devices and connectivity.

[6:56pm] “Vista is the highest quality release we’ve ever done.”

[6:58pm] “60 years, equivalent product testing. The biggest investment ever put into a piece of software.”

[6:59pm] More chatter about the integration of Office and Vista, and their respective feature sets, and the immense depth of the feature sets. People are finding the features that have been in Office for a long time that they’ve always wanted but could never find.

[7:01pm] Justin Hutchinson will give us a demo of Vista, things we’re “excited about, but haven’t seen before.”

[7:02pm] He’s showing the desktop search integration. (Think Spotlight from OSX, but faster?)

[7:03pm] Vista search can search across the entire network on any Vista PCs.

[7:04pm] He’s showing off shadow copies now, which allow you to revert to earlier versions of files. “It’s better than going back in time.” (Where’s his basis of comparison? CES 2008, the MS Time Machine? Naw, we would have had Vista by now…)

[7:05pm] Any Xbox 360 controller into any Vista PC can be used to control games, or, as Justin is doing, flying through Las Vegas in Live Maps. Cool stuff. “We can also lay down real-time traffic information,” and drive through at street level, in 3D.

[7:07pm] New MCE feature called Sports Lounge. Developed with Fox Sports, it drives real-time sports tickers and alerts like you’d see on a regular sports network, but… built into your TV viewing software.

[7:08pm] On-demand video content to Media Center customers from Vongo, Showtime and… um… Nickelodeon.

[7:10pm] Now he’s showing off the photo-editing features of Vista’s Photo Gallery. Including DVD Maker, which allows you to burn DVDs with video and pictures, ideally pretty simply.

[7:11pm] “Let’s talk for a second about Windows Vista Ultimate.”

[7:12pm] He’s discussing Vista Ultimate Extras. In this case, Group Shot. Group Shot, from Microsoft Research allows you to merge two pictures (or more) together, using the “better” parts of one and the other. A new Ultimate Extra called Dream Scene creates full motion wallpapers and themes. “I can go to any video on my computer and set that as my wallpaper.” Cool. I want a dynamic nature scene that changes as times and season pass. Let’s see it, MS. “That’s it for me, thank you very much.”

[7:15pm] Windows Presentation Foundation and DirectX 10 fun times.

[7:16pm] Discussing how many new features have been driven by manufacturers with great ideas, specifically touchscreens.

[7:18pm] An HP, iMac-looking, but touchscreen capable device has appeared in the room, and we’re watching it boot to a not-quite-finished, clearly first-boot Vista install. Awesome. (It’s two feet from me, since again, we’re not at the event itself. Take that, people sitting in auditoriums.

[7:20pm] Okay, we had to swap out that bad boy because it wasn’t quite up yet. Oh, and the keynote has been suspended. “In respect to the Intellectual Property demonstrated on-stage, we are temporarily suspending the audio and video portion of this broadcast. Normal programming will begin shortly. Thank you for your patience.” Seriously, what the hell?

[7:23pm] And we’re back, showing off HP’s home server. Oh, and this touch-screen HP thing kicks ass.

[7:25pm] They’re talking about connected entertainment, etc. IPTV announcement about to come up? Or maybe in just a little bit.

[7:30pm] They’re showing a cool video of games. And the HP TouchSmart has some awesome calendar software that integrates with the Media Center. It allows you to hand write, or type notes, and to move the notes around, record reminders, print notes, attach pictures and more. It’s the perfect kitchen PC, but it’s probably crazy pricey for now. For now. (Yes, I was playing with it for the past five minutes.)

[7:32pm] We’re talking about the other gaming platform you may have heard of: Xbox 360. “The majority of owners of the Xbox 360 are new to the Xbox platform.” Attach rates, record sales, etc. etc. etc. Get to the IPTV announcements, kthx.

[7:34pm] Gears of War: 2.1 million copies sold, and official Killer App status. And a few other games coming to Xbox 360 that Sony really, really wishes were PS-only. Oh, and Halo 3: The Trailer.

[7:38pm] Xbox Live: The largest social network on the TV with 5 million members. Talking about and demonstrating the Xbox Live experience on Windows Vista. “Live on Windows,” which was brought up at E3 briefly.

[7:39pm] Mmm, Live on Windows prompting an UNO invite on a 360. Very cool.

[7:40pm] This will roll out this summer. 3 billion hours of gaming on the Xbox service. Oh my. Maybe we need an Xbox Live Cancer Curing game…

[7:41pm] Switching tacks and talking tv, movies and high-def. Here we go.

[7:41pm] Oh, and they extend Media Center good times, too.

[7:42pm] Xbox Live, and downloadable movies. How cool? Video on demand cool. High-DEF video on demand cool.

[7:44pm] We’re talking about IPTV now. And demoing. It’s fast. Instant channel-changing, on channels delivered over the web. PIP browsing. Oh, and game invites and VOIP while watching tv.

[7:50pm] Ford and Microsoft, integrating Bluetooth, voice communications, all to your vehicle and Synched up and cool. Ford-exclusive, and all just a voice command away. “Never, ever having to download your phonebook ever again. It downloads every setting, right through the vehicle’s audio system.” Including ringtones. “They can even maintain a phone call conversation while entering or existing a vehicle—it switches dynamically. Oh, and it will read your text messages to you. “It has the ability to be a full entertainment platform, as it accepts most all portable music players and most portable storage devices.” And Zip drives. Seriously? Zip? Wow. That’s hard. core.

[7:53pm] Available on 12 Ford vehicles this year, including the Edge Crossover and the Focus. And it’s supposed to be affordable, without driving up costs wildly. This is a prime example of tons of technology sitting around, and people finally putting it to good use.

[7:54pm] Bill’s getting ready to close up, and is thinking about the future.

[7:56pm] Now he’s talking about the bus stop of the future. He even made a joke about how familiar he is with modern-day bus stops. Networked devices that are location aware and able to let you know everything about everything in your life. Cool, and about the same vision we’ve seen for the last 10 years. We’re just finally getting to the point where some of it can come to fruition.

[7:59pm] Now Bill is awkwardly showing us a recipe/cooking-assistance system. But it’s disappointing. The projector and the RFID linked ingredients and the step-by-step, overhead projector system is clever. But it’s nothing we haven’t already thought of. Let’s see something more grandiose. If this is the future “looking forward,” the next few years are going to be a bit of a yawn. It’s all connectivity-based, but we see this coming. A tv wall in your bedroom might be able to do neat things like show movies and play games, but I’m not particularly wowed. Simple interfaces are nice, too, but the touchless wallet and interactive, networked system was considered amazing and unique, visionary thinking years ago. Give me something truly new, please?

[8:03pm] Thanks, etc. “We’re excited to see how this plays to the fulfillment of the digital decade.”