DISQUS

anon · 3 years ago

Gates speaks at CES. Attendees doze off. Gates stops speaking, attendees leave to look at cool stuff not made by Microsoft.

scobleizer · 3 years ago

Anon: I'm sitting in a room with a video feed and no one is leaving.

Walter Lounsbery · 3 years ago

So I'm sitting here reading my feeds. Robert says to look at the CES keynote webcast. So I bring that up on my left screen. This right side monitor still has RSS Bandit up. I see that Robert is commenting on the presentation. All this is real time.

Wow! The demo ain't bad, either!

Suddenly I'm wondering when we'll see the first virtual conference? Slightly off topic, why is MIX06 so close to SXSW Interactive?

Mark · 3 years ago

Is Urge available right there in the next version of Windows Media Player? If so what does the MTV relationship mean to the other services who've licensed Windows Media for their online stores? Will they get equal billing right there in the player?

Jørgen Veisdal · 3 years ago

Any idea what the OS those touchscreens run on?

It has never been more apparent why Microsoft is leading the technology revolution.

Mark · 3 years ago

Ha. BSkyB's video on demand is stupidly restrictive.

scobleizer · 3 years ago

Jorgen: when I saw those screens it was XP, but running lots of experimental code done in MS Research.

Farooq · 3 years ago

woooooooohooooooo!

anyway, great keynote...heads up guys, they're gonna announce HD DVD add-on for Xbox 360 and the next-gen flight simulator in the keynote!

wooooooohoooooooo!

Farooq · 3 years ago

Scoble's leading engadget in coverage speed :) THOUGH they are doing a more extensive coverage with pics...

Mark · 3 years ago

HD-DVD Drives for XBox 360.
What should have been in the box when you bought it.

Jørgen Veisdal · 3 years ago

This is sooo much fun!!!!

No chair throwing now Ballmer:P

jcposner · 3 years ago

well done

Stephen · 3 years ago

Nice to see HD-DVD for XBox... No BLU-RAY.... :)

I refreshed Scoble when I saw HDTV is being driven by XBox 360 and thought he really will want one :)

Stephen · 3 years ago

Argh Scoble... Your Blogging is in front of the Webcast :( I have a two minute delay ...lol

Stephen · 3 years ago

That was very k3wl...:) I knew I loved Microsoft for a reason... I don't need browser extensions, I don't need third party music providers or TV, I can have it all RSS in all of my merories, music, tv, meetings, voice, instant messaging. Darn I can even pick a fight with someone and go boxing with them to settle it with the XBox 360.... :) Who wants to send me an XBox 360 and HDTV to Ausralia.

ceejayoz · 3 years ago

"I heard he won’t use any PowerPoint slides tonight."

Thank goodness! :-p

http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationze...

/pd · 3 years ago

yea it just finished, it was kewl.. the user experince is looking great in vista. The Xbox Ali fight demo was a neat idea. immersive gaming will go forward in a big way.. However there were 2million xbox going up to 4-5 million boxs by June/06..will msft deliver ??

dang, I missed the first opening part

Christopher Coulter · 3 years ago

Snarky Reality-Check Report (written on the fly, if typos, sorry).

Oh brother....Vista and Tablet and Media Center rehash. Gates talks the talk, with his toys, but what about 'act-shun'? Tablet so big, that a 'pay own way' Cheeseburgers gathering is the only CES "party". And passive digitizers is/was a RETREAT, Microsoft spent 3 years saying, no, no, you can't have that, we said no (and that's final), and then finally caving after it be obvious the market not running to Active Digitizers, and then to play it up as a net positive, man, parallel universe there in Redmond, honestly. Least Alex kicking it in Italy. ;)

6.5 million Media Centers? What? I seriously question those figures. Outside of a few extreme geek-heads, never seen these anywhere. That many OEMs, yet maybe 4 actual products? What's this with swinging around OEM numbers, doesn't mean anything. Fuzzy accounting.

Wow, the Vista demo was underwhemling wholesale (and darned brief), maybe I had to be there. Like what? Pointless.

And new Tablet? Knock, knock. What? Someone hasn't been paying attention. How come I know more Tablet news (not even half caring anymore) than 95% of Softies? Huh? Gateway is just later to the game, other OEMs, like Acer and HP already had guts punched out.

Urge to purge, tough row with other services out there. Too little, too late. Not compelling. No news of the Starz! gig? Don't wanta give Sony any spotlights? Or did I miss that? Didn't see it.

And now what? Pie-in-sky future home holographic desks with bar-coded items? Does Bill Gates live in the real world? Gee whiz geeky edge-market bang-up job. Won't fly.

Whew.

But you missed the only real news. HD-DVD for the 360 (took them long enough) just as HD-DVD *dies* they kick it up for Xbox 360, oh boy. And with supply issues stuck until 6 months out, it will be forever before it will see the light of day, and then no content, aside from a few old Warner titles. HD-DVD is the losing game (already lost actually), figures Microsoft would hitch it's saddle to it and play spoiler.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2006-01-04-...

PS Jørgen - they run Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005, where yah been for the past 4 years? ;)

/pd · 3 years ago

actually Scobles, i love the way you were bloggin this event at the time I was also watching w/delay.. so it was kinda freaky to be reading before hearing !!

Jørgen Veisdal · 3 years ago

..PS Jørgen - they run Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005, where yah been for the past 4 years? ;)..

I'm talking about the tall touchscreen, the 3-part tranceparant screen and the veeeery thin tablet.

I have a Tablet with Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005 actually.

kade · 3 years ago

I really wish they just did HD DVD from the start and delayed the launch, or revise it with a HD DVD drive and offer existing x360 owners free (or near free) exchange. People don't want an add on to play movies on the console, they want it in the box.

It will be interesting to see how this goes, but at the moment, I'm not interested at all. I'd willingly adopt HD DVD if it came with the x360 and I can use it as a player, but as an external add on, I'm just going to hold off buying a HD DVD or Bluray player until one emerges as the dominant standard.

Too little, too late Microsoft.

Christopher Coulter · 3 years ago

Oh. Oopsie. Good question actually.

Jørgen Veisdal · 3 years ago

The whole idea of the early release is quite apparent. If they had waited longer towards the release of the Nintendo Revolution and not to mention the Playstation3, they would've never gotten the mediacoverage and numbers they've gotten now. Playstation3's thing is power and compatibility.
Revolution's thing is the controller and backwardscompatibility.
Xbox360's thing is its early releasedate and its mediacoverage because of that fact. People can get HD in their livingrooms a half year early.

Brilliant move.

Christopher Coulter · 3 years ago

Errps, they kicked HD-DVD news at tail end, it hit the media well before tho. And then Starz later on, hard following this second by second.

"4 games per console attach rate" - Umm dimwits, people buying GAMES, yet have no console, perhaps you heard about that supply problem, yes? Man, the spin doctors are out in force. :)

Christopher Coulter · 3 years ago

I disagree wholesale. Early release means nothing long-term...in fact PS3 with Blu-Ray, will mop the 360 floor, if only half of PS2 owners upgrade.

And the early release Also lead to supply chain probelms and serious quality controls issues, and that's dominated the media reports, so it all backfired.

J. Random Poster · 3 years ago

You know, Apple fans do this kind of thing at every one of SJ's keynotes. You can follow them in near real-time. Somehow, it's not the same when the person doing it is a PR flack.

Hey, anyone remember the time when BG signed a keyboard, and it was auctioned off? Some evil empire PR flack bought it for about a grand, beating the previous high bid that was not quite the list price of the keyboard. Gotta save face when the boss is trying to look good, eh?

Brian Hoyt · 3 years ago

Link to replay? I missed the first hour or so and at the end it said there will be a replay available at 11 PST. Will it be on the same site as live?

Jørgen Veisdal · 3 years ago

I think Sony is dead in the water, they put all their eggs in the PS2/3 basket, and look where they end up. Rootkits on CD's and a playstation nobody really knows much about.

J. Random Poster · 3 years ago

Thumbnails of the tabs? I see. Once again, MS copies OmniWeb. Real innovative there, guys.

Does Vista include that knock-off of Delicious Library, too?

Mark MacLeod · 3 years ago

We're going to be able to get DirecTV on Windows MCE? My dream has come true!

Christopher Coulter · 3 years ago

Short and Sweet Wrap-Up

Tablet PC - More Gates yabbering about his pet toy, all talk no action. I was a heavy beliver 4 years ago, lost my religion however. Want to worship again, but then this thing called 'reality' is out there.

360 - Yeah yeah, whatever. It would help if people could freaking actually BUY them. Money-losing rathole, now with an additional HD-DVD upgrade option needed. The Live strategy will backfire, don't place all chips on that.

Media Center with DirectTV - Score one. That's the one smart move. Tho, with Direct TV PVR, umm why do you really need Media Center? And cable companies themselves doing PVR functionality. Media Center too geek toy.

Vista - Umm yeah? Rehash. So? Yeah? Oh really, so?

Mobile - What? Bit player, hitching ride on a Palm device, another division forever treading water.

VIIV - Ummm, marketing spazzing up Intel, eh? Never mind that Cell chip.

Portable Media Centers - Oh do be serious. I bet the people that own these are but in the dozens. An iPod this is not.

Future home tech rot - Yeah yeah, maybe if like Gates, rich beyond dreams, and have time to tinker with all this lucid dreaming. Otherwise pay no heed.

HD-TV - Taking credit for the HD? Saying 360 the primary thrust spurring HD adoption? What arrogance. No doubt real consumer electronics companies none too happy with Microsoft pissing in their pools and stealing the credit.

Urge - Starz! - MS-MTV? Content partnerships, the acking of Microsoft means a sure fire death, if go by history. Ironic timing, on the death of MSNBC, they get into content again, songs and movies wise. Blah. DOA.

anon · 3 years ago

"URGE"

Leave it to Microsoft to name the usability cesspool that is Windows Media Player after a bowel movement.

Oh, and it was great to hear the MTV flack that worked with Microsoft on this hopeless project say he deserves the credit for Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice too.

met · 3 years ago

Why can't MS have a more coherent presentation. Scoble's transcript is what gives a more sense of direction to the whole presentation.

Joe Hunkins · 3 years ago

Thanks Scoble - super play by play dude! Tell Bill Gates he's my hero - not for MS but for Global development approaches and efforts which are simply awe inspiring!

Tetra · 3 years ago

Vistexposé and Dashboa -- errr -- Sidebar look good.

Keith Patrick · 3 years ago

I've been a boxing fan for almost 20 years, and the Fight Night series is by far the best boxing game I've ever played in terms of capturing the boxing experience (BTW, most realistic sporting experience: UFC for Dreamcast). There are 5 titles I am really really looking forwarding to when I get a 360: Halo 3, Elder Scrolls, Kameo, Forza 2, and Fight Night 3. I'm hoping make the special punches a bit more realistic and put in a good 1 punch liver KO, but it's one of the few 360 games that I've seen with the "next gen" look (high def nonewithstanding); I can't believe this game comes from the people that put out Madden on the 360.

Stephen · 3 years ago

Robert when you get the IMBot e-mail address for the TV service on Windows Live Messenger could you forward it to me please :)

Anona · 3 years ago

MSFT After Hours:

(RT-ECN): 26.95 - 0.02 (0.07%)

A lot of enthusiasm. :-)

Alijah · 3 years ago

Nobodys talking about the live messenger demo. the entire keynote was great can't wait to watch it tomorrow.

Scott · 3 years ago

Wait, since when does MTV play music?

Brian Kramp · 3 years ago

Correction:
"Announced that four million Xbox Live subscribers added."
This was more like 4 million downloads from the marketplace, rather than subscribers.

ZF · 3 years ago

So I decide to watch Bill's presentation, and I go to your link at

http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/bill...

and I click on the link, and up comes Windows Media Player, and it's followed by a message which says:

"The file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."

and I DON'T get the presentation.

Kind of says it all about Microsoft...

james · 3 years ago

Wow, from Fripp in previous post to justin timberlake and mtv in this one.

I'll take the frippertronics anyday.

troyh · 3 years ago

Wanna know how to make a Microsoft nerd stop talking about how cool Microsoft's technology is? Ask them when it's shipping. :-)

g · 3 years ago

I tried to view the keynote and I get "The specified stream type is not recognized." Oh well.

Kenneth · 3 years ago

Good to hear that Flight Simulator is not dead. It was quite a good simulator (compared to Train Simulator for example).

BTW. Vista's website has been updated. So far I am liking the look of Vista. Now to wait for the public beta.

Nicole Simon · 3 years ago

See, I was going to not watch it. But now you made me interested. ;)

met · 3 years ago

troyh, thats a good one. I have always wondered why MS hypes its technologies. After all its not a startup trying to get some buzz.
I prefer the method followed by Google and Apple to an extent.

scobleizer · 3 years ago

Met: me too. Apple always has cool PowerPoints. Er, Keynotes. Heheh. Google? We see their first CES keynote on Friday. I'll bet they get a lot of hype.

met · 3 years ago

Oh! they all do get a lot of hype. But atleast I get to try out their stuff as soon as they are announced.
I wish sideshow, etc would be available...right now!!!

By the time I get to see most of the exciting stuff announced today... MS would have started its hype on the next something. :)

MattJ · 3 years ago

It's very hard to get interested in the technology when you can't flipping see it. I presume this is a "You're on a Mac, ugh! Why would you be interested in MS technology" thing.

“The file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.”

*sigh*

Dimitar Vesselinov · 3 years ago

Robert, will Google's Larry Page steal the show on Friday?

John C. Welch · 3 years ago

So since HD-DVD *requires* you to use Windows - Based software and Windows Media, and we all know how well that works on !Windows..

Outside of Redmond - created and approved platforms, how is anyone supposed to use HD-DVD. Forgive me, but I don't see BallmerGates allowing Linux or OS X to have the same HD-DVD experience as Windows.

I mean, just look at the example of WiMP:Mac.

John C. Welch · 3 years ago

I do love how half of what you see in a Bill Gates keynote is pie in the sky baloney, and all of what you see in a Steve Jobs keynote is product you either can buy that day, or will be able to buy within a timeframe that isn't "when donkeys fly"

scobleizer · 3 years ago

Dimitar: of course! :-)

Christopher Coulter · 3 years ago

The mainstream media pick-up, day after, is all Urge and the Gates sound-off that IBM is the greatest competitor (anti-Google hype), boy that's pretty flat, but then the rest of Keynote stuff is too esoteric and reshashed, and Vista is too far off. Not a great kick-up. Don't the marketing bunnies know how to plant themes anymore?

Christopher Coulter · 3 years ago

Not to piss in the pool, but meanwhile back in the real world....

http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/420769/3...

We have analysed some 100 malware WMF files and they can do almost anything. We saw download trojans, adware and spyware apps, backdoors, lots of bots (zombie programs), as well as password-spying programs which are looking for PINs and TANs for online banking attacks. I expect that some 1,000 websites are already compromised.

One of the malware apps we have discovered at 2005-12-29 (some days ago!) already had a build-in infection counter at a (hidden) website and we saw the number 233,000. This means, a few days back, some 100,000 PCs seems to be compromised already. Today, the website is still working, and has delivered more than 1,000,000 malware installation files already. With 1+ million PCs under your control, you can do almost everything!

met · 3 years ago

John.C.Welsh,
As a consumer I am frustrated that these techs are not available for use now.
But as an engineer, I love to see the technologies of tomorrow. I admire MS for trying a few things.

But I hate it when all that is mixed with market speak, thats all. After all the person within me who understands it is an engineer not a consumer. (MS should sell in a different way the future)

BlogReader · 3 years ago

Xbox 360 launch stats. 30 countries. 4.5 to 5.5 will be sold by end of June. 4 games per console attach rate (that means Xbox 360 is selling two more games than any other console per console sold).

And what is the attach rate if you take out bait and switch tactics of Best Buy?

Tabbed browsing with a twist. MSN Search done, brings up new tabs by clicking on links which opens new tabs. Then shows off quick tabs. Shows thumbnail of different tabs.

Firefox 3 years ago called and they want their tabbed browsing back.

Photo experiences. It shows that it always save the original photo.

Wow, that's, uh, impressive. It saves the original photo!!111one!!!

John C. Welch · 3 years ago

What good does demoing stuff that won't be available for *years* if at all do? You think half those gadgets are going to be within reach of the typical consumer? Who's going to pay for the massive infrastructure upgrade Bill's Vision requires to get this done in 4-5 years? Bill?

What did this demo show me that "THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE" demos in the 30s didn't? They're both as far-fetched. Show me what I can do *today* or *this year*. Give me products that WILL be out within a plannable schedule, not BS that I may as well read chicken livers for.

carboncopy · 3 years ago

Any blue screen of death?

Remember the hanged media center?

Greg Furry · 3 years ago

Love what you are doing. Love where MS is going. But just had to post this for fun. :-)

http://www.maclive.net/sid/134

edlen · 3 years ago

beautiful online information center. greatest work... thanks