Posted on 01/08/2002 9:55:32 AM PST by Bush2000
LAS VEGAS--He may not yet be on the level of Siegfried and Roy or the Folies Bergere, but Bill Gates is on his way to having one of the longest running shows in Vegas.
The Microsoft chairman's treatise on the fully digitized home, a staple of Comdex computer trade shows for many years, has been extended to the Consumer Electronics Show, where Gates made his third consecutive keynote speech here on Monday evening.
Presented in the new wrapper of eHome--the Microsoft division formed after last year's CES to focus on technology for the home--Gates offered variations of the familiar theme. Central to his presentation were a couple of new technologies that tie in with Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system to turn the PC into a central home jukebox for content--ranging from Web connections to digital video.
"All the new things we're doing build on the success of Windows XP," Gates said.
Among the new efforts were "Mira," software for a wireless flat-panel display that connects directly with a PC but also can be carried around the house as a Web pad or a home entertainment control center, while communicating wirelessly with a main PC. As originally reported by CNET News.com, Mira devices would help extend Microsoft's vision of the PC as an electronic nerve center for the home.
Manufacturing partners such as PC monitor maker ViewSonic are expected to have touch-sensitive, wireless displays based on the Mira concept on shelves by the end of this year, according to Microsoft executives.
The concept is also likely to find its way into television sets, where it could allow touch-screen control of DVD playback or Web access, and wireless computing kiosks for the home such as the short-lived Audrey appliance.
Another new part of Microsoft's plans for linking the PC to other home devices is Freestyle, an extension to the Windows XP operating system announced Monday and reported earlier by CNET News.com.
"This is the idea of using a PC without sitting down at a keyboard," Gates said. "Wherever you are, the idea of remote interactivity comes with Windows."
Freestyle includes applications for DVD and digital music playback and for processing and recording live television signals, allowing the PC to become an entertainment command center and a potential rival to digital video recorders such as TiVo devices.
It also sounds quite similar to products announced earlier at CES by Moxi Digital to create a Linux-powered control system for digital entertainment.
Hewlett-Packard, NEC and Samsung are working on entertainment-centric PCs built around Freestyle, Microsoft said.
Gates also showed a Panasonic DVD player that can play digital audio files in the Windows Media format and announced additions to Microsoft's Ultimate TV service that will allow subscribers to remotely schedule TV recording via any Web-enabled device.
Gates' speech also marked the release of the new version of Windows CE, Microsoft's embedded operating system for devices ranging from robots to cell phones.
The most notable additions to Windows CE.Net, code-named Talisker, focused on delivering Internet services, as outlined in Microsoft's .Net strategy for shifting computing functions to Internet-delivered services.
The new operating system includes support for Microsoft's instant messaging software and Passport, the controversial online identification program that underlies much of Microsoft's online strategy.
Final code for Windows CE.Net is now available to hardware manufacturers, with the first devices based on the software expected to arrive this summer. Those include handheld computers, cell phones and a variation on the Internet-enabled refrigerator. The Icebox, from Salton--makers of the George Foreman Grill--will be a kitchen data terminal that can show TV programs, retrieve recipes from the Web and perform other domestic chores.
Gates also touted some recent history, reporting sales of 17 million licenses for Windows XP in the two months since its launch, making it the fastest-selling version of Windows to date.
He also touted robust sales for the company's new video game console, the Xbox, with 1.5 million units sold since the machine was released in mid-November.
Have you given OpenOffice for Linux a try?
You must be doing something wrong.
Just teasin'!
Super Computer? Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!ROTFPML!!!!!! It's still using PC100 RAM for crying out load.
It's not a hatred, troll. It's just that macs and macolytes are easy targets for ridicule.
Jobs will be announcing BreastStroke.
Yo, Bushy, but you are not implying that Gates invented multitasking, are you? Multitasking was from AT&T labs - late 60's I think, and you'd have to credit Gary Kildall and DRI with preemptive multitasking.
Ditto here, and mine runs continuously (unless the power goes out) without crashing.
I'm beginning to think I'm missing out on something here. :o)
Same here, too! Using Windows 98 since...well, since 98! I've had it crash exactly twice! Both times were when I loaded some, shall we say, "questionable" software. Took that off, fired back up, and away we go!
I've got nothing against Macs, but...come on, chief. Only runs on OSX? That'll be a big surprise to the Alias/Wavefront folks...
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