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.
Yep. After reading every online professional evaluation I could get my hands on, I opted not to buy Win XP and bought Win2K Pro instead. As far as I've been able to determine, Win XP is just Win2K with all of the service packs integrated, a colorful but otherwise useless new GUI skin, and a couple of poorly integrated multi-media apps. Oh yeah... there's that intrusive authentication mechanism that shuts down the OS if you significantly upgrade your hardware. Pthhht.
Hey, Bushy. I didn't think you were saying that. Good to hear from you!
Is that why all cars are painted black today?
There's a code writer around here whose toupe' is so old, tattered and threadbare that it sits on his head cockeyed and - get this - it's so sun bleached that it's olive green. OLIVE GREEN. And nobody says a word to him about it.
I think he's a VAX programmer. That would explain it.
Well, that has nothing to do with color, which was your point. But I don't dispute the K-Cars selling like hot cakes or hot boxes. Heck, pet rocks sold, too.
Why don't you turn down the volume and try elevating the conversation and discourse when you discuss with Bush2000?....
-bwteim
Great, now in addition to your PC hackers will be able to get into your refrigerator. What's next, a firewall for the icemaker?
As for the colors of the present iMacs; that's okay if you live in Malibu Barbie's beach house. The iMac laptop looks like a little girl's makeup case. Every time I am a college all the PCs are taken while all the chairs at the Macs are empty.
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