CES - Pre-Show Keynote - Bill Gates

 

I was fortunate enough to see the Pre-Show Keynote presentation by Bill Gates Sunday evening. It was pretty neat to see the living definition of "Geek".  The entire presentation was excellent, but I'd expect nothing less from Microsoft.  The main theme of the show was connectivity and how Microsoft plans to seamlessly connect everything to everything so you always have...everything!  No show from Microsoft would be complete without a feature presentation and push for Vista especially with the launch date less than 22 days away.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture any video of the presentation, but I did manage to record it.  The audio for most of the movies were terribly distorted and were removed.  Grab the 35 Meg, 1:16.15 long MP3 right here.  Listed below are some of the key features of the presentation:

Vista Features:

• Expanded thumbnails and file preview system
• Live desktop backgrounds (lifelike aquariums, waterfalls)
• Demonstrated the increased functionality and usability of Office 2007 menu system
• Shadow Copied files which saves several renditions of your files for backup
• Xbox 360 controller works natively with Vista and Windows Live
• Vista Media Center Sports Lounge. Microsoft and FoxSports.com teamed up to bring you like football, basketball, baseball, and hockey as well as a game stat bar at the top of the screen and an alerts bar at the bottom of the screen to keep tabs on your favorite teams and players
• On demand content from Microsoft partnered networks such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central
• HP Windows Home Server
• Demonstration of how Xbox Live and Windows Live will work together for media connectivity as well as gaming
• Integrating media delivery and seamless Bluetooth connectivity with Ford vehicles in 2^nd quarter 2007
• Demonstration of futuristic automated home

Again the basic theme of the presentation was connectivity to have your world of information always at your fingertips.  That's it for the pre-show, but join us throughout the day for constant CES coverage and updates.