In real time: Engadget live from the Bill Gates 2005 CES Keynote at the Las Vegas Hilton
by Ryan Block 
posted Jan 5th 2005 at 9:18PM
Hey everybody, so we're up in the press section of the Las Vegas Hilton Theater to see what Bill Gates has got
cooking in his keynote speech this year. Last year he gave us some deets on the Smartphone OS and Windows XP Media
Center Edition—today we're expecting some info on
Magneto, Microsoft's latest edition of the Windows Mobile
OS, convergence, and more biz on PlaysForSure. And who knows? No one ruled out the Xbox 2.
We'll be reporting in real time, so click on and reload for our up to the minute coverage!
Reload for the latest updates! All time reported PST.
6:25 - Waiting for speech to begin. This Gwen Stefani track is freaking catchy.
6:32 - Still waiting. Music is getting progressively worse. Fine, so Gates aint got the jamz.
6:41 - Gary Shapiro on stage to intro this biz.
6:42 - Ha! He just called Carly Fiorina the CEO of TI. Damn.
6:45 - Bill Gates about to come on. Who made these freaking interstitials?
6:49 - Conan OBrien??? Hes not Bill Gates but we rather prefer him.
6:53 - NBC produced a made for TV movie about gadgets Oh, really? Steve Ballmer is going to be played by Terry
Bradshaw. No kiddin! Steve Jobs will be played by Ringo Starr. Jeff Bezos will be played by an emu. Paul Allen
will be played by Janet Reno. And finally, the man of the hour Bill Gates will be played by Millhouse from the
Simpsons.
6:58 - Conan: What can we expect from the digital lifestyle? Gates thinks the digital lifestyle is accelerating much
quicker than expected, but this is the decade that we can expect technology to be neglected.
7:03 - Microsofts strategy for consumers? Flexibility. Simplicity. A single remote control. (Obviously referencing
Media Centers wide range of content delivery capabilities.)
7:05 - Gates playing with the iRiver H10; Conan takes it, puts it in his pocket. PlaysForSure is going to drive music
forward, and enables monthly subscriptions, which is the direction many people are speculating content is
moving.
7:09 - On digital photography. Gates blows off Conans joking around with a Nikon D2X: Okay. Thats funny. Wireless
slideshow not working. Whoa, this is kind of like the Media Center version of the Blue Screen of Death demo.
7:10 - On television. Choice, variety; the centerpiece is the Media Center. 1.4 million units. Wait, I think we have
the slide show working. And no, its not working. Conan: Whos in charge of Microsoft?! oh. Wait, its actually
working. Ha. Its not.
7:20 - On Media Center and the Extender. New media center services with partnered content providers. Discovery
Channel, for instance, will now provide a rich media guide. Remotes: Philips, Logitech, Niveus have announced universal
remote control devices and support for Media Center. Also working with certification program for Media Center PCs; we
think this should make it a lot easier for OEMs to release Media Center PCs on the market instead of just the bigger
players. New MCE also enables remote record, which will work similarly to Tivos TCO (TiVo Central Online).
7:25 - Still on MC. Burn DVDs simply from within Media Center. Simplified media adapter capabilities by pulling
content off of other Media Center PCs or XP PCs (and, we assume, any other SMB/NetBIOS-enabled machines).
7:29 - Gates talking about IPTV: maximum flexibility. Yeah, no kidding, homes. Theyve been building on TV-software
technology for 12 years? Yo. Bell-South is rolling out IPTV, as well as SBC (via 2Wire?).
7:37 - SBC exec: IPTV has four simultaneous content streams to the home, including hi-def. Its about convergence of
voice, video, and data. The Video Store has access to a library of programs for feeds; of course, it will be DRMed
out the yin-yang. With IPTV there is access to multiple angles and sports programs simultaneously, as well as remote
access and recording/programming via Windows Mobile-based devices. I also want to point out that all these
demonstrations worked. Har har.
7:45 - On Portable Media Centerpartnership with MTV, who is working with the Windows ecosystem, and expected to
work with MS on PlaysForSure biz. Oh, and TiVoToGo (which we already told you quite enough about), but also the ability
move of content to PMC-enabled devices.
7:50 - Expect Oregon Scientific alarm clocks and other such smallish devices that will connect and pull data from the
SPOT network! Hype!
7:52 - On gaming: game development is going to be made simpler in ports between Xbox and the PC. Xbox hugely
successful in 2004, outsold PS2 (hey, it made our comeback of the year noms list!). Xbox live and Halo 2 stuff; you
guys are in the know. Gates believes that gaming is becoming a hugely social activity, especially enabled by high speed
connections. Some nerd is demoing a racing game ala 2000 replete with mods and customs.
7:55 - Whoa, a Blue Screen of Death on the Xbox! Damn, this is a Microsoft address!
7:57 - Conans racing Bill. Bills in the lead with his Ferrari, and Conans just crashed out in a crappy Buick. No
surprise there that Bills won the race. Conans framerate is also at about 2fps. Hot.
8:00 - Wrapping up: the future. Chips are doubling in speed, storage is doubling in size. Were releasing our
technical limits; software will be more customizable, and purposeful for new audiences. Grandmas gonna use a computer
in 2005? Well see, Bill. Well see.
The end. Good night East Coast, hello Digital Experience! Stay tuned
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rick James @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
All I can hear is some god awful piano playing, where the F*** is Gates?
JT @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Live Feed of ces
http://www.clinko.com/clinkodiscussion.asp?dnum=86172
JT @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
The 100k stream seems to be working at times. 300k times out a lot.
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
shutup gates, let the Conan speak. lol. conan makes a joke, and gates just passes it off and continues on. he needs to play off conan
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
HAHAHAH PWNED. ITS NOT FREAKIN WORKING!!!!!
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
GREAT!!!! ITS NOT WORKING AGAIN. CONAN IS MAKING FUN OF MICROSOFT AND GATES!!!! HAHAHA THATS FREAKIN AWESOME
Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
lol... i think bill is getting pissed
Micheal @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Since when has PlaysForSure been a good idea? It just means it can play DRM err I mean WMA. WMA may be a nice codec compared to MP3, but the DRM part kills any soul anything had before.
Eric Kerby @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I can see a subtle joke from Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo about this technical mishap...
:p
JC @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
this is an awesome way to get hits. good thinking, guys. let's get some more posts on!
JC @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
this is an awesome way to get hits. good thinking, guys. let's get some more posts on!
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
lol his internet isn't working either
webtoker @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Can you say MythTV two years ago? I thought this was new technology? Come on Microsoft...
Darren Kulp @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I think Shawn was going to try to show American Choppers, but you could see that when he selected the channel, the screen remained blank. He filled in the time with other material about remotes and stuff, while surreptitiously exiting from that problematic screen.
And now he just lost internet connectivity on his tablet!
Great plannning, guys. Great products, too ....
Eric Kerby @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Now Internet problems on the laptop :) Two strikes Microsoft...
And since I'm a Canon guy, I'll throw in one strike against Nikon.
ChillyWilly @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
This live coverage is making me wish I were there watching the mishaps. More updates, please.
JA @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Whats with the pic with Billy and the titanium powerbook?
PhilJ @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Looks like Pioneer Elite is M$'s new b*tch. Interesting, too... PE makes some decent things.
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
are there/going to be other live feeds, like microsoft's??
geekdreams @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
A *subtle* joke from Steve Jobs? He wasn't subtle at WWDC, I can't imagine him holding his tongue this time around...
JC @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
a 15 inch Ti-Book in the shot? what decade is Conan living in??
Aero @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
WTF is the PowerBook pic supposed to mean? O_o
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
@JA thats how drunk conan and bill got last night, conan got with a hooker, bill got with a powerbook
JA @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
lol where can I get this live feed?
geekdreams @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Re: #16 - One of the gags was that Conan & Bill got drunk in Las Vegas. Conan woke up with a hooker, Bill woke up with an Apple computer.
Funny, but MacWorld is less than a week away. I can't wait for SJ's retort(s).
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
300k-http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=1797707
100k-http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=1797705 (i think this is the right link)
PhilJ @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Wow, that sports thing on IPTV is pretty slick. Simply amazing. I'm in for that.
JA @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
thanks, its some boring chick, whered conan go?
geekdreams @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
SBC's IPTV demo went well and looks pretty impressive, actually.
Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
lol... i think bill is getting pissed
LKE @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I wonder how much Conan got paid to be Bill's bitch?
Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Gimme some GOOD news on XBOX 2, I want to see it Bill!
Eric Kerby @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
3 strikes!
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
pwned once again!!!
atleast it was a demo.
also i thought that was supposed to be for xbox??
Eric Kerby @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
memory error on the XBOX :)
Micheal @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Conan is hilarious.
But am I the only one who felt I wasted my last hour? I got tons of PR hot air and nothing of substance. Give me a Jobs keynote, at least he isn't a PR puppet like Bill.
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
this is the first ummm "show" but bill is kind of a dick. they showed some cool stuff, but i dont' know, i just didn't like him. he should have been more funny. i mean come on, they had freakin Conan.
Peter @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Always knew he was having an affair with an Apple
Stef @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
That was a real ugly keynote. Bad time to drop the ball Microsoft.
Sheesh
Jeremy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
When do we hear about Windows Mobile 2005?
tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
are there, or is there going to be any other live feeds like this one??
michael martelli @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
huh... Portable Media Center with MTV... i work in the IS&T Dept. of MTV Networks and havent heard anything about this... if you guys have any more details let me know and I will try and find out even more at work (I need to know who to ask, I guess the MTVi (MTV Interactive) but be doing it...
mike (dot) martelli (at) gmail (dot) com
Cody @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Among the whole mess was the fact that, other than the IPTV thing, I didn't learn anything new other than the fact that the blue screen of death extends to other systems as well. The woman that presented IPTV insulted the company she works for (I think she works for M$, right?). The racing game demo turned out terrible: system screw-up, and Conan's car going about 1 mph with terrible frame rates. Did anyone else notice that Conan appeared to be punching the buttons on his wheel towards the end? The one part I enjoyed was where Bill said: "I want these things" and Conan goes: "If only you had the money" or something like that. Overall, a bad presentation by Microsoft.
ElCapitanAmerica @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
"Windows ecosystem", goodness gracious, the marketroids are at it again. BTW, this is a scary term!
The XBOX Blue Screened? HAHAHAHAHA! Please somebody, I need to see a screenshot / video of this! LOL!
Kirn @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Can you guys stop using the word "deets"?
You are becoming a parody of yourselves.
Thanks.
Joey Geraci @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Yea Conan definitely added a little levity to conan's speech
Christopher Coulter @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
http://www.dcnews.com.au/Manufacturers/2139
Microsoft supremo, Bill Gates, suffered the ultimate embarrassment at the opening presentation of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas when the Microsoft Media Center he was demonstrating crashed three times. Then later, a Microsoft product manager was unable to access the Internet when a Tblet PC running Windows XP failed to connect, compounding the red faces.
Sebhelyesfarku @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Bill Gates is a moron, Windoze is crap. Masses are asses.
Joey @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
If Apple really wanted to be aggressive they could take the video of the XBOX Blue Screen of Death and make a commercial asking: "If it won't work for Bill Gates, what says Windows will work for your most important programs?"
Stan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
When did Carly Fiorina become CEO of TI?