Bill Gates: live at his 12th and final CES keynote
By Ryan Block 
posted Jan 6th 2008 9:34PM
posted Jan 6th 2008 9:34PM
6:25PM PT - Ok! "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote will begin in five minutes, take your seats please."
6:28PM PT - Two minutes. "PLEASE take your seats." Let's not keep North America's 2nd richest man waiting, shall we?
6:30PM PT - Here we go! Lights are down, harp music.
6:30PM PT - Showing a CES promo video. All about the square footage, bajillions of attendees, keynote speakers -- oh, the hype.
6:33PM PT - "Ladies and gentlemen, president and CEO of the CEA, Gary Shapiro!" Mild applause. "Happy new year, and welcome to 2008 CES!"
"In my opinion, these are the best four days of the year. The floor officially opens tomorrow morning for the ribbon cutting, with cutting edge product..." Woops, teleprompter mistake in there, sorry Gary. Talking about keynotes, the CE industry forecast, and so on.
6:36PM PT - "We're hosting a new program this year..." -- Technologies in emerging countries. "And now, I'm honored to kick off 2008 CES with Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates." Applause! Bill! "He's spoken at CES 11 times... clearly Bill's changed the world, and he's brought his vision to hundreds of millions. His story is legendary."
6:36PM PT - Xbox, Media PC, Smartphone... all products Microsoft's announced at CES. "Microsoft aims to provide the tools to let people connect no matter where they are. ... He's also the world's most successful philanthropist. ... I am proud to introduce to you... Bill Gates!" Big applause! Retro tech video playing before Bill's on.
6:38PM PT - People love playing Xbox 360, using their Media PCs, Smartphones, and Zunes alright. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates!" That's the what, third, fourth time he's been introduced?
6:33PM PT - "Ladies and gentlemen, president and CEO of the CEA, Gary Shapiro!" Mild applause. "Happy new year, and welcome to 2008 CES!"
"In my opinion, these are the best four days of the year. The floor officially opens tomorrow morning for the ribbon cutting, with cutting edge product..." Woops, teleprompter mistake in there, sorry Gary. Talking about keynotes, the CE industry forecast, and so on.
6:36PM PT - "We're hosting a new program this year..." -- Technologies in emerging countries. "And now, I'm honored to kick off 2008 CES with Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates." Applause! Bill! "He's spoken at CES 11 times... clearly Bill's changed the world, and he's brought his vision to hundreds of millions. His story is legendary."
6:36PM PT - Xbox, Media PC, Smartphone... all products Microsoft's announced at CES. "Microsoft aims to provide the tools to let people connect no matter where they are. ... He's also the world's most successful philanthropist. ... I am proud to introduce to you... Bill Gates!" Big applause! Retro tech video playing before Bill's on.
6:38PM PT - People love playing Xbox 360, using their Media PCs, Smartphones, and Zunes alright. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates!" That's the what, third, fourth time he's been introduced?
6:44PM PT - "We've made a lot of progress. The first digital decade has been a great success. Thousands of companies have worked together... this is just the beginning. There's nothing holding us back from going much faster and further in the second digital decade. But before we talk about that, I want to talk about the fact that this IS my last keynote.... This will be the first time since I was 17 that I won't have my full time Microsoft job.
Brian Williams: "Join us all day as we report on Bill's last full day at Microsoft." Bill drives off in a tiny car, briefcase on top. Ballmer is talking about Bill totally The Office style. Awesome. Bill spins in his chair, plays with action figures.
Matthew McConaughey: "After all these years he's finally taking work-life balance seriously. He's even got a personal trainer."
Ummm, Bill's singing "Big Pimpin'," being produced by Jay-Z. "Let me get one thing straight with you Jay-Z, you can retire, and then UNRETIRE?" Jay-Z: "Yeah, keep 'em guessing."
6:46PM PT - Bono: "Yeah, Bill, I'm a little busy here!" Bill's playing Guitar Hero II. "Bill, we've talked about this before. We're full up in the band. All positions are filled. I know... I know... I can't just replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero." "Bill's always had a passion for music... and as long as it's not my music, I'm fine with that."
Apparently now Bill's auditioning with Spielberg. "Oh Bill, what money can't buy." Clooney: "Steven, I can't play Bill Gates. Why don't you get Russell Crow to do it? Tom Hanks? Passed on that one too?"
Bill: "I was thinking the last time I was on the show it was really successful..." Jon Stewart: "Yeah, you were great. But you did kind of run off at the end, like it had monkey-pox." Clip of that classic moment, oh yes. Jon's waffling, no Jon, let Bill co-anchor!
6:48PM PT - Bill asks Hillary and Obama to be their running-mates -- Gore: "Oh hey Bill. No, it's not an INCONVENIENT time. Yeah, that was a good one."
Ozzy Osbourne: "We're the first to give credit where it's due. Microsoft Bob? All his."
Bill drives away from Microsoft one last time... all his office stuff falls off his car -- oh Bill. Another Brian Williams clip. And huuuuuge applause. Over 6k people!
6:53PM PT - "I don't think it's an accurate representation... but it was fun to put together." Gee, thanks Bill, ya don't say. "Of course, after the transition, I'll have a few projects I'll pick about the magic of software... how it will advance education and health. The second digital decade will be more focused on connecting people, more focused on being user centric. Microsoft will deliver platforms that will let people build apps -- but they'll run not only on the PC, in the cloud, on the phone, in the car, in the TV."
"We'll use the best of rich platforms and services.... these devices will span work and business. ... The three key elements I'd highlight: high def experiences everywhere. On the wall, in your desk and in your table -- it will just be there, easy to manipulate."
6:53PM PT - The quality of the rendering will be very, very rich, and will apply high quality AV... getting your data, you'll just take that for granted. No longer will users have to bridge between the devices. The master in the cloud -- backing up, searching, connecting -- will be very simple. The information can be shared in a simple way."
"When you get a new phone or want to borrow a device, it'll be a very simple thing to get up and running... organizing memories and having the system find what's relevant to you, that digital memory application will be something broadly used and very important. Devices will know your context, know your location. Finally, the third and most underestimated: the power of the natural user interface."
6:58PM PT - "We've seen new interfaces: touch on the Windows PC, touch on the iPhone." Oh? "The reaction to those natural interface implementations has been very dramatic. People are interested in a simpler way of accessing their information. All of these things come together with the other elements to create very new experiences. We're just at the beginning of this. This is something the software industry will build into the platform."
"The innovation of the previous years will come together... a key building block has been the Windows platform. We will evolve that and use it as the central building block. The last year has been an amazing year PCs. ... A year ago we launched Vista, we have 100 million people using Vista."
"We have great partners building neat, new form-factor PCs... we have online services, we're seeing incredible growth in those. Windows Mobile, over 10 million new users last year, and we'll double that next year. The phones have gotten so rich."
6:59PM PT - I want to give you a quick glimpse about the latest exciting developments." Mika Kramer (sp) has taken the stage: "My lifeline is Windows... gone are the days of multiple sign-ins and multiple hassles. With my single Windows Live ID all my services are integrated, personalized, and connected. Tonight I want to share what's fresh and new -- what helps me stay connected."
7:01PM PT - Windows Live calendar demo.
7:02PM PT - Now doing a demo of the Windows Live photo gallery...
An image of the new Palm!
7:05PM PT - Demo of Live Spaces, Live Video Search. All done!
Bill's back: "Well, I got invited to that snowboard thing, so I now I have to buy one of these things." Bill, you're such a nerd. Surface demo! Bill's talking about the recognition systems, playing with customizing the board.
Bill writes his signature on this snowboard as: "Bill!" in cursive. Nice.
Demoing Surface integration with a phone to send out to Windows Live. "We see surface showing up in many situations -- even here in Vegas -- as a new flexible interface. Another big announcement for us is the introduction of a web technology called Silverlight. It came out with some unique capabilities, shipped in its first version it got a great response."
7:08PM PT - "I'm pleased to announce today we've found a perfect partner to showcase Silverlight: NBC has chosen Microsoft has as its exclusive video partner for online video footage. We'll make it all available live and on demand." Handing off to NBC via video.
Lots of clips from the Olympics -- Bob Costas, yo Bob. NBCOlympics.com / MSN -- video on the web "in high quality and with enhanced features." Bob: "One last thing -- you HAVE to stop calling me. There's simply no place for you on our Olympic broadcast -- there's nothing I can do. Lose my number."
7:11PM PT - "I'll enjoy watching the Olympics... I can watch all the obscure sports." Robbie Bach is up! "It's good to be here again to talk about connected entertainment! I want to talk about the successes we've had in 2007 and talk about what's coming in the future... first, we'll talk about gaming."
"Vista is a great OS for gaming, and Windows is far and away the largest gaming platform -- Xbox has had tremendous success as well. 17.7m consoles shipped to date -- in the US through November we did 3.5b in business, more than the Wii and PS3.. more than the spending on Wii and PS3 combined. We also continue to grow on Xbox Live."
"We have passed the 10 million member mark -- that's six months faster than we expected to get to that number. Certainly a lot of the time people are on Live playing games, but they're also enjoying TV and movies.... ABC and Disney will be bringing their shows to Xbox Live this month. High School Musical, Lost, Desperate Housewives... We're also adding in the movie space."
7:15PM PT - MGM! "Xbox Live will provide 2x on-demand content than any cable or sat provider. Our approach to TV isn't just through Xbox -- Media Center continues its success, and is on the vast majority of PCs in the market to date." Talking about Media Center Extender tech: "New extenders from Samsung and HP -- which we already heard about last week."
Finally Mediaroom (MSFT's awesome IPTV service): "First, we have tech called DVR anywhere -- distribute recorded content around the house." Talking about interactive services with CNN. "The final announcement, last year we talked about the 360 being an STB -- this year we're excited to announce that BT will be the first to provide that capability. But a 360 and use it as an STB for your TV."
"This is not just a hobby, this is something we take quite seriously." That a dig at Jobs and the Apple TV as "Apple's hobby"? Now the Zune, comparing it to the iPod. Yep. "For the first time we'll begin selling the Zune outside the US, in Canada."
7:19PM PT - "Music is an inherently social experience, and that's why we made Zune Social." Robbie's invited a pal, Molly, up on stage to help demo Zune Social, Zune Card, etc.
Ha! Robbie's user name is EDprezz (President of Entertainment and Devices -- high-larious).
Shins, Silversun Pickups, Decemberists, it's a hipster hit parade up in this piece!
7:23PM PT - Robbie's moved on to Sync, demoing that. Robbie asks the Sync machine to play Cars by Gary Numan. Huzzah, Numan!
7:28PM PT - "The other exciting thing that's happening in the auto space is a new upgrade to Sync, which is called 911-assist. If an airbag deploys, the system automatically makes a 911 call --unless you stop it -- so emergency services can come quickly to help you out." Windows Mobile time. "Phones are going to be a BIG platform -- PCs will grow, but phones are the fastest growing platform. We outsell BlackBerry, we outsell the iPhone."
"Tellme is a leader in the telephony space, but in the future they're going to launch something called Say and See." Demoing again -- this app uses GPS and voice recognition to search local listings. Too bad this doesn't appear to be happening on a Windows Mobile phone.
Correction -- definitely not happening on a Windows Mobile phone.
Now Robbie's showing his end of the demo, receiving movie tickets from Molly's Tellme service, then previews a Cloverfield trailer. Talking how well Microsoft is in position to take advantage of integrated (mobile) advertising. Robbie wrap-up time. "Microsoft is poised to deliver. Before our big finale, I wanted to invite Bill on stage to show us the future of where we're going..."
Bill's on, showing a demo of software camera recognition -- knows Robbie owes Bill $20. Knows what it's being pointed at, can show contextual information -- like having a HUD that tells you whatever you want to know about whatever you're looking at in real space.
According to the system Steve Ballmer is, apparently, playing nickel slots. Nice. Bill's about to call up his history of CES keynotes... media, people, and information stacks of clips and data. The Rock 2001 CES keynote flashback for the launch of Xbox. Ah, nice, CES 2005 -- we were there when Conan co-hosted. "The idea is that you don't have to take a lot of manual steps -- this should just happen for you." Robbie: "Now, we have this $20 I supposedly owe you. I want to see how good you are at Guitar Hero 3." Oh snap, they're about to "jam."
Robbie's inviting Guitar Hero champion Kelley Leyone (sp). She's playing Welcome to the Jungle, and certainly a hell of a lot better than we are.
7:39 PM PT - "Well, it turns out I've got my own ringer here." He brings out the Slash. Who is actually playing Welcome to the Jungle, ha.
Robbie's already got his wallet open.
Bach: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, I'll see you again next year..." Slash is shredding, or whatever it is those guitarists do. "Cool."
Looks like that's it! So long, Bill. I've been liveblogging you since we first started Engadget, and I'm absolutely going to miss this.
"Tellme is a leader in the telephony space, but in the future they're going to launch something called Say and See." Demoing again -- this app uses GPS and voice recognition to search local listings. Too bad this doesn't appear to be happening on a Windows Mobile phone.
Correction -- definitely not happening on a Windows Mobile phone.
Now Robbie's showing his end of the demo, receiving movie tickets from Molly's Tellme service, then previews a Cloverfield trailer. Talking how well Microsoft is in position to take advantage of integrated (mobile) advertising. Robbie wrap-up time. "Microsoft is poised to deliver. Before our big finale, I wanted to invite Bill on stage to show us the future of where we're going..."
Bill's on, showing a demo of software camera recognition -- knows Robbie owes Bill $20. Knows what it's being pointed at, can show contextual information -- like having a HUD that tells you whatever you want to know about whatever you're looking at in real space.
According to the system Steve Ballmer is, apparently, playing nickel slots. Nice. Bill's about to call up his history of CES keynotes... media, people, and information stacks of clips and data. The Rock 2001 CES keynote flashback for the launch of Xbox. Ah, nice, CES 2005 -- we were there when Conan co-hosted. "The idea is that you don't have to take a lot of manual steps -- this should just happen for you." Robbie: "Now, we have this $20 I supposedly owe you. I want to see how good you are at Guitar Hero 3." Oh snap, they're about to "jam."
Robbie's inviting Guitar Hero champion Kelley Leyone (sp). She's playing Welcome to the Jungle, and certainly a hell of a lot better than we are.
7:39 PM PT - "Well, it turns out I've got my own ringer here." He brings out the Slash. Who is actually playing Welcome to the Jungle, ha.
Robbie's already got his wallet open.
Bach: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, I'll see you again next year..." Slash is shredding, or whatever it is those guitarists do. "Cool."
Looks like that's it! So long, Bill. I've been liveblogging you since we first started Engadget, and I'm absolutely going to miss this.
YAY!
NAY.
May?
I hope he announces some cool new features for the new windows mobile OS.. and vista sp2 :-p !!
nah man. It's sp3 for xp not sp2 vista. let us xp users take over
GAY?
A BAY BAY!
lol that video they made kinda sucked. so scripted.
I changed my mind. Its funny as hell.
I like bagels.
nbc ditches itunes for microsoft..wow
Possibly the last great speech from one of the greatest contributors to technological history ever, sure Jobs has a huge following but the majority of the worlds computers are running an OS and office suite started by this man, or giant rather. Wish i could have been there to see this, seems like they had a good time on stage - who won at guitar hero? what difficulty did they play at?
NBC ditches iTunes for a bag full of money and empty promises.
I think people are forgetting about the relation to NBC already that is called MSNBC! Think about it.
@Andrew
Warner ditches HD DVD for a bag full of money and empty promises.
6:36 quote sounds like something from Anti-trust movie... where in microsoft is mocked as NURV i believe
what a lame first post......you must be one of those kids who is on bungie.net all day just to be the one that says first post! on every story they post
As much as I love apple I still have great respect for Gates. I also can't believe this is his last keynote.
Sure, Apple are great and all, but Steve Jobs is mean, especially to Gates, and Gates seems like such a generous guy, giving to the poor and needy rather than trying to brainwash us.
Steve Jobs is cool and "hip with 'it'".
Tacca tacca taca taca taca? Eyyy, maccarrena!
Steve jobs is "mean" to a man who stole his technology, dumbed it down, and made billions off of it. bill gates is a great philanthropist, but his software sucks!
Steve Jobs kicked my dog then spit on it
Bill Gates then healed its leg, gave it a bone and read it a bedtime story
Steve Jobs f***ed my sister and never spoke to her again.
Bill Gates consoled her and made love to her.
She likes Bill, but secretly still yearns for Steve.
Live feed links:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx
It's only me or the audio is broken?
it's you.
Thanks, you need video when it's a video.
Quite surprised Engadget doesn't link to the MS page.
This could be interesting...
Wait, it doesn't start for another hour.
You realize that all Bluray does is allow more storage? You can fit the exact same quality that of image on an HD-DVD, but you can allow more of that quality of video to exist. You can fit Bluray quality video into 1mb, it just won't be a very long video.
Gah. Wrong reply.
I'm not judging, especially considering the fact that you were replying to that douchebag down there who's gahgah for anything with the word "blu" on it. I don't think he gets it.
Hey! I believe that children are our future. Let them and show the way. Let them show the beauty they posses inside.
Admitting defeat and releasing a Blu Ray addon drive for the 360??
lol..
Have a good life bill, you have done us all some good.
Yeah, you're right, Blu Ray beat digital downloads. Sure. Bill Gates wishes he had your foresight. Nice work.
that would be awsome
Blu-Ray is AMAZING. I've never been able to touch Anthony Hopkin's face so many times!
You do realize a Blu Ray movie looks the same as, say, a movie downloaded in 1080p, or a movie on an HD-DVD channel that's broadcasting in 1080p. (Dare I say, an HD-DVD?)
You do understand that 50GB > 250 MEGABYTES?
Blu-Ray = Greater potential? Yea.
You realize that all Bluray does is allow more storage? You can fit the exact same quality that of image on an HD-DVD, but you can allow more of that quality of video to exist. You can fit Bluray quality video into 1mb, it just won't be a very long video.
wow some of you little girls have your panties all up in a bunch :) Get a life!! You do know that this actually does NOT mean you have to slit your wrists??
Are you all 17 ? You do realize that MOST people in the world do not want to connect their pc to their TV, right? Not this year, maybe in 5-10 years it'll be commonplace.
Don't get so defensive about what someone posts on a forum or blog. It won't change your day to day life or freedom not to buy something.
His Keynote isn't until 6:30 / 9:30 EST. Just throwing up the page to get everyone prepared?
I thought this doesn't start for another hour?
You thought wrong.
That's correct. At the time of this posting, it will be another hour before it starts.
refresh refresh refresh
Don't get your frites in a bunch, it doesn't start for another hour.
You are just a regular old troll, aren't you?
Frite is a French word for what you'd call a french fry. His name is Potato, so I told him not to get his french fries in a bunch. It was a joke, but seeing as how much of Sony's brain-cell-killing koolaid you've already drank, I don't think you'll get it.
No, I've resided in Chicago most of my life, Luxembourg for part of it, claim U.S. citizenship as I was born in the states.
Yeah, who cares about the country with #1 gross domestic product per capita, originis and capital of the European Union, origin of NATO, etc etc. What, are you 12 or something?
Hey Engadget, can you get rid of this Bodgan guy please? There's gonna be loads of comments on this coverage, and he's ruining it with tons of stupid comments that are now bordering on prejudice
Just kidding. I love this guy. I admit I can be a bitch sometimes. I'm gonna go give Bill Gates a good rub before he gets on stage because I'm too much of a M$ fanboy to comprehend other people's thoughts, and reply to things with mind-numbing stupidity. jamma!
That previous post WAS NOT ME!! I imagine it was Bogden. tosser.
I'm not anyone's fanboy by the way, i just like tech and hate pre-pubescant idiots who think they know what their talking about.
Well triple layer HD DVD stores fifty-ONE GB, making it 102% as good as Blu-Ray... right?
guys?
i am right, right?
I hope he has some insight on the upcoming MacBook Pro subnotebook.
"Ladies and gentlemen, BIll GATeeeeeeeeeees!"
-Thank you all for coming to my last keynote spee- ARGHHHHHH!!!!!!!
*Transforms into a Blu-Ray Player*
"Damn you Kazzzzzz Hiraiiiii!!!!!"
Is Ryan going to be liveblogging this?
Watch it live: http://www.microsoft.com/ces/
Thanks for the link Dragod. Suck, I have to download Silverlight and run IE.
Just stick this in your windows media player:
http://wm.istreamplanet.com/customers/ms/01062008_750.asx
it's the highest bitrate.
You do NOT need IE to use Silverlight. It works fine in Firefox. It works fine on the Mac even.
Also, if you do not want to use Silverlight, here's a direct link to the WMV stream (which works just fine on the Mac too BTW, to preempt any complaints): http://wm.istreamplanet.com/customers/ms/01062008_750.asx
Bill, I'll do it this one time just because it's going to be your last CES keynote. Just this once.
No, I can't do it again.
its at 2.30 am arg!!!
lol ill just have to look for it in the morning then.
i hope he annouces sumthing good, and not just the tablet pc again...
Are you in Paris or Rome?
birmingham in uk.. but clocks are forward an hour for day-light saving.
Ah, well considering the fact that this is his last speech, capping his monolithic CES speech past, I'm sure it'll be heavily documented and you'll find plenty of info tomorrow morning. Cheers.
Heres hoping that this gets a proper commentary, unlike the Sony keynote....
Amen to that!
"You all want to know something about the PS3? THANK YOU FOR COMING..."
¬_¬
I thought Ryan did a good job skipping over all the Sony corporate hyperbole. It was effective and amusing, and still was informative on substantative points.
I agree with steveo.
I'm with steveo. Corporate hyperbole is truly the worst thing in the world. Far worse than war, terrorism, aids, starvation and homelessness combined. And I'm serious, because I've actually had to experience corporate hyperbole. Until you've seen old white guys get excited about their mind numbingly slow evolution they try to call innovation you just can't understand how much it makes you want to kill yourself.
Brent: That was hilarious.
Xbox rules. PS3 is for girls.
Go tell your mommy to pour you some Ovaltine or something...
birmingham in uk.. but clocks are forward an hour for day-light saving.
I hope this keynote is HUGE since it's his last one.
Ya, I want dancing ladies and pyrotechnics!
What's a Playstation?
it'ss a station where you can play
Bodgan, please stop trolling, go away, and don't return until you hit puberty
Zune 80 for Europe, would be fantastic.
come on surface home pcs!!!(or a surface zune... even though I already got the zune 80)
...or the puberty hit you
As Mr. Slave (SP) would say "Jesus Christ!" It'll be friggin 2:30am over her in Scotland, but I won't miss Steves...ahm...Bills last Keynote via webcast!
******
"What's a Xbox360 with an internal HD-DVD drive? ... Yep, a dead end!" ;-)
btw what the heck is silverlight? (kinda embarrassed to be that far out of the loop....)
It's a Microsoft Flash alternative, basically. Installs a plugin, just like Flash, that lets you see things written using Silverlight. Supposedly it's more advanced than Flash, and lets you use .Net languages instead of Actionscript.
3.22am here in europe and still waiting... how long to go?
It looks like right now:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx
Can we have auto-refresh on page?! haha
or what would be even better (too late now) is a separate (CLEAN) page for these live-from events, so none of the other crap on the page has to load.
oh well i can dream.... 7 minutes!
Nooooooooo I hate microsuck they SUCK!
$5 says you're running Windows.
WRONG!!
I'm runnin Tiger!! Windows FTL!!!
You bring shame to Wii owners.
Thank you for negatively representing one of my favorite brands, and not even knowing it due to your own stupidity. Speaking of which, why don't you have a 360? You seem like more of the m$ fanboy type. Maybe you're in recovery after years of abuse from the beastmaster himself, and genuinely trying to show your newfound love for sony? We can only hope.
http://hashtags.org/tag/ces/
Here is my last minute prediction:
Bill Gates makes pun about quiting Microsoft.
Then he introduced the Super-Vista with Uber-DRM.
Then he turns off everyone's computers and forces everyone and every company to go out and buy a Super-Vista machine.
lolz
The video is running on:
http://wm.istreamplanet.com/customers/ms/01062008_750.asx
thx for the link.
Big question is:
Will he comb his hair for this event or not.