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Bill Gates: live at his 12th and final CES keynote
We're here! Yeah, a bit early, but this place fills some 6,000+ people. Crazy to think that this will probably be the last time Gates ever gets up on stage at CES -- at least it'll definitely be his last hurrah up there as Chairman of Microsoft. 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?
Gates and space-ace Simonyi gift $30m for giant telescope
The currently terrestrial Bill Gates and his former (and space-faring) Microsoft colleague, Charles Simonyi, have donated a cool $30m to a project that aims to build "the world's largest survey telescope" (cleverly) called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. On Thursday, the group said that Gates and Simonyi had donated $10m and $20m respectively to help develop the telescope, which Gates says "is truly an Internet telescope, which will put terabytes of data each night into the hands of anyone that wants to explore." The 8.4-meter telescope, which sports three large mirrors and three refractive lenses, will be built on a mountain in northern Chile and is scheduled to decimate the magic of your astronomy club in 2014.
Bill Gates: philanthropist, nerd, beer baron
Being the shrewd businessman that he is, Bill Gates has just invested a significant amount of money in one of the few products consumed during both good times and bad: alcohol. Actually Femsa, the Mexican brewery in which Gates now owns a $392 million stake through his Cascade Investment LLC fund, does a lot more than just brew booze: according to Reuters, it's also the world's second-largest Coke bottler as well as operator of Oxxo, Latin America's largest convenience store chain. When asked how he felt about the Microsoft founder moving in on his home turf, fellow billionaire Carlos Slim reportedly shrugged off the threat, boasting, "Not only am I a wealthier man than Mr. Gates, but he couldn't even make it through half a Power Hour with his nueva cerveza."
GNU guru Stallman accosted by pro-DRM ninjas
At the end of a debate by the Yale Political Union on the topic of DRM -- the verdict? It should be banned -- well known free software advocate Richard Stallman was confronted by a collective group of ninjas, obviously hired by Microsoft in response to one Chinese student's interruption of Bill Gates' speech in China. Turns out the ninjas were just reenacting a comic from XKCD, which depicts "rms," as he is affectionately known, whipping out a sword to defend himself from anti-GPL pranksters. No sword was thrusted in this example: instead, only a hearty chuckle was heard emanating from the bearded and shoeless father of the free software movement. Read - Yale Political Union's blog of the incidentRead - XKCD's "Open Source"
Halo 3 makes $300 million in one week
And now, a scene from Microsoft HQ:Bill Gates: Listen, those Bungie guys are OK, and it's great having them on the softball team and all. But I think it's time we set them free.Shane Kim: Yes, of course sir.Bill: Let's let them get out there in the world, you know? Make that Pimps at Sea game they're always talking about. After all, Halo 3 only brought us in $170 million, that's like 10,000 Segways, that's nothing. Shane: Actually sir, our most recent report is that the game made $300 million in its first week.Bill: ... How late is Shackles, Chains and Beyond open?
Bill Gates backs Probo, the huggable children's robot
Bill Gates is known as a lot of things; programmer, philanthropist, visionary... super-nerd. One thing Bill isn't known for is his ability to hug or be hugged, but that could all change with his latest investment in a foundation called Anty. The Belgium-based robotics team are hard at work on a small, badly named robot called Probo; a green, "huggable," ALF-like creature that will be used to interact with kids during medical treatment and hospital stays, where it's hoped the robot will aid in easing children's sometimes-traumatic experiences. The project is being carried out by two teams at the University of Brussels, in conjunction with the Anty group, with the focus on creating a "social robot" emphasizing vision, speech, AI, and intrinsic safety. In a quote attributed to Gates -- who has aggressively invested in children's projects in the past -- the Microsoft founder says "Alongside the technical research possibilities, the prototype will be used to examine the opportunities for using Anty in medical, social and psychological research." When reached for further comment, Gates was said to be "unavailable" due to rampant testing of Probo's "hugging" feature.[Via The Raw Feed]
Sarajevo cafe named "Club Bill Gates"
We hear the menu only gets updated once every five years.[Via The Raw Feed]
Bach sold millions in Microsoft stock in months before warranty announcement
MarketWatch is reporting that Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft's entertainment and devices unit (which includes the Xbox 360), sold $6.2 million in company stock between May 2 and last week's announcement that the company would extend the warranty on the system for certain failures to three years. Bach's sales came after eight months of selling no company stock.Bach himself did not comment on the story, but a Microsoft spokesperson insisted that the stock sale and the warranty were completely unrelated, saying "[He] continues to hold a significant stake in Microsoft and remains confident in the long-term success of the company." In the two months before the announcement, two Microsoft employees sold more stock than Bach: General counsel Brad Smith, who said he used the money he made to purchase more Microsoft stock, and Bill Gates.One analyst, who said that bad timing for insider trading is often by chance, said he believed that Bach should be given the benefit of the doubt in this case, especially considering that the announcement barely moved Microsoft stock. We'll have more on this story as it develops.
Bill Gates to deliver CES 2008 keynote, possibly his last
It looks like Bill Gates is set to enthrall the masses at CES once more, as the Consumer Electronics Association announced today that he'd again be one of the featured keynote speakers, joining Panasonic's Toshihiro Sakamoto and Intel's Paul Otellini. Given Bill's upcoming retirement from day-to-day duties, it's also being speculated that this keynote could well be his last, making it an even ten following speeches in 1998 and a non-stop run from 2000 to 2007. What could he possibly have to announce on such a momentous occasion? We'll find out January 6th, 2008.[Via TG Daily]
Carlos Slim edges out Bill "Fatty Fat Fat" Gates as world's richest person
It was probably inevitable, with Bill Gates handing out his cash right and left, and Microsoft's stock in pretty much a holding pattern for most of the 2000's, but it's still sad to see our man Bill get knocked off the top spot on the "world's richest" list. His replacement is no stranger to tech though, Carlos Slim built his fortune in the Mexican telecom biz, and has amassed an estimated net worth of $67.8 billion, thanks to a surge in the shares of America Movil. Slim's fortune represents 8% of Mexico's gross domestic product, and whatever he lacks in geek cred he more than makes up on the streets with that entirely gangster name of his.[Thanks, Emiliano M]
Bill Gates' sperm: second most-wanted in China
Check it Stephen Colbert, there's a new premium man seed farmer wanted for China. In a poll of 1,000 women between the ages of 25 to 35, Bill Gates was the second most popular choice to plow those fertile asian fields. Oddly, veteran Hong Kong actor Andy Lau was the number one choice even though he can't code his way out of a paper bag.
Bill Gates gets Harvard degree, not at all smug about it
Little Bill is all growed up now, and has finally made his father proud. "I've been waiting for more than 30 years to say this: Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree," said Gates, who received a law degree on Thursday from Harvard after giving a commencement address to the students, the school he dropped out of to focus on Microsoft. "We recognize the most illustrious member of the Harvard College class of 1977 never to have graduated from Harvard," said Harvard University Provost Steven Hymen, who didn't seem too humbled to present the honorary degree. "It seems high time that his alma mater hand over the diploma." Bill Gates seemed more concerned with padding his resume, however, considering the fact that he's calling it quits at Microsoft soon. "I'll be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume." Oh, we're sure he'll get by alright.[Image via Seattle PI]
Bill Gates wants to play some kind of tennis simulator
Imagine, if you can, a game where you swing a tennis racket and an onscreen character swings a tennis racket. That's the bold new future Bill Gates wished for at the D5 conference. We love to see the prophetic mind of a business genius in action.Oh, what? There's already something like that? No, the Wii doesn't count, because shut up it just doesn't: "No, that's not it. You can't pick up your tennis racket. And swing it." We guess motion controls are only cool when there's some kind of camera involved.
Steve Jobs/Bill Gates D5 interview available in iTunes
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates sat down with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the All Things Digital conference for a joint interview the other day. The footage of the interview was posted at the D5 website, but it was broken up into chunks. Now you can watch, or listen, to the interview in its entirety thanks to the iTunes Store. That's right, the interview is now available as a video or audio podcast. The audio only version checks in at 85 megs or so, while the video file is almost 1 gig in size.I'm downloading the video as I type this, and I suggest you do the same. It isn't often that one gets to watch two people who have shaped technology in such a meaningful way sit down and share their thoughts about the past, present, and future (though Steve never comments on future products).Thanks, Karim.Update: I neglected to mention that Steve and Bill were interviewed in a tag team fashion by Walt and Kara Swisher.
Bill Gates on the future of computer interaction
In a very rare joint interview with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on stage at last week's D 2007, Microsoft founder Bill Gates told hosts Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher, both of the Wallstreet Journal, of his vision for the future of interaction with technology, and therefore gaming, and inadvertently used the Nintendo Wii as a stepping stone."Imagine a game machine where you can just pick up a bat and swing it or the tennis racket," said Gates, to which Mossberg noted that one exists, referencing Wii Sports."No, no, that's not it," said Gates, "you can't pick up your tennis racket and swing it, ['Oh, I see what you mean,' said Mossberg] you can't sit there with your friends and do those natural things. That's a 3D positional device, this is video recognition, this is a camera seeing what's going on ... the camera will be ubiquitous."
Poll: Jobs and Gates sit down in an alternate reality
Wednesday night's Jobs and Gates intimate sit-down wasn't just civil, it was downright reverent -- at times even tearful. But we all imagined alternate realities and an overflow of events that might have transpired in another universe... now vote.P.S. -Feel free to leave your own in comments. %Poll-1171%
Video highlights of the Steve and Bill show
In case you missed the Engadget liveblog of last night's lovefest between Big Mac and El PC, the folks at the D conference have posted complete video coverage and a highlight reel (above) of Steve and Bill's excellent adventure. Enjoy the show, and please open any hard candies in advance of the feature.
Wrapup of D day, plus bonus top nicknames for the Palm Foleo
It was a long day at WSJ's D down in San Diego, but there was plenty to see. Check out our coverage roundup below.Live coverageSteve Jobs and Bill Gates: Historic discussion live from D 2007Steve Jobs live from D 2007Steve Ballmer live from D 2007Palm's Jeff Hawkins live from D 2007AppleiPhone to get third party apps Apple TV gets 160GB disk... and YouTube tooiTunes Plus and EMI's DRM-free music hands-oniTunes Plus DRM-free music now official(er)MicrosoftMicrosoft Surface - surface and gesture based computing landsMicrosoft Surface hands-onPalmPalm Foleo hands-on Palm Foleo galleryPalm Foleo announced Etc. Livescribe shows off Leapfrog Fly-esque pen computer for grown-ups QiGO announces Internet Content KeysAlso, you reminded us that you're a hell of a clever lot that not seemed to think we were justified in totally panning Palm's new Foleo. So here are some of the top nicknames we've heard it given: Foolio (totally our favorite, by Jeff) Folly-o (by derF) The Palm Shark Jumper (by Brian) Feel free to leave some more in comments!
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates chat at All Things Digital 2007
This is the last All Things Digital post for today, promise (well, as long as nothing cool happens). Engadget is live on the scene where Steve Jobs (Apple's CEO) and Bill Gates (he works for some small tech company in Redmond) will share the stage with Walt Mossberg. What will they talk about? I have no idea, but you can read it as they say it over at Engadget.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates: Historic discussion live from D 2007
We kind of never thought we'd see the day where Mac and PC voluntarily shared the stage on neutral ground, but that day is today. Very soon Bill Gates and Steve Jobs -- both pioneering execs that need absolutely no introduction -- will sit up in front of the audience here at D and discuss god knows what. Don't miss this, people, who knows if this will happen again in any of our lifetimes. You'll know when we get started. Who's got odds that they don't walk out and say "Hi, I'm a PC." "Hi, I'm a Mac."?We're in! They're playing the Beatles, just like they did when Jobs came out the first time.Update: Video recap online! Right after the break, but before the rest of our coverage.
