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Last week's keynotes dissected, Steve Jobs wins over the preschooler set
Because analysts really don't have anything better to do now that all their random predictions for product launches have already been shattered by the announcements made on stage by Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Michael Dell last week, some Seattle P-I stat junkies threw together a completely nerdy assessment of the keynote speeches by those three industry icons, and shared it with an awaiting public that doesn't really have anything to do now but whine about the lack of 3G on the iPhone. It would appear Dell and Gates are the nerds of the bunch, using 6.4% and 5.11% "hard words," respectively -- compared to Jobs' 2.9% -- and stringing together fancy sentences 16.5 words and 21.6 words long, while Jobs did it up children's book style at 10.5 words per sentence. Jobs also kept his lexical density (ratio of content to words) low, at 16.5% compared to 21.0% for Gates and 26.3% for Dell. Finally, the Gunning Fog Index (don't give us that look, we warned you going into this) which measures the average years of education needed to understand a text, rated Jobs' transcript at 5.5, Dell at 9.1 and Gates at a whoppin' 10.7. The scores don't reflect any non-keynote-speaker time, such as the comic relief of Dr. Evil at Dell's keynote, or John Mayer's serenades at Jobs'. As for specific words, "gaming" won hands down at Dell, Microsoft seems to be about equally interested in "devices," "great" and "Windows," while Apple held no surprises, emphasizing "phone," "iPhone," and "iPod." There, now don't you feel edified?
Gates: PS3 will never have graphics advantage
digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/Gates_PS3_will_never_have_graphics_advantage'; Speaking with journalist and Xbox guru, Dean Takahashi, Bill Gates offered several jabs to both Sony and Nintendo in the wake of CES. Speaking on Nintendo, Gates expressed concern that the novelty of Wii could wear off without good graphics to go with it, and that he still considered Sony to be MS' biggest competitor (O RLY?). Regarding the PS3, Gates notes that the 360 has the advantage in every area. According to Gates, the 360 has good games, is easier to program, and is cheaper to produce. Because of the 360's head start, it also has the advantage of undergoing cost reduction at a much faster rate than the PS3 with its more costly components. Gates also stated that the PS3 has no advantage in terms of graphics and that it never will. In his words, Sony "burned a year" trying to get graphics out of the Cell processor, only to have Nvidia provide a chip at the last minute. Add to this the fact that the PS3 has no unified memory and that programmers have had longer to learn the intricacies of the 360 hardware, and the PS3 is caught in a cyclical game of catch-up.Finally, Gates managed to squeeze in one more denial of a larger 360 hard drive on the horizon. When asked about the need for more space -- especially with IPTV and DVR functions on the way -- Gates responded that much IPTV data is stored on servers and storage is unnecessary. To wit: "We don't have to change the Xbox 360 at all." Uh huh, and 640 kilobytes is all we'll ever need, right?[Via 1UP]
Gates now sees Nintendo as primary competition
The Nintendo Wii's tremendous commercial success all around the world is having an impact on competing manufacturers who previously viewed the system as an outlying oddity aimed at a seperate market. In the past, both Sony and Microsoft have dismissed head-to-head competition with Nintendo, even going so far as to endorse the Wii as an incidental ally in their graphically superior grudge match.In a brief clip on a Japanese news station (embedded after the break), Bill Gates notes surprise at the Wii's success and labels Nintendo as Microsoft's "toughest competition" in the gaming arena. Of course, the statement doubles as a jab at Sony, now relegated to third place on the the Xbox 360 threat scale.According to Japanese sales charts, the coveted second place is still securely held by a largely shrugging Japanese populace.[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
Gates: Nintendo WASN'T competition, NOW they are
This cracks us up. Before, Bill Gates said that Sony was their direct competitor, viewing Nintendo and their console as nothing more than a cute novelty. Now that the numbers are coming in and everyone wants a Wii (y'know, cuz it's fun), Bill is changing his story and is now viewing Nintendo "as the toughest competition." Bill says this during a Japanese interview, which has been You Tubed and embedded past the post break.[Via Codename Revolution]
Bill Gates on the 360, IPTV, convergence
Chris Grant of Joystiq (he's the handsome lad pictured above), along with Engadget's Ryan Block as well as folks from Kotaku, Gizmodo, and ScobleShow, sat down with Bill Gates at CES yesterday to talk about, well, everything. The group covers issues like net neutrality, vertical integration, and of course, the Xbox 360. On the 360 side of things, Bill evokes memories of the 1990s as he declares the 360 as controlling people's living rooms. With the introduction of IPTV, it would seem that the 360 has finally become the "set top box" holy grail that was sought after in the last decade of the 20th century. Gates also reveals that the majority of Microsoft's often touted 5 million Xbox Live subscribers are of the Gold variety. Other topics discussed include digital distribution, Microsoft's future, and why the 360 will have a larger downloadable library than the PC. It's a good read and 360 fanboys would do well to check it out. For those averse to the printed word, check out a video of the conversation at ScobleShow.[Via Joystiq]
Our lunchtime chat with Bill Gates at CES
At CES yesterday afternoon, I had a unique opportunity to chat with Microsoft's Bill Gates. I was joined by Ryan from Engadget -- as well as Brian Lam from Gizmodo, Brian Crecente from Kotaku, and Robert Scoble from ScobleShow (and formerly of Microsoft) -- to talk with Bill about the evening's keynote announcements, including IPTV and the Xbox 360's hastening transition into the mythical convergence box. Engadget's posted images and a transcript of some of the bigger topics, including vertical integration in the Zune and Xbox 360, DRM, net neutrality, and Microsoft's direction after Bill's eventual departure. Not content with the greatest hits? Catch the whole thing on video at ScobleShow.
A lunchtime chat with Bill Gates at CES
So yes my good pal Chris Grant (of Joystiq) and I got a chance to briefly sit down with Robert Scoble, Brian Lam, and Brian Crescente to chat with Bill Gates before his annual CES keynote. We couldn't include everyone's questions here (for the full video go check out ScobleShow), but we've got a full transcript of our questions spanning such topics as the advantages of vertical integration in the Zune and Xbox 360, DRM, net neutrality, and Microsoft's direction after Bill's eventual departure. You know, the light stuff.This may be the last time Engadget gets to speak with you. I don't know exactly what ... No, no, it won't be. I promise. So you'll be around in 2008? You'll deliver the keynote? I'm full time until mid-2008. And we're mixing it up a little bit. Robbie's doing a big part of the keynote tonight. We'll have even more than one chance to talk between now and when I'm not full-time. Ultimately when you do depart, what do you want your legacy as a technologist with Microsoft to be? Microsoft's always been about software that empowers people. What could happen over the next ten years is probably even bigger than what's happened throughout the entire history as we get speech and vision. And we're just getting rid of constraints. Storage constraints. Resolution constraints. At the end of my keynote ... everything that I talk about product-wise is all here and now, this year kind of stuff. Almost everything's shipping except the Home Server, the photo stitching thing, but everything is here. I take this thing where I show and say if you have projection throughout the home and it can project onto the walls and surfaces -- what kind of things can you do? There's no specific thing, but I've done some neat things like student tablet that in terms of the few projects that Ray and Steve have picked for me to still be involved in, like the tablets since I've been very involved in that. The switch is I go from being the person who's looking at the overall thing and how the pieces stick together -- making sure they're not missing pieces or duplicating pieces -- and Ozzie picks up that. I go to where I'll have a few project very focused and he's got the total driving overview of how it all comes together.
Live from the Bill Gates keynote
6:20 (PST) - The connection is spotty as hell, but Ryan and I are here at the Bill Gates keynote, which should be starting shortly. Stay tuned for updates -- at least barring a failure of our EV-DO lifeline. 6:22 - They're asking us to take our seats 6:25 - Over the PA: "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote is beginning in five minutes."6:33 - Eight minutes later: "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote will begin in two minutes." See, even Microsoft's keynotes can't launch on time... We kid, we kid!6:36 - Lights are dimming, looks like we're about to get going. It's starting. A visual history of CES is playing on the giant monitors next to the stage.
Microsoft announces the HP TouchSmart PC
In its zeal to take over your living room, Microsoft announced the HP TouchSmart PC at the Gates keynote -- a desktop machine with a touchscreen interface designed to be an easy to use entertainment hub in the home. We caught wind of this unit back at the end of November, and the thing looks raring to kick the iMac's ass. It's coming loaded with a 19-inch touchscreen, AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core TL-52 processor, 2GB SDRAM, 320GB drive, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, WiFi, Bluetooth, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, integrated FM and ATSC HDTV tuners, a DVD±RW / DVD-RAM burner with LightScribe, Pocket Media Drive bay, wireless keyboard, mouse, stylus, front media reader, and more ports than the Dutch coastline. The TouchSmart will of course be running Windows Vista and be available January 30 to coincide with Vista's street date.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XXI : Gates tells consumers to ditch DRMed tunes, buy CDs
For our latest episode of CE-Oh No He Didn't, we turn to a perennial favorite: Bill Gates. At a recent blogger event (read: junket) up in Redmond, Gates apparently told the audience that DRM has "huge problems" (despite the fact that his company is one of its biggest proponents). Bill's a smart guy and his belief in DRM's suckiness isn't all that shocking, but even we were taken aback when he suggested picking up a freshly wrapped compact disc instead of pointing your interests towards his own company's music store, or in his words: "People should just buy a CD and rip it. You are legal then." Say, doesn't the RIAA seem to disagree with Mr. Gates' assessment, given that it still views ripping CDs has being sorta, um, illegal? And doesn't Microsoft go out of its way to break precedent by ponying up cash on Zune sales to RIAA cartel commander Universal Music? We realize there's only so much dogfooding one can do before going off the deep end, and we don't necessarily expect Bill to agree with every decision Microsoft makes. But what gets us here is that this is such a subtle and tacit admission of defeat at the hands of the record industry. The man DOES carry a Zune, and the man does actually listen to music on it, but maybe he doesn't realize that Microsoft could have held the power to strike a blow in the RIAA's armor and change things for the better for consumers -- Zune carrying consumers, like even he.
Bill Gates: man in the bubble.
You've heard about the Apple bubble, right? The prevailing belief that Apple's stock is overpriced and about to explode? Turns out there's definitely a Microsoft bubble, too. Different kind, though. One that surrounds Bill Gates in his day-to-day role at Microsoft. Microsoft employs a technical assistant dedicated to deleting Mr. Gates' email. "It is a corporate policy not to make a permanent record of Bill's works...The job duties of the technical assistant require him to delete email files from Mr Gates' computer weekly." Apparently this directive appeared after the recent US Government antitrust case, where many emails showed Microsoft's anticompetitive policy. Still waiting to get to the Apple punchline of this whole post? Turns out that in a (non-deleted) 2004 email, a senior executive told Gates that if he didn't work for Microsoft, he'd buy a Mac. Which shows that you really can find good people for senior management. It also makes you wonder how many deleted emails discuss the preference for iPods over the Zune.Link may require registration.
Microsoft attempting to stuff Windows onto the OLPC
Ever since it got the cold shoulder from those open source junkies over at the OLPC project, Microsoft has been sort of sour grapesey about the whole thing. Now it looks like they've changed tacts: instead of offering up Windows CE to power the fledgling Children's Machine CM1 2B1 B1 XO WhateverTheHeckItsCalled, Microsoft is trying to stuff the entirety of Windows XP into the little box. According to NickNeg, the OLPC has an SD card slot specifically at Bill Gates' behest, since Windows XP requires a minimum of 1.5GB of memory for installation, while the OLPC only packs 512MB of storage. Microsoft has apparently been provided a number of OLPCs to this end, but still hasn't managed to get the thing working. In a perfect world, Microsoft would realise the error of its bloatware ways and prep a stripped down version of the OS to delight enthusiasts the world over with speed and minimalism, but somehow we're thinking that's just a bit unlikely.[Via Slashdot; thanks simosx for the pic]
Steve Jobs a 'Top Living Influential'
The Atlantic Monthly has compiled a few lists of the most influential Americans, and his Steveness is on one of them. He is listed as number 5 on the 'Top Living Influentials,' which isn't too shabby. Sadly, he didn't make it into the big leagues of 'The Top 100,' which includes both living and dead American heavyweights. Bill Gates, to many the anti-Jobs, is number one on the living list and number 54 on the top 100.Sure, Steve changed they way we all use computers, but Mr. Gates has had a huge impact on both technology and society, thanks to his enormous amount of charitable giving. Don't worry, Steve, you're still number one on TUAW's list.[via Applepeels]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XVIII - Gates sez Sony "bricks" would sell well
While we aren't sure if this is just another lashing from the lingering bitterness ole Bill is surely feeling from Sony's most recent criticisms, Mr. Gates has unwillingly volunteered himself for yet another episode of CE-Oh no he didn't. Shortly after praising Apple's iPod, he apparently felt a few brash phrases were in order to bring the world back into balance, and balance he did. In an interview with CNET, Microsoft's chairman explained that he knew very well the pain "of being a year late" -- presumably in regard to how belated the Zune is in hitting the iPod-filled DAP market -- but continued on by stating that he "wouldn't change positions with Sony in a million years" when referring to the Xbox 360's head start in the next generation console race. But fun and games turned staid when Gates remarked that "Sony could make 80,000 bricks, and people would buy them." While we can't quite decipher the true meaning of "bricks," we're fully aware that the stakes have been raised once again, but Sony might try fixing a few lingering problems of its own before crafting a rebuttal this time around.[Via 1UP]
Sony can make 80,000 bricks
In an interview with CNET News, Bill Gates discusses not only where the company is headed with Windows Vista, but also his feelings on where the Xbox 360 is headed. When asked about the demand for the Playstation 3 and how it effects the Xbox 360's sales, Bill stated that he "wouldn't change positions with them in a million years. I mean, we know what it's like to be a year late. We feel great about the position that we're in." Confidence in the brand and overall outlook... that's what I like to hear Billy! And what does the little analyst inside of you think? Is Microsoft handling the 360 how you would, or do you have some advice for the big wigs up in Redmond HQ?
Gates praises iPod, labels Zune a "modest" competitor
When we report on the sayings and sound bites of higher ups at technology companies, we tend to cover them from a negative angle because, as you well know, execs are pretty fond of belittling their opponent's products. The latest exception to this rule comes from none other than Bill Gates, who recently praised Apple's iPod, calling it "phenomenal, unbelievable, fantastic" in front of an audience at Stanford University, California. The timing of these words -- only a few days after the launch of Zune -- would be the most surprising aspect of his speech were it not for Gates' later musings on Microsoft's aim with the Zune. According to Gates, the plan with Zune is "more modest" than total domination of the portable media player market, with Gates elaborating that the company wants to "excite people about the concept" of sharing music and video wirelessly through Zune. Perhaps the company's "problems" in Europe and the lackluster reception towards the current iteration of Zune -- hence the focus on Zune's primary innovation, WiFi -- have calmed Gates, or maybe the iPod franchise has grown so huge that even its main competitors can't conceive of aiming for first place. Either way, we have a feeling that the words contained in emails exchanged between Zune HQ and Gates over the weekend won't be half as measured as those in this speech.
Foxconn gets into the graphics card business. Huh?
Ok folks, let's do a little role playing: imagine you're some big manufacturing company in Taiwan. Just for argument's sake, call yourself Foxconn Technology Group. Now imagine that your company produces one of the world's most popular gadgets (call it the iPod) for a company in California (call them Apple Computer), and then two Chinese journalists also investigate and then your company later sues them for $3.77 million. Then, a British journalist investigates your factory and confirms that your workers are working in erm, questionable conditions -- and even Apple starts looking into the matter. Upon further reflection of the absurdity of your lawsuit your company rescinds the lawsuit and reduces the damages to one yuan (12 cents). So, here's the question: what is the next logical step in this crazy sequence of events? After studying every successful business guide that we could get our hands on and consulting with everyone from Bill Gates to Steve Jobs, we've discovered that the only possible, rational and meaningful subsequent business move would be to start selling Joan Mirò-inspired NVIDIA graphics cards. Yes, we knew they were coming as of a few months ago -- but no, we don't think that makes it a good idea now.
Microsoft exec avoids confirming Vista release
We should start off by saying that this could be nothing but cautionary corporate-speak, but rather than confirming the scheduled January ship date for Windows Vista -- which is what everyone at the company's annual analyst meeting wanted to hear -- Microsoft exec Kevin Johnson seemingly opened up the door to fresh delay rumors by telling attendees that the beleaguered OS will be released "when it is available." Johnson's comments came as a response to analysts who wanted to know if Vista was still on track for a January release; instead of a simple "yes," however, he told the group that "we are going to ship the product when it is ready, and we are going to take it milestone by milestone." Now, what sounds like a non-denial of further delays could simply be part of a new policy to avoid making specific promises, but following Bill Gates's recent "statistical analysis" that Vista is only 80% likely to ship in January, this development is troubling to say the least. At this point we don't really know what to expect anymore, and since our current XP-powered setup already does everything we need it to, we're getting pretty close to not caring if Vista is ever released at all.
Wil Shipley offers $10,000 bet to Gates that Vista doesn't ship by January
Bill Gates recently stated that he felt Vista had an 80% chance of shipping in January. He even said he'd be glad to delay it if beta testers say so. Apparently, this latest talk of Vista getting kicked back yet again was the last straw on Wil Shipley's back, as he has offered a $10,000 bet to Bill Gates that Vista doesn't ship by January. As you can see from his post, Wil doesn't have a very large spot in his heart for Microsoft, and - discussion of whether Bill will even see this, let alone respond, aside - I think it's a riot that someone has called out the world's largest (and, unofficially: most tardy to the party) software pimp on the planet like this.By Gates' claim of 80%, Wil has 4 to 1 odds. Anyone feel like starting up a GuessVistasReleaseDate.com? Oh wait, Microsoft already did that.[via Daring Fireball]
Vista forecast: 20% chance of delays
If you're one of the many folks eagerly awaiting the January release of Windows Vista, then there's a small-but-not-insignificant chance that you may be in for a letdown -- a 20% chance, actually, according to outgoing Microsoft CTO, lifelong Engadget reader, and occasional video pirate Bill Gates. During a presentation in Cape Town, South Africa, Mr. Gates informed his audience that although there's an 80% probability that the next-gen OS will ship as scheduled, "we've got to get this absolutely right," and stressed that "if the feedback from the beta tests shows it is not ready for prime time, I'd be glad to delay it." Now, we can't imagine that anyone would want to purchase buggy software, so it's reassuring to see that Microsoft is committed to only pushing a polished product out the door, but we have to say that Gates' choice of words here makes him come across as just a little cavalier. Because if he's "glad" to continue frustrating us with these tragi-comic delays, then there's probably quite a few people out there who will be just as glad to stick with their copies of XP out of spite -- or even worse, make the dreaded leap over to Leopard or Linux.[Thanks, Matt and Oliver O.]
