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Bill Gates at CES 2005

I was watching the keynote talk from Bill Gates at CES 2005 last night. There are so many cool innovations coming out. The state of the art in software and hardware is now enabling anything you can imagine.

  • Weather report on a wristwatch? Check.
  • DVD quality movies on a device the size of an iPod? Check.
  • Setting a TV show to be recorded using just your cellphone? Check.

Exciting times...

Published Thursday, January 06, 2005 2:01 PM by chrisgarty

Comments

# re: Bill Gates at CES 2005

I agree, Chris, although I particularly liked the IPTV announcement: http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/archive/2005/01/06/347456.aspx
Thursday, January 06, 2005 3:57 PM by Michael Swanson

# re: Bill Gates at CES 2005

Yeah, that's the picture. The Microsoft reality is;

Burning pain as your watch explodes ? Check.
Battery life shorter than a Tablet PC with DRM to match ? Check.
Being 5 years behind what people are currently doing with their Linux based PVRs ? Check.

;-)

Glad that the indoctrination is going well Chris, or is it the cold that freezing your brain ?
Thursday, January 06, 2005 9:34 PM by Jon Eaves

# re: Bill Gates at CES 2005

Explodes with features and great consumer value?! :)

The market potential of PVRs is huge. You are right, up until now they have largely been either linux-based hack jobs or expensive electronics items. Hopefully we'll see some mass market pressure on these so they drop enough in price for my parents to get one. Because I don't think my Mum would be happy tinkering with Linux... ;)
Friday, January 07, 2005 9:23 AM by Chris Garty

# re: Bill Gates at CES 2005

Hack jobs ? Clearly you've not seen the custom distributions that exist just for this.

Got a friend who runs it. His 2yo daughter can use the interface to play her favourite shows.

The interface for recording is just like the new Foxtel Digital.

I might have agreed with you a number of years ago, but this things are pretty polished.
Friday, January 07, 2005 10:06 AM by Jon Eaves

# re: Bill Gates at CES 2005

That sounds pretty slick. The 'hack jobs' comment was in the good sense of hacking i.e. you have to play around with the software and hardware to get it to work. My test for mass market is 'could my Mum/Dad set this up?'. I don't think they know what a linux distribution is, but I could be wrong ;)
Friday, January 07, 2005 10:11 AM by Chris Garty

# re: Bill Gates at CES 2005

How the heck can you get DVD quality on a device the size of an iPod? Heck most of portable DVD players don't have a 720x480px display?

How about Bill's BSD (Blue Screen of Death) during his demos? I tell you, buy more stock in Apple.
Sunday, January 09, 2005 9:29 PM by Brian

# re: Bill Gates at CES 2005

When I mentioned video on a device the size of an iPod I was referring to the Creative Zen (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/default.mspx) and friends. I love the look of these devices.
Sunday, January 09, 2005 10:01 PM by Chris Garty
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