Bill Gates kicked off CES last night with a rambling presentation that would’ve put me to sleep had I not been on my stationary bike at the time. CES is the world’s largest consumer electronics show anywhere; bigger and badder than pretty much anything else you can dream up. Over 250,000 people will attend this five day geek-and-gadget fest. This year, I’ll be among them.
But back to Bill and his lackluster keynote. The keynote outlined some new products we can expect this year, as well as his vision for how technology (Microsoft’s of course) will make our lives better real soon now. The “new” products included a music download service built atop Windows Media Player and in conjunction with MTV (yawn); new games for the Xbox 360 (which I might give a damn about if you could buy one); a demo of Flight Simulator for Windows Vista (seriously!), and HD-DVD movies via an external drive you can add to your (probably non-existent) Xbox 360… and just in time for Christmas ’06. Be still my heart.
Thinking about Bill’s day-in-the-life vision of how technology will enrich my life, I wondered — how much can be done right now?
He started his day looking at a massive, portrait-oriented flat screen that reminded me of a framed bathroom mirror. He had drawings scrawled by the kids displayed in one area, the family schedule in another (complete with real-time GPS location for each member), and a TV feed in yet another. Most of this is possible today, although the cost of a large format, touch screen type device is prohibitive (unless you have a budget like Bill). More cell phones are now including GPS capability, so tracking location isn’t a long-range reality.
Watching the TV, he saw a news program that caught his eye, and gave it a “follow me” instruction. This rerouted the video to his mobile phone for his trip to work. Presumably he won’t be behind the wheel. Whether you call this “location free” viewing (Sony) or “place shifting” (Slingbox), it’s very nearly possible today. I’ve been using Slingbox for a few months now to do this very thing, although I’m still waiting for the Pocket PC version of the player. What’s still missing is the convergence part that let’s my home PC tell my PPC to start receiving video. Oh, and I’m signed up for the PPC beta, but waiting for the call from the good guys at Slingbox (hint-hint).
At work, he’s got a killer display screen that even blows away the one on my lust-list. The stuff he showed (video conferencing, drag and drop from his Tablet PC to his desktop) didn’t impress me. Maybe I’m jaded, but it wasn’t inspiring. More interesting was his hypothetical wait at the airport. He placed his cell phone on a specially equipped table, authenticated using biometrics, and was able to view a full-screen window for email, apps, even scanning business cards. Interesting, but unlikely to happen in the near future. I’d rather have my own personal, portable screen. It would comein a flexible form like a piece of cloth or perhaps mylar. I could roll it up when I didn’t need it — and use it wherever I wanted — so I wouldn’t be dependent on the availability of one of those fancy-schmancy tables he demonstrated.
When Gates was finished, I couldn’t help but wonder — is that the best he could think of? What does your vision of the future include?
I’ll be at CES all day Friday and will try to cut through the smoke and mirrors and bring you my discoveries this weekend.
technorati tags: CES, Bill Gates, web services, Microsoft, slingbox
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