Gates Hails Age of Digital Senses
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Bill Gates made the case Sunday night that its technologies are becoming even more flexible and powerful as they seep into automobiles, Internet-based TV networks and living rooms
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Microsoft Corp.  founder Bill  Gates said on Tuesday the company's Windows Vista operating  system had been incredibly well received.
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Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is once again delivering the opening keynote at CES. Wired News is bringing you up-to-the-minute coverage and photos as the speech unfolds.
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Microsoft boss Bill Gates tells the BBC of his plans for the future of digital entertainment in the home
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(InfoWorld) - SAN FRANCISCO -- In what was certainly the marquee event at this year's D: All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering coordinated by the Wall Street Journal, Steve Jobs shared the stage with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in a joint appearance discussing the technology industry's past while looking ahead to its future. The evening began with history repeating itself in the form of videos originally recorded in 1984, 1991, and 1997, in which the two men shared a stage. The video ended with Jobs and Gates entering from opposite ends of the D: All Things Digital stage. The session was hosted by Wall Street Journal technology columnists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. Swisher started by asked the two men what each has contributed to their industry. "Bill built the first software company in the industry. And I think he built the first software company before anyone in our industry knew what a software company was, and that was huge. And the business model they ended up pursuing ended up working really well," said Jobs. "Bill was focused on software before anyone else had a clue. There's a lot more you can say, but that's the high-order bit." "First I want to clarify, I'm not Fake Steve Jobs," said Gates, to peals of laughter from the audience, referring to the popular weblog. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates capped off Wednesday's D: All Things Digital conference with a joint session of tech industry heavyweights. The good old days "What Steve's done is phenomenal," Gates continued. "Back in 1977, the Apple II, the idea that it would be a mass-market machine and an incredibly empowering phenomenon. And the Macintosh, that was so risky. Apple really bet the company, Lisa hadn't done that well, but the team that Steve built within the company to pursue that, some days it felt a little ahead of its time, remember the Twiggy disk drive and..." Jobs interjected, "128K!" "In a certain sense we build the products we want to use ourselves," Gates continues. "He's really pursued that with an incredible taste and elegance and had a huge impact on the industry. Apple literally was failing when Steve went back and reinfused innovation and risk-taking that have been phenomenal. So the industry has benefitted immensely from his work. I'd say he's contributed as much as anyone." Jobs called Gates and himself "incredibly lucky" to attract great partners and great people to work with. He agreed with Mossberg's assessment that in a sense, he and Gates are standing in for all the people at both their companies. Jobs ruefully recalled some of Apple's early television advertisements. "We had a kitchen, with the wife typing in recipes and the husband looking on approvingly," he said, to laughter from the audience. Jobs and Gates also recalled Microsoft's efforts to provide floating point computation in the Apple II's BASIC programming language. "My partner, Steve Wozniak, brilliant guy. Writes the best BASIC on the planet," Jobs said. "Perfect in every way, except for one thing: it's just fixed point, not floating point. So we're getting a lot of input, please make it floating point. I'm begging Woz, and he just doesn't do it. He wrote it down on paper, never got around to doing it. So Microsoft had this very popular, very good floating point BASIC. And we went to them." Gates picked up the story from there. "It was $31,000 for the floating point BASIC. And I went down to Apple getting the cassette tapes to work," he added. Gates and Jobs both agreed that Microsoft made a huge bet with the Macintosh when Apple first introduced the new computer. "What's hard to remember now, is that Microsoft wasn't in the applications business then," Jobs said. "We made this bet that this paradigm shift would happen, to graphical interfaces, and that the Mac would be the one to do it," said Gates. "The big bet wasn't Mac versus Windows, it was character-mode versus graphics interface." Gates added that Microsoft eventually saw the benefits of that bet come home to roost when PC-compatible computers were outfitted with 386-era microprocessors. The bad old days Jobs recalls 1997, the year he returned to Apple after a decade running Next. "Apple was in very serious trouble. and what was clear, where if the game was a zero-sum game, where for Apple to win, Microsoft had to lose. And if that was the case, Apple would lose," he said. "A lot of people's heads were in that place ... There were too many people at Apple playing [that] game. It was clear that you didn't have to play that game." "Apple had to remember who Apple was, because it had forgotten," he added. Jobs' decision was to call Bill up. "And we tried to patch things up." Gates said that since then, Microsoft has had a dedicated Macintosh application development group -- the Mac Business Unit, or MacBU, which works very closely with Apple. "It's a great business for us," he said. A good natured rivalry? Gates and Jobs also traded comments about the Mac vs. PC television advertisements that pit actors John Hodgman and Justin Long against each other, as an anthropomorphic Windows PC and Mac, respectively. Jobs said the art of those advertisements is not to be mean, but for the guys to like each other. "His mother loves him," said Gates, ruefully, about the PC character. "PC Guy is what makes it all work," added Jobs, but Gates seemed unconvinced. Mossberg noted that Apple and Microsoft continue to vie for the hearts and minds of consumers -- recently with the Zune, Microsoft's iPod competitor, and Vista, Microsoft's new operating system that has been pitted against Mac OS X in numerous head-to-head comparisons in magazines and tech Web sites. Jobs reiterated a point he made with Mossberg during his session earlier in the day: The iPod, said Jobs, is a response to the development of digital music players by Japanese consumer electronics makers, who, in Jobs' opinion could create great boxes but not develop good software to manage them. The iPod and the Mac are both principally differentiated from their competitors by the software that drives them. "So the big secret about Apple is that Apple views itself as a software company. And there aren't very many software companies left. And Microsoft is a software company," said Jobs. "We look at what they do, and some is really great, and some is competitive, and some of it's not." Apple's goal is much more modest than world domination, said Jobs. "We don't think we're going to have 80 percent of the market," he said, doubtlessly disappointing legions of Mac enthusiasts. "We're happy when our market share goes up a point." The future of computing Jobs cited Apple alumnus Alan Kay next, and illustrated a key difference between himself and his colleague and rival. "Alan Kay said, people who love software want to do their own hardware," said Jobs. "I can resist that," retorted Gates. Jobs waxed philosophical. "In the consumer market at least, I think one can make a pretty strong case that outside of Windows on PCs, it's hard to see other examples of the software and hardware being decoupled working super well yet," said Jobs. "It might in the phone space over time, it might, but it's not clear." Gates believes the future of computing is what he describes as "rich local functionality." He points to single-function computers and network computers as examples of devices that didn't sell as well as the industry expected. "It's using local richness together with richness elsewhere," he added. Jobs agrees with Gates, and provided what he believes is a practical example of Apple's innovation at work when it comes to providing users with a rich local experience combined with remote data: the Google Maps functionality embedded on Apple's forthcoming iPhone, which ships in late June. "The experience is unbelievable, way better than a computer. And that client app is the result of a lot of technology on the client. And you can't do that stuff in a browser," said Jobs. Gates opined that in five years' time, consumers won't depend on a single computer -- they'll have multiple devices, such as a tablet with "voice and ink," along with "a phone, a pocket-sized device." Jobs sees a history for the same computer we've grown accustomed to. "As Bill said earlier, the death of the PC has been repeatedly predicted," he said. The PC will continue to be with us and will evolve, Jobs added. Jobs forsees "an explosion" of what he describes as "post-PC devices" such as the iPod. "There's a category of devices that aren't as general-purpose," he said, "And that category is going to continue to be very innovative. And we're going to see lots of them." Jobs said that those "Post-PC devices" are very attractive because they represent "a clean slate" that lacks the legacy of many applications and are more focused. "But you have to temper it, because you have users who don't want a car with six wheels," he said. The oldest guys in the room Asked by Kara Swisher to define the greatest misunderstanding in their relationship, Jobs joked, "We've kept our marriage secret for over a decade now." "We did look a lot younger in that video," Gates ruminated. He added that many of the people both Gates and Jobs worked with in the early days have moved on to other things. "I actually kind of miss some of the people who aren't around anymore," he said. Jobs explained that when they started out, he and Gates were often the youngest guys in the room. Now they're often the oldest. "I say everything in life is like a Beatles song or a Bob Dylan song. But there's that one line in that one Beatles song, 'You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.' And that clearly is true here." Following Swisher and Mossberg's questions, the audience was given an opportunity to ask the two captains of the computer industry their own questions. Queries ran the gamut from politics to entrepreneurialism. Gates said that his life's work -- development of the personal computer -- led him to want to create his charitable foundation to benefit people "who haven't had technology, including medicine, working for them." Jobs said he's unconcerned with his own legacy, calling himself and Gates "the two luckiest guys on the planet." "I just think about going in every day and being around these great people," he said. Asked to give advice for others considering starting their own businesses, Gates explained that in the early days, he and his colleagues never considered the value of the company they were developing. "It's all about the people and the passion, and it's amazing the business worked out the way it did." Asked if there was there anything that one envies about the other, Gates cited Jobs' "intuitive taste, both for people and products." As for Jobs, he said that he wished he and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak learned earlier how to partner with others, as Microsoft had. "If Apple had more of that in its DNA, it would have served it really well. And it didn't learn that until a couple decades later." Jobs' appearance alongside Gates capped off a busy day at the D: All Things Digital conference for the Apple CEO. Earlier, during his solo session, Jobs unveiled Apple TV's forthcoming support for YouTube videos and discussed the DRM-free content that became available via iTunes earlier Wednesday.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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Wireless technologies should mean a more clutter-free future, says Click Online's Ian Hardy.
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Microsoft Corp. might not be the unbeatable giant it once seemed to be, but Chairman Bill Gates made the case Sunday night that its technologies are becoming even more flexible and powerful as they seep into automobiles, Internet-based TV networks and living rooms.
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The last time computer scientists truly changed the way people communicate with PCs, they created the mouse. Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates III thinks his company might have the next breakthrough.
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Catapulted to geek stardom literally overnight at this high tech confab in 2006, inventor of mind-blowing touchscreen technology gives Wired News a glimpse into life as an entrepreneur and his new company, Perceptive Pixel. Kim Zetter reports from Monterey.
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Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, during an appearance on Friday at the US Computer History Museum, expressed no fear of Linux usurping Windows in the software industry.
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InfoWorld - MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --&#160; Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, during an appearance here Friday at the Computer History Museum, expressed no fear of Linux usurping Windows in the software industry.
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Gadgets have always taken center stage at the Consumer Electronics Show, but this year more than ever, even the coolest devices seem to be mere means to an end -- access to content and services whenever and wherever you want them.For years the underlying trend at CES, held in Las Vegas from Monday through Thursday, has been convergence, the increasing connection among communications, consumer electronics and computer industries. This year the stakes have been raised, with new mobile services, devices that connect to wireless broadband networks, and deals between content and entertainment companies and computer vendors.With the addition of Web 2.0 services and content into the traditional convergence mix, expect the term Convergence 2.0, which pops up occasionally, to be used more frequently in the future.The diverse array of gadgets and standards at the show can be a barrier to convergence, however. Industry executives acknowledge that despite -- or because of -- the various connectivity technologies on the market, making products work together is still a complicated and daunting task for consumers.As usual,&#160;Bill Gates set the tone with the initial CES keynote&#160;Sunday, although this year was the Microsoft co-founder&#39;s final appearance at the show. Gates and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President Robbie Bach unveiled new partnerships for Microsoft&#39;s MSN, Xbox Live, and Mediaroom IPTV services.They also announced that NBC will use Silverlight technology for video playback and on-demand access to events. In addition, Microsoft is working with TNT, Showtime, and CNN to provide IPTV-based services, and announced deals with MGM and ABC to bring content to Xbox Live.&quot;XBox Live is attracting virtually all the content people because of the volume we&#39;ve got there and they see this group of very engaged users spending a lot of hours and finding new media in that environment,&quot; said&#160;Gates, in an exclusive interview&#160;with the IDG News Service. &quot;Our announcement with NBC on the Olympics is about our innovations in this Silverlight, where you can view interactive content, multiple video streams.&quot;Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang underscored&#160;the importance of mobile services in his Monday keynote, introducing a new look for the company&#39;s Go mobile Web interface, and new technology to let third-party developers build mobile widgets for the mobile platform.One sign that the concept of convergence has been juiced up: the head of the largest chip maker in the world spent most of his keynote time talking about future &quot;personalized&quot; Web experiences. &quot;Increasingly, computing and communications are coming together, bringing a new level of capability and intelligence to the Internet experience,&quot; said Intel CEO Paul Otellini in a Tuesday keynote. &quot;The personal Internet of tomorrow will serve you, delivering the information you want, when you want it, how you want, wherever you are.&quot;Otellini demonstrated the Canmore system-on-a-chip platform, due out in the second half of the year, which enables high-resolution imaging and broadcast TV for consumer electronics devices. The chip includes the Intel Architecture processor, and an audio-visual unit that supports 1080p high-resolution imaging and surround sound.Qualcomm, meanwhile showed off a prototype of what it called a Windows-mobile based &quot;pocketable&quot; computer running on its recently released 7201 chip. The screen, at 800 pixels wide, is designed to view Web sites designed for regular PCs, rather than versions altered for ultramobile PCs. Connectivity features include HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), GPS (Global Positioning Service), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.Small computing devices are often ultramobile PCs (UMPCs), a term marketed by Microsoft, but vendors use a variety of terms.Intel was showing off prototypes of UMPCs based on its upcoming Menlow chips. A Lenovo device was running Red Flag Linux OS, and sported a 4.8-inch touch screen as well as a camera. Other devices at the booth included small handheld PCs with touchscreens, from Toshiba and Clarion.For all the UMPC prototypes being showed here, though, industry insiders were quick to acknowledge that the market has not taken off as quickly as had been expected. One reason UMPC sales have not increased dramatically, at least in the U.S., is that wireless bandwidth for mobile devices up to now has been slow, they say.&quot;A true ultramobile experience is being able to put a device in a handbag, go have a picnic in the park, pull out your mobile device and easily surf the Web, said Alp Sezen, a sales director for Via Technologies based in Fremont, California. &quot;Right now, you can&#39;t get that experience.&quot;&quot;It will take a year or two for the mobile wireless experience to get better,&quot; he said. &quot;Wi-Max, and the opening up of Verizon&#39;s EV-DO network in the third quarter this year will help give a better experience for ultramobile users.&quot;Sprint Nextel and its hardware partners, meanwhile, said they are on track with WiMax plans for the second quarter. Nokia and Samsung officials said they will have devices that will operate with WiMax in the second quarter, and Motorola said it is working on a device that will operate over Sprint&#39;s EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) cellular network, Wi-Fi and WiMax.For short-range wireless connectivity, devices incorporating the new 11n Wi-Fi standard were also on display. Netgear, for example, unveiled a two-radio 5GHz 802.11n for less than $130. The company also released an 11n router with five Gigabit Ethernet ports.One development that might end up making things easier for consumers puzzled by all vast array of gadgets and standards -- not all of which are interoperable -- was the decision by Warner Bros. to go with Blu-ray Disc, rather than HD DVD, for high-definition movies. The announcement, on the eve of the show, sparked thoughts that the high-definition format war may be over.Of course, Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products,&#160;put up a brave front&#160;at a news conference. But Philips Consumer Electronics also threw its full support behind Blu-ray, adding a Blu-ray DVD player, the BDP7200 DVD to its product lineup.(Additional reporting by Martyn Williams, Dan Nystedt, Elizabeth Montalbano, Agam Shah, and Nancy Gohring in Las Vegas.)&#160;
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates outlined on Wednesday a vision of education in which students worldwide use high-speed Internet connections and curriculums that draw on online resources such as Wikipedia to become more globally competitive. "We are now on the verge of something where technology will make a difference," Gates said in an address before the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland. Advances in hardware, software, and connectivity and are enabling a "user-centric" focus for technology, letting people access information over vast distances inexpensively, Gates said. The address by Gates concluded the two-day Government Leaders Forum, an annual Microsoft-sponsored conference attended by government leaders throughout Europe. The delegates addressed education issues and how Europe can become more competitive through the use of IT. Gordon Brown, the U.K.'s chancellor of the exchequer who oversees financial matters, warned in a speech before Gates' address that the number of jobs that require no skills in the country will drop from 3.4 million today to only 600,000 by 2020. Those who donât have access to education programs and acquire IT skills are "at risk of being unemployed over the next decade." "We cannot afford to ignore the potential of any child," Brown said. Microsoft is backing several educational programs aimed at integrating technologies into classrooms that some young people may already be encountering outside of school. Teachers may have trouble keeping up with students who are already using devices such as the Xbox Live gaming system at their homes, Gates said. "When they [students] come back into the classroom and there's a chalkboard there, that teacher has a hard time living up to the level of drama and richness," he said. Gates announced that Microsoft will expand the company's Innovative Schools initiative, which looks at ways to better integrate technology and learning, to an additional 12 countries: Ireland, the U.K., France, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Qatar, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Hong Kong. Microsoft has undertaken a variety of projects as part of the program. In Philadelphia, the company joined the city's school district and built a 750-student high school -- called a School of the Future -- that focuses on how technology can improve student performance. It opened in September 2006. The company provided technical guidance, which included the building of a secure Web portal for parents and students for access to assignments, class schedules and grades. In the U.K., Microsoft backs the Building Schools for the Future program, a Â£40 billion ($78 billion) government program to revamp secondary education. The company assists local authorities on ways to integrate technology into education. In Taipei, students at Zhong Lun High School have improved their acceptance rate from 36 percent to 50 percent since it became a School of the Future two years ago, Microsoft said. The company also helped with a distance education facility for teachers, where they can design and publish e-learning material. At the start of his address, Gates spoke of Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American steel magnate who later used his wealth to fund libraries and educational institutions. Next year, Gates will step down as Microsoft's chairman to focus on the philanthropy through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on global health and development issues. Gates recalled one of Carnegie's statements: "He who dies rich, dies disgraced." "Iâm working on avoiding that, but it's a high responsibility," Gates said to laughs.
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Sharp designs and colors fight the impression made by older devices.
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Microsoft Corp.  founder Bill  Gates said on Tuesday the company's Windows Vista operating  system has received an incredible reception.
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Smoke and mirrors Comment Microsoft's calls its multitouch user interface Surface Computing "a new paradigm". We asked Britain's leading expert to examine the claim. - ed.â¦
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THE GRAND NABOB of the world&#39;s software giant, Microsoft, Bill Gates, has told technologists that he is not afraid of Linux. Speaking at a shindig at the Computer History Museum, Gates said that he had seen