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The Bill Gates keynote (with Robbie Bach) and other CES 2008 coverage

Microsoft at 2008 International CES


Bloggers and the press are out in force at CES in Las Vegas, tonite covering Bill Gates’ keynote at CES 2008.  You can find several entries listed here.  Check out video coverage at Microsoft’s CES site and on Microsoft PressPass.


[More on the keynote from MS.com: On Monday, Jan. 7, the transcript from the keynote address will be posted on PressPass, along with an online media kit.  Click here to subscribe to PressPass via RSS.  If you are in Vegas, Microsoft’s booth is 7144 in the Central Hall of the LVCC.]


So far, it’s just like being in Vegas, but with out the 24-hour flashing neon, long cab and restaurant lines, sleepy booth jockeys and uncomfortable hotels… and all from the comfort of my own home with free broadband access. 


And much quieter, too.


Our very own MSN Tech & Gadgets has a dedicated CES page along with the their spaces blog with posts from staff in Vegas (with the first photos of Playboy Bunnies, Hulk Hogan and tasers…;).  Engadget has great coverage on a CES-optimized page for their readers.  Daisuke Wakabayashi at Reuters covered the keynote as did Joseph Menn from the LA Times, and many blogger reports from CES here


[Added 010708: Here’s a good summary of the keynote from first-time Gates keynote attendee  which also has CES product coverage.]


Todd Bishop of the Seattle PI newspaper has an active Microsoft blog and tonite provides an overview of one of the keynote items: partnerships with content providers “including one with NBC to put video of the upcoming Olympics [see below] in Beijing exclusively on Microsoft’s MSN site.” He also notes the deal with MGM Studios to offer movies on Xbox Live Video, as well as with ABC Television, the Disney Channel offering programming from their channels. 


Marc has a quick synopsis on his blog, and  | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com thumbnailMary Jo Foley has a few points on Gates’ last CES keynote, which she said was ‘Long on sales claims, short on futures…’  She also notes here that Microsoft has announced a new sales milestone for Windows Vista: 100 million retail copies sold



“The company made the announcement via an article, which includes answers to reader questions by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, published by the BBC on Sunday…”


Want to ask Bill a question?  You can pose your own questions to Mr. Gates, so to speak, as posted on tech-buzz: Billg invited readers (of the BBC News) “to send him questions about his life and career. This invitation has been extended to readers from all over the world, and the timing could not have been more apt. You can send him questions on his life and career here.” The beeb will select some of the best questions and post the answers courtesy of Billg on their website and via television.


Also cool is the announcement that our Internet Protocol Television technology (IPTV) ‘Mediaroom’ is on more than a million set-top boxes worldwide. (As Bishop notes, IPTV technology delivers TV signals over phone lines.)  No mention of any new Xbox 360 hardware yet. 


C’mon… VUDU is listing their new XL for nearly a grand US (which is what, C$99 these days?;) and will debut their new Vudu XL movie vault that will hold “up to 500 full-length SD standard movies.” (Thanks, betanews.)  Surely we’ll see some more great announcements on the Media Center front when it comes to content and home theaters, right?


Now, back to the keynote: Todd Bishop also sat down and interviewed Billg just before the keynote where…



“Gates talked about the future of technology and discussed his plans as he prepares to go part time at the company later this year. He also defended Microsoft’s year-old Windows Vista operating system from critics and credited Nintendo’s Wii game console for its approachability — saying he expects Microsoft to “match that and do better.”


[Note: IMHO, “match that and do better” for starters should equal an Xbox 360 with a much quieter fan and disc drive than I have today in my black Xbox 360 Elite.  Another note: smaller and durable is also a good thing, too: to our boy’s delight, we traveled over the winter break with a Wii in my laptop carry-on bag, which included a laptop as well, power supply in the checked bag.]

At this year’s keynote, Ian Dixon posted here that Billg and Robbie Bach from E&D covered Vista customers (over 100 million served), Window Live bits, Surface, Silverlight, Xbox Live and Mediaroom (IPTV), Samsung’s new Media Center Extender and how in the UK customers will find the “the Xbox 360 as a IPTV client.” Add to that the numbers game: 10 million members strong on Xbox Live; 17.7 million Xbox 360 consoles sold so far (as x3sphere posted here); and 420 million Windows Live users worldwide. 

And another number: Gizmodo covers the 3,600 hours of the 2008 Olympic Games on MSN in Silverlight


“Bill Gates (and Bob Costas) announced that NBC would broadcast 3,600 hours of games from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics via MSN on the nbcolympics.com site. The video will be both live and on demand, with over 30 simultaneous live broadcasts. The cool thing is that finally, people who love ridiculous games like the hammer toss will get their fix, without upsetting the basketball fans who wouldn’t dare allow for a pre-emption.”


(Silverlight is a relatively small download: a whopping 2.6 MB which took less than a minute to install on my machine.)


Engadget thumbnailAs reported on Engadget, Zune will finally say ‘eh’ as it’s soon to be launched in Canada: perhaps I can then find some more Nash the Slash and Jane Siberry on Zune, too.  I hope that they do this before the next general election or no later than Canada Day: friends up north shouldn’t have to endure another Zuneless summer.


Todd Bishop also offers an edited transcript of the interview in his post — good reading — in addition to coverage of the keynote address here, as Gates came on stage with Slash, lately of of ‘Guitar Hero III’ fame…


“The night ended with Microsoft executive Robbie Bach challenging Gates to a “Guitar Hero” duel. After Bach brought out a “Guitar Hero” champion to stand in for him on the old Guns N’ Roses tune “Welcome to the Jungle,” Gates said he had a ringer, too: Slash, the former Guns N’ Roses guitarist…”


Mary Jo also posted that…


“the only truly futuristic technology that Gates showed during his hour-plus CES appearance was a piece of visual-recognition software under development by Microsoft Research that, some day, may be integrated into cell phones and other devices…

“I was hoping Gates would pull a Steve Jobs and say at the very end of his remarks, “We have one more thing…” and show off Windows Live “Horizon” or a sneak peek of Windows Mobile 7, or the “Pink and Purple” project’s Zune phone, or — heck, even just a glimpse of “Fiji.”


Hey, Mary Jo… it’s the early start to a long week.  Give it time. 😉

For our sons: Engadget provides a video look Guitar Wizard. Our kids are big on Guitar Hero on Xbox, and now the makers of the big hit at our house this Christmas —  I Can Play Guitar from Mattel — have this new teaching tool showing at CES.  Add to this Max is in his first year of real guitar lessons and Music Wizard’s Guitar Wizard looks like a great learning tool.  (More info here.)

More info:



Tags: Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates, Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Corp., Gate, Microsoft Windows, CES 2008, Windows Live, Windows XP, Windows Mobile, Zune, Xbox, Xbox Live, Windows 7, Software, Consumer Electronics.

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Reports of a future Xbox 360 with HD-DVD on-board surface in Oz

Remember, this is an external news report, on Dealerscope this morning…

Microsoft Preparing Xbox 360 with HD DVD

“According to an Australian Web site citing inside sources at Toshiba, that company and Microsoft are at work on a new version of the Xbox 360 that will include a new HD DVD drive, as well as new entertainment software not previously available on the console.

“The Web site Smarthouse reported over the weekend that an unnamed “senior Toshiba executive,” in Singapore, had confirmed the project, and added that it may also be sold under the Toshiba brand name… Smarthouse said the new device will likely be unveiled in either late 2008, or at the 2009 CES show.”

Leave it to the Aussies to report something like this… David Richards at Smarthouse.com.au reported this story late last week.

“Microsoft, according to insiders at Toshiba owner of the HD DVD patents, claim that Microsoft is working on a brand new Xbox that will incorporate not only a new HD DVD drive but a large hard drive and new entertainment software that is a spin off from its struggling media centre offering.”

Struggling? Not sure about that assessment, as NPD NPD reported that Xbox 360 outsold the Wii at retail, as Dean Pullen reports on The Inquirer

“Spurred by the release of Halo 3, the Xbox 360 led all console sales in the U.S. during September with 527,000 units sold.

“The Wii sold 501,000 units, while the DS handheld sold 495,800 – helped further by the aforementioned Zelda.

“The three Halo 3 SKUs combined, have sold an amazing 3.3 million copies since launch. This helped raise the industry sales figures 74% for the month of September year on year. Total sales hit (USD) $1.36 Billion.”

That looks pretty healthy.

As I asked earlier this year, “when will we see an Xbox 360 Elite HD bundle announced? I don’t want another peripheral for the Xbox 360… I would like to see an HD DVD drive built in to the main unit. That would be worth the premium cost.”

The article from Oz also noted that “there is also talk of it including a dual HD TV tuner and EPG capability and a docking port for an MP3 player… <and> the development of an open standard docking port similar to the 17 pin iPod port. This would allow all manufacturers to use the same port for docking.”

DVR? Yes, please.  Having an on-board digital video recorder would be a good combination with the Xbox Live Marketplace for movies and TV delivered to the Media Center PC.  EPG? Again, yes – this (an Electronic Programme Guide, think TV Guide or Media Center UI) would be a must, particularly a Windows Vista Media Center user experience, with network access to all my media, as well as NetFlix movies on demand, Zune music.  Heck, perhaps even Vudu could be a content supplier as a Media Center channel.

That is a must in a one-up over the competition, and one that allows content to be shared around the house.  As noted previously, we have a Media Center PC serving up content in our house, but point of playback DVRs (our ReplayTVs) do most of the time shifting duty on TV for our family.  This would coincide nicely with a logical next step in HDDs for the Xbox, a 200-250GB drive (more mainstream in general purpose notebooks these days).  Given that we’re seeing 200GB drives appear in sub $700 notebook PCs, this would be a good next step (and hold plenty of SDTV and HDTV content).

Talk about a satisfying experience:  one device that does it all.  That would be sleek.

Tags: Microsoft, Xbox 360

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Old news: Free Retrofit for Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel

I missed this article last week.

We have an Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel, and one that has taken a back seat to the of Dance Dance Revolution pad.

I learned from Gregg Keizer at Computerworld (and various news sites) that the Wheel should have a free retrofit applied. There’s an announcement on Xbox.com that notes that “a component in the Wheel chassis may in rare cases overheat and release smoke when the AC-DC power supply is used to energize the Wheel.”

Jeepers.

“Owners of the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel should print out the retrofit form or call Microsoft at 1-800-4MY-XBOX to register to receive the retrofit and protect against the potential hazard described above. Instructions will be provided with the retrofit. We are notifying and will be coordinating our response activities with the relevant regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. This may impact delivery dates.”

Until you receive a retrofit for your Wheel, Xbox recommends that you run the wheel on batteries only.

Or just of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero until it arrives.

Tags: Xbox 360, customer support.

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Xbox 360 repairs are complete: our first unit comes home

It’s returned home.


Our Xbox 360 that suffered from a severe case of the dreaded three red flashing lights arrived on Friday and is now up and running.


Well, not exactly the same Xbox 360: we were informed that the unit we received was a replacement unit, but it’s in fine shape. (Let’s hope that this one doesn’t scratch game discs.)  All told, we waited about five weeks from the first call to the Customer Service centre to this week when UPS showed up with a plain white box.


Not that anyone missed the gaming system today: it was a gorgeous day with baseball, bike rides and much more filling the schedule until late this evening. We had just one session of Dance Dance Revolution on Friday before the kids headed to bed.


What else was in the box: instructions included with the unit were helpful, and it was nice to receive a letter from the Xbox team (in English and Spanish, thank you) apologizing for the issue.  And the bonus of a free month of Xbox Live that many people called out in mail to me was included in the return shipment.


Which is a wash as the unit was out of service for just over a month.


Update on another unexpected bonus: as you may have seen in an earlier post, our older Xbox 360 just went south (a month after the standard one year warranty expired). Good news is that I purchased with a credit card that automatically extended the standard manufacturer’s warranty by one year. That means the $99 repair fee should be covered… a small victory and good reason to keep that plastic.  So check your card agreements and see if you’re covered (some exclusions always apply).


Case in point: I saw recently that Costco extends the manufacturer’s warranty on new computers and televisions to two years from date of purchase. But Costco does not, it seems, extend this offer to video game consoles.


Tags: Xbox 360, customer support.


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How to reset the display settings of the Xbox 360 console

This evening whilst trying to set up Dance Dance Revolution for our boys and their friends, we ran into a small problem: no video.

Hmmm… Could it be that I set the switch incorrectly on the Xbox 360 Component HD AV Cable?  The cable may be switched to either regular SDTV or HDTV output.) 

Nope, I don’t think that’s it. 

So I tried two different Xbox AV cables with the console and same result: no video. (The sound works fine as I hear the Xbox 360 boot sound on the speakers.)

So, I looked at a number of KB articles, including…

To reset the display settings of the Xbox 360 console to the default settings, follow these steps:

  1. Remove any discs from the disc tray.
  2. Turn the console off.
  3. Turn the console on. Note If you are using an Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, turn the console on by using the Xbox Guide button on the controller. Make sure that you use the player 1 controller when you do this. The player 1 controller will have the upper-left quadrant light illuminated.
  4. As the console starts, press and hold the Y button, and then pull the right trigger at the same time.
  5. The Xbox Dashboard resets the display settings to the default settings, and then automatically restarts the console.

I believe that it will be addressed by resetting the display. We’ll see in the morning. Just too tired to futz with it tonite.

Tags: Xbox 360, customer support.