Microsoft's
Bill Gates opens the 2003 CES in Vegas and StudioClub
has special
VIP Pass to their parties...check out some of the
news and
pic of the fun below
Bill Gates introduces Smart Personal Technology
(SPOT) and is key speaker opening CES 2003
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This picture of Las Vegas was taken
from the Voo Doo Lounge
in the Rio Casino where Microsoft
had one of their great parties.
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jjj
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Girls of CES
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Microsoft showed off the first-eversatellite
version of WebTV as well as additions to its popular Microsoft
Windows CE family-from devices that consumers
hold in their hands to products that keep them informed
and entertained while in their cars.
WebTV Networks, Inc. has teamed with EchoStar
Communications Corp. to launch an innovative, satellite-
based version of the WebTV service to match the
product's already high-flying sales. The two companies announced the WebTV
Network Plus Service for Satellite and the EchoStar Model 7100 Satellite
Receiver, the world's first Internet TV service available
through satellite. The new service and receiver, which will be
available
this spring, will revolutionize TV viewing by integrating the Dish Network's
digital satellite video
with the WebTV Network's
Internet TV experience. The result will bring
digital video recording, an advanced Electronic Program Guide,
broadband data delivery, e-mail accounts, child-protection
features and WebTV's popular multimedia e-mail within reach of millions
of people.
A big part of the news at CES is the big success
of WebTV, already the world's most popular Internet TV offering.
With more than 700,000 subscribers and
1.5 million regular users, the 2-year-old WebTV service is growing
fastest
\out-of-the-gate than past innovations such as cell phones,
VCRs and CD players. It is second in early adoptions only
to the Direct TV satellite service. WebTV
Internet terminals and receivers are now sold in thousands of retail
outlets
including Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Circuit City and
the Good Guys, and also over television via the Home Shopping
Network. Sony, Philips, Mitsubishi and Samsung
all make or distribute WebTV products. And the list of television
producers and networks that are using Interactive
Television Links for WebTV reads like a Who's
Who of the industry,
including such producers as Discovery Communications,
NBC, E! Television, Children's Television Workshop and The
Weather Channel.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's innovative announcements
at CES also include new benefits for consumers of a broad
range of intelligent electronics products. Universal
Plug and Play (UPnP), the next phase of Microsoft's seven-year
Plug and Play initiative, makes it easier
for consumers to install and configure their intelligent consumer appliances
and devices on a home or small-business
network. UPnP also makes it easier for those products to work together
on a network and to share resources from any device in the home or business.
For example, a homeowner with two PCs
and one high-speed Internet connection can share
Internet access across both PCs. Many major companies are
pledging to produce UPnP-compatible products
"As appliances become more intelligent, and as
the distinction between appliances and computing devices blurs,
much of their value to consumers will come
from their ability to communicate with other intelligent devices,"
Craig
Mundie, senior vice president, consumer
strategy at Microsoft, told CE attendees during a packed keynote
address. "Because UPnP is built on existing standards,
it will be relatively easy for vendors to implement, and easy
for consumers to take advantage of."
Attendees at CES also got to see other Microsoft
innovations such as the Auto PC, the newest member of the PC
companion line of products powered by the
Microsoft Windows CE operating system, and color-enabled Palm-size
PCs. The PC companion line of products,
which complement and extend the functionality of PCs, range from
the
highly portable Handheld PCs and Palm-size PCs
to voice activated in-car computing Auto PC devices. The robust
Windows CE platform enables more powerful
and innovative devices than are possible with other small computing
devices.
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