Gates shows off Vista in CES speech

After months of touting Vista's geekier side, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Wednesday highlighted features designed to convince the average consumer that they need the next version of Windows. (You can watch a video of the speech with News.com.)

During his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Gates showed new photo-editing tools and a revamped media player designed to improve the way that Windows tackles the types of files that are most used by consumers. Gates also demonstrated the improved remote-control experience that will be part of the Media Center edition of Vista.

Gates began his speech by noting his recent appearance, along with his wife, Melinda, and U2's Bono, as Time magazine's 'Persons of the Year'. He noted there were other strong contenders. "Probably if there had been one more hurricane, Mother Nature would have been on the cover," he said. "For a lot of reasons I'm glad that didn't happen."

As he usually does, Gates offered his vision of the digital future. He showed a typical day from the future, which began at home with an on-demand video clip and included a look at a map that showed the location of his family members. After heading into the office, he used three large flat-screen monitors to take part in a video conference.

Finally he headed to the airport with just his mobile phone. At the airport lounge, his phone connected to a screen and he instantly had a full desktop to work on. The phone could even connect to a nearby camera. "The phone is very different. The idea of a meeting is very different," Gates said.

Gates hit many of the same notes he hit in last year's speech, talking about the increasing role that digital gadgets are playing in everyday life. Since the demise of the autumn Comdex trade show, Gates' CES speech has become a virtual state-of-the-electronics-industry speech.

A look at Vista
Among the new graphics abilities in Vista that Microsoft showed off was Flip 3D, a tool for easily shifting among multiple open windows and the Windows Vista Sidebar, which runs in the corner of the screen and includes RSS feeds, sport scores and other small applications. Microsoft showed Sidebar in the first preview of Longhorn (Vista's code name), but the feature had disappeared from Microsoft's feature list before reappearing more recently.

Microsoft's photo-editing program, Photo Gallery, allows users to do basic editing, as well as sort photos by date, keyword and other information. The program, which will be built into Vista, appears to be similar to Apple's iPhoto.

Like iPhoto, the Photo Gallery software keeps a separate copy of the photo so users can make changes to their images without losing their original. A new slideshow feature allows users to mix images and still photos.

Microsoft also showed off a forthcoming update to the classic Microsoft program Flight Simulator to show off the graphics and gaming power of Vista. The demo included helicopters and flying birds, among other realistic details.

Xbox marks the spot
Along with Vista, Gates also made his case for HD DVD -- one of two competing formats for next-generation DVDs. Gates said Microsoft would offer an external HD DVD drive that can connect to the recently released Xbox 360 game console.

By offering the drive as an Xbox add-on, Microsoft is hoping to win over consumers with a cheaper option than buying an all-new device to play next-generation Blu-ray or HD DVD discs.

Microsoft also said it expects to have 50 high-definition games on the market by June. Microsoft demonstrated the HD games with Electronics Arts' Fight Night Round 3, which matched up Gates as Muhammad Ali with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as Joe Frazier.

Gates landed some early punches while Ballmer started slowly. Meanwhile, the two executives traded barbs, with Ballmer taking the first jab.

"Thirty years I've been training for this opportunity," Ballmer said.

Showing off some fancy footwork, Gates got in his own shot.

"You've got the weight on me, I'll give you that," said Gates, who won the bout after knocking down Ballmer. An instant replay showed blood spurting from Frazier's mouth.

Gates also demonstrated how the format's guaranteed ability to allow secure copies will allow DVD purchases to be used throughout the digital home.

In an effort to meet demand, Microsoft announced that it is adding a third contract manufacturer, Celestica, to make the Xbox 360. "We are working to deliver consoles as fast as we can manufacture them," said Xbox executive Peter Moore. Moore said the company is on track to meet its goal of shipping 4.5 million to 5.5 million consoles by the end of June.