Bill Gates bids farewell to CES

Bill Gates may be stepping away from full-time work later this year, but he still has a few things he wants to show off.

In his annual Consumer Electronics Show (click here for more coverage) address, the Microsoft chairman demonstrated a slew of fashionable PCs, touted the role of computing interfaces such as speech and touch, as well as announced a partnership with NBC to jointly run the site for the Olympics.

"This is my last [CES] keynote," Gates told the audience, noting that this is the first time since he was 17 that he doesn't have a full-time job at Microsoft. "What do you do on your last day?," he asked.

Gates, who is shifting to part-time work at Microsoft later this year, also used the speech to note that his software company has now shipped 100 million copies of Windows Vista.

Gates noted that getting so many Vista PCs out will make the platform more attractive. "That's a very significant milestone for application development and specialised hardware work."

Gates' CES address has become an annual tradition, a sort of tech industry State of the Union, although this may well be his last year for some time.

The annual event is Microsoft's opportunity to lay out its vision of where technology is headed and make the case for its approach, as contrasted with that of rivals such as Apple and Sony. Not all of the products touted by Gates, however, have become smash hits. Past keynote addresses have introduced Tablet PCs and various digital household objects that have yet to become mainstream. Last year, Gates used his appearance to show, among other things, Windows Home Server.

This year, Gates' most notable gadget is a "mobile navigator" that can be used to point at a person or place and get more information. The software powering the technology exists within Microsoft's research labs, but Gates doesn't see this device coming to market as a standalone product. Rather, some of these capabilities are likely to find their way into other gadgets, such as cameras and phones.

In the more near-term realm, Microsoft said Samsung will start offering an adapter that lets its flat-screen TVs act as Media Center extenders. That lets the TVs show videos, pictures, and music stored on a Vista PC in another room.

As for PCs, Microsoft plans to show off a new Lamborghini laptop from Asus, as well as Lenovo's new IdeaPad consumer laptop line, which includes a model that uses flash memory rather than a hard drive for storage.

Gates also showed off the role that speech and touch will play in the future. Microsoft has a new concept application for its Surface computer that shows how the product can tie into Windows Live services and other devices.

Gates used the tabletop Surface PC to design a custom snowboard and then send the design to his Windows mobile phone. His design included "Bill!" on the underside.

"I've got something that looks pretty good," Gates said.

Ever the fan of speech-recognition technology, Gates demonstrated how mobile search can be improved by combining GPS data with Tellme's speech recognition technology.

Entertainment and Devices unit head Robbie Bach joined Gates on stage to talk Xbox and Zune, among other things. On the Xbox front, Microsoft touted a number of statistics, including the fact that it has sold more than 17.7 million consoles, as well as the fact that the Xbox 360 has generated far more sales of games and accessories than rival consoles. Microsoft also has 10 million subscribers to its Xbox Live service.

Microsoft is also touting sales of two recent game releases. Its blockbuster, Halo 3, has sold more than 8.1 million copies since its September launch, while Mass Effect has sold 1.6 million copies in the six weeks since its launch.