Bill Gates has a vision
Scariest. Headline. Ever.
Of all the products and announcements to come from last week's CES, the most embarrassing and unintentionally hilarious was Bill Gate's keynote address. With so much to be worked out concerning "media center" products and the DRM that will accompany them, it was truly fascinating to see every demo fall flat on its face.
The thing that gets me is how suddenly Bill Gates is once again being hailed as a "visionary" by the media. Even Conan O'Brien managed to whore himself out to take part in what I'm sure was a tediously staged and rehearsed keynote, all to celebrate his wonderfulness. In this interview with CNET, Gates manages to take swipes at just about everything under the sun, including the obligatory remarks about Apple, Sony (with which I surprising agree), Google, Mozilla and anyone who might have issues with copyrights and/or P2P. That's a lot of talk for someone who only presented the public with ONE product.
I mean, what can be said about the Media Center PC that hasn't been said already? Oh yeah. Who needs it? Are people so hard up for TV that they'll buy another PC just to record it and watch it later? (This brings up a whole different discussion regarding paying more for the same, but that's for another time.) In the case of it being a DVR, music hub and so forth, aren't there already products that do this? In fact, aren't there already products that do everything that Microsoft wants to do?
Apparently, the single interest I have in Microsoft--the Xbox--hasn't been deemed important enough (or made enough progress) to warrant any sort of announcement whatsoever. The only thing I've seen is that hi-larious demo of Bill and Conan "racing" with Forza Motorsport, in all of its choppy glory. If it weren't for the oddly-situated talent of Bungie, I'd probably care less about the next Xbox. I don't care if the Xbox will hook up to my TV and let me play who knows what. I want it for games, that's all.
I guess it's true. Microsoft really won't be happy until everything you own has been touched by them. Just beware of how much they've fondled it before you lay down your cash.
Related links
Gizmodo : Bill Gates Keynote Gets The Blue Screen Of Death
Gates taking a seat in your den | Newsmakers | CNET News.com
