The CES keynote has held early this morning, just watched the very interesting keynote and this is just a quick round up of the announcements.
- Vista demo of shadowcopy, Office, Live Search + Virtual Earth 3D (using a xbox 360 controller which was very cool) and Media Centre.
- Vista Ultimate Extras was announced, Microsoft research software Groupshot was demo’ed, which combines the good features from two bad photos.
- Also on Vista Ultimate Extras where DreamScene, full motion desktops which looked just great!! Allows a full motion image to be as your background, but also pauses the video to save battery life when its not required. More information over on Channel 10 http://on10.net/Blogs/larry/windows-vista-ultimate-extras/
- New hardware has been designed for user’s appeal. Images of new hardware, looks good.
- Windows Home Server which I discussed just the other day. This is real. Coming 2nd half of the year. “Features: automated backup, connectivity to all PCs, Zune, Xbox, and remote connectivity, if you’re somewhere else, can come in and get files in secure way. No complexity. If you want to grow capacity, just plug new storage in, lots of expandability, software automatically detects it. Can get terabytes of data on this device.” More information over on Channel 10 http://on10.net/Blogs/jesse/windows-home-server-will-live-in-your-closet-simplify-your-life/
- IPTV running on a xbox 360!! Available by the end of the year. Going to be good.
- Windows/PC based games are going to integrate into Live (xbox live) and allow cross platform players to play against each other – excellent for Halo 3 and GTA 4 then they are released on both platforms. I think this is required for online gaming.
- Discussion regarding Ford Sync and Car integration.
- Bill then shows the bus stop, kitchen and bedroom of the future, totally connected experience.
It was a very good keynote, looks of exciting announcements for the year. Its going to be good….
I can go get a cup of tea now.