Thanks to microsoft.com, I was able to watch Bill Gates' keynote address at CES. It didn't have a lot about vista that I didn't already know, but the demos were impressive and overall, the demos went without any hitches.
I was a little disappointed to learn about a couple of vista ultimate features. Not that a video desktop background is a bad idea (if you have the firepower), but the ultimate edition needs to offer a lot more for the extra $100 or so it costs.
The RFID & speech recognition driven home projection system was also impressive and a good indicator of things to come, but right now, you need to be a Bill G to be able to own something like that.
I can't wait for the next Xbox to come out (if the rumors are true, there is a 120 GB, built in HD-DVD & HDMI port version in the works). The IPTV could be something great if it works as promised.
The next day at Macworld was fantastic for the apple fanboys club. The iPhone was revealed and despite the fact that I am not a fanboy, I thought: "YUMMY". However, unless I get one for free, I won't be taking the iPhone route. For that matter, I won't be interested in any first generation product. A lot of people have started pointing out it's flaws already (Its not going to be out till June), but Cingular has already started taking orders. I am sure it will be sold out and may even have a wait-list (no dearth of fanboys for apple.)
Here's what will kill it for me:
8 GB max, not expandable - I have a large music collection, Solid state drives have started to come out at 32 GB. Disappointing.
No 3G - Are they kidding? EDGE might be enough for now, and I am not betting on wi-fi being available for free everywhere.
Not an Open system - Possibly no third party software support.
Also, Apple is not the first to announce a touch screen phone. The next LG chocolate will probably have it too (some photos of prototypes were shown and looks impressive too).
And then, there is the brewhaha about the iPhone trademark and how cisco owns the trademark etc. Apple is laughing it off! Cisco is suing. I hope apple loses this one. Why can't they call it the applephone or aphone or the iphod? They've already renamed their itv to apple tv. This seems like a year of complicated relationships with the law for Apple Inc. (No longer Apple Computer Inc. btw).
