stuart test blog

For the second year in a row I’ve made a big effort to watch Bill Gates’s keynote speech at CES, and for the second year in a row I’ve been disappointed. Granted, the video about his last day at Microsoft showed the lighter side to him, but there were no other highlights.

Surface computing is something that demos well but will probably never eventuate to anything. There may be Surface computers that provide interactive displays, but these will just be like touch-screen panels today. I can’t see it happening that you place your cellphone on the Surface and it automagically transfers images or music onto my device easily and seamlessly.

The same goes for the demo of Microsoft’s Sync technology which integrates your MP3 player or phone into your car’s entertainment system. It demos well but can you imagine a mother with screaming kids in the car, talking at her phone and saying, “Play Cars” and the song Cars magically starts playing? It will be more like, “Sorry your device was not recognised, please re-enter your car.” Or, “I’m sorry, did you say, ‘Play Fart?'”

The demo of Live services was the same – what a wonderful world it would be if all of my contacts were on Windows Live, and had Windows Mobile phones, and had a Live Space, and used Live Messenger, and kept their Live Calendar up to date? Then planning an event would be so easy…

I’m interested to see who does the main CES keynote next year – will it even be someone from Microsoft? Imagine if Steve Jobs opened CES – that would be interesting.