To kick offCES , the consumer electronics orgy take place this week in Las Vegas , Microsoft ’s Bill Gates take the stage to provide his farewell keynote address . During that address , Gates , who will leave Microsoft to presumptively give his life to performing Good Works , extend hisMicrosoft - and - married person - dominate vision of the futurity .
And , may I say from my armchair several hundred naut mi away , what a payload of god - help - us it was .
Without tell every contingent of the seemingly interminable parade of tributes , partner , demos , and accolades for such sterling technologies as Vista , Zune 2 , and Microsoft Surface , perchance I can crystallise my objections to Bill ’s future ( and , at the same time , extend some insight into why Apple seems to have the clearer vision ) with a yoke of lesson from the event .
Microsoft’s Bill Gates outlined his vision for the future during his Sunday night keynote kicking off the Consumer Electronics Show. (Photo by Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service.)
All data all the time
Microsoft ’s Bill Gates outline his vision for the future during his Sunday night keynote kicking off the Consumer Electronics Show . ( Photo by Elizabeth Montalbano , IDG News Service . )
Earlyish in the keynote , Gates conceive of a hereafter where your data follows you around from home computer , to mobile phone telephone set , to tablet PC , back to earpiece and background , over to the video … all on gimmick from unlike manufacturers , all getting mucked with during its journeying , all running Microsoft engineering .
set up away , for the present moment , that it will be a Herculean task to make this work seamlessly — and if Microsoft is about anything , it ’s seam — do we really want to tamp down our lives with more of this crap ? I ’m as penetrative on technology as the next guy wire , but there comes a point when enough is enough .
I do n’t want all of my data stalking me . It dead makes sense that I synchronize my inter-group communication , calendars , bookmarks , and email between the computers I use and my peregrine computing twist and that I can easily move media between my calculator , iPods , iPhone , and TV . But beyond that , I ’m pretty much good .
This is something that Apple ’s technology tolerate me to do properly now . They could act upon better — synchronise rest more perplexing than it needs to be — but the basic principle - and - more are in place . If I want to geek out in a way Gates envisions , I can . But like most the great unwashed , I prefer to have what I call for without a lot of unnecessary ramification and clutter . Do as Apple does and keep it dewy-eyed , Bill . Please do n’t present me with a time to come where complicatedness and clutter are the criterion rather than exception .
Hipness is, what it is…
A Justin Timberlake track beep from the house strait system and then Timberlake strolled on stage to procure the military service .
Justin . Friggin ’ . Timberlake .
counterpoint this to an Apple medicine event . concede , John Mayer has seen the stage at least one sentence too many , but at least he ’s got some cred as a monster participant . And Wynton Marsalis ? Dude , even if two - thirds of your audience does n’t know who he is or understand a note he play ( and shame on them ) , those who do will give you point for making a great exertion than looking at the latest Billboard charts , head at a name , and saying “ How many units ? Get that one . ”
I feel an Urge to declare oneself this hint : Non - stop rotation on Clear Channel and record book sales to 12 - year - quondam girls does not hipness make .
Too many cooks
And then fall the barrage of partnership deals and Microsoft - compatible devices . While I ’m sure the level was to underline that Microsoft is everywhere with everyone , ill-use back and Microsoft search like the tavern strumpet — willing to do concern ( and make substance abuser - unfriendly via media ) with anyone with the cash or come - on to seal the deal .
Say what you will about Apple ’s predilection for control , its power to assure the intact widget — hardware , package , and content services — makes for a far more cohesive user experience . And one that has , once again , that keep - it - simple - and - accessible design ethic . Unlike with Windows or Microsoft - centric services , it ’s rarefied that I encounter an Apple technology and think “ If Partner X had n’t demanded its pound of build , this would so rock ! ”
A fond farewell
My guess is that Gates ’ keynote and visual sense of the future has a shelf life of exactly 10 Clarence Shepard Day Jr. — the same 10 day between Gates ’ presentation and Steve Jobs ’ keynote next Tuesday . Like Bill Gates I ’m enthusiastic about the future . Unlike him , I ’m position my money on a future that just works in an graceful and hip way , from a company with the experience to make that happen .
Christopher Breen covers the iPod and digital - music market place at the Playlist blog .
