Microsoft CES Keynote a Review

I watched the Microsoft CES Keynote last night, on Ustream thanks to Cali Lewis of Geekbrief TV and I was not impressed. A little background, this is the first Microsoft Keynote I have watch. I have used Windows before, but I am presently a Mac user. I don’t hate Windows, I just find the Mac easier to use. So with that as a background here is my review

First the whole speech seemed disjointed, it reminded me of a community play where someone gets pulled from the audience to play a part and they are a little too enthusiastic. That is what Steve Balmer reminds me of, the person who thinks he is cool, but is not. Second, the big hype all day was the Microsoft was going to introduce a tablet along with HP. Steve Balmer did show a prototype tablet, but from the little he showed it looked like a tablet with Windows thrown in. A tablet is not a laptop and should not be treated as one, if Microsoft goes that route they are bound to fail. Of course until the product comes out everything is just speculation. They did announce that Project Natal who be available at the holiday season this year. Project Natal is the use of gestures and body movements to play games instead of a controller. It is an interesting concept, but I am not sure how successful it will be in the long run after all if gamers wanted to wave their hands and body to play a game they would become athletes. However if Microsoft allows other people outside of Microsoft to develop for it I suspect that there will be unique uses it for outside of gaming. I will admit the one thing that confused me completely was the demonstration of their book reader. Which from what they showed would require me to read the book on my computer, with E-books like the Kindle and the Nook available this is a nonstarter for me. The one thing that did interest me was the PC within a TV, which as a self profess geek, I find interesting. The problem is I am not sure if most people want a full computer on their TV. Most people just want to be able to get the videos they want to their TV and simple set top boxes like the Roku, TiVo, Popcorn Hour, not to mention the XBox 360 already do that. So I question why most people would use this over a set top box unless they have unique deals with content providers that the person is interested in.

All in all there was nothing announced at the Microsoft announced at the keynote that I said wow that’s something I just have to have. Most of it was either , looks interesting in concept, but lets see work in the real world, like project Natal, or was like the Microsoft TV, where I said I’ve already seen that and it was done better by someone else. What do you think, is there anything that Microsoft showed that peaked your interest and that you can’t wait to get a hold of.