CARLSBAD, Calif.--A steady stream of folks rushed the stage Wednesday after Howard Stringer's speech, but they weren't looking to corner the Sony CEO. Rather, they wanted to see his superthin television.
Sony already has an 11-inch OLED model that sells for $2,500, but Stringer showed an even thinner model due out within the next 12 months. It's thinner than a credit card, just 0.3mm thick.
Among those who went onstage to see it was decor guru Martha Stewart, who gave it the all-important thumbs up. "I like it," Stewart told me, adding that she already has several Sony VAIO displays.
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CARLSBAD, Calif.--D6 is getting ready to rock.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is speaking at the conference here, with host Kara Swisher promising the keynote will wrap up with a star-studded demo of the next Guitar Hero.
Paula Abdul was the 'judge' for a demo of the new Guitar Hero World Tour.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)Before that, though, Swisher and Kotick are discussing where gaming is now and where it is headed. Kotick noted that the current machines have broadened the notion of console gaming, each in its own way.
The PlayStation 3 has brought cinematic video quality to gaming, adding the opportunity to have emotional ties with the characters, he said. The Xbox 360 added deep online collaborative gaming abilities, while the Wii's physical interface is bringing in new and different groups of people into gaming.
Kotick also noted that the current models have succeeded in bringing Internet to the TV even after many other efforts, such as Media Center PCs, have failed.
Eventually, there will be a $99 box that takes the notion even more broadly, he said. "That will be the device that is likely to bring the Internet to the television."
Asked by Swisher whether we will all need virtual reality helmets to play games, Kotick said we are probably safe at least until the next generation of hardware comes with more processing power.
Skateboarder Tony Hawk competes during a demo of Guitar Hero World Tour.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)Swisher also pushed him on why there is so much carnage in video games. "We try to stick to violence against small animals," he said, adding that half the gaming population is over 18. That said, he noted that his rival's Grand Theft Auto did $500 million in sales out of the gate.
Lastly, Swisher asked Kotick, a Yahoo board member, about l'affaire Microhoo.
"Jerry (Yang) and Sue (Decker) are going to be here later today," he said. "I hate to steal their thunder."
He joked that he had tried one method of playing peacemaker. "I tried to get the four of them to play the new Guitar Hero together."
Update: Kotick brought out American Idol judge Paula Abdul to judge a competition for Guitar Hero World Tour, the new version due out this fall that adds drums and a microphone (a la Rock Band). Among the contestants: Skateboarder Tony Hawk.
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CARLSBAD, Calif.--In an interesting but perhaps unsurprising move, Microsoft plans to add multitouch interface to Windows 7, CNET News.com has learned. The interface will be shown in just a few minutes as part of Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates' keynote at the D6 event here.
Update: Ballmer says it will come in late 2009. Corporate VP Julie Larson-Green demonstrated the multitouch technology, painting with several fingers at the same time to show how it can process not just touch, but multiple simultaneous input.
"It's much faster to do certain tasks than using a mouse," Larson-Green said. She also showed rotating photos by pinching and rotating, much like Microsoft's surface or Apple's iPhone.
Microsoft had previously hinted that the touch gestures would find their way into Windows. In an interesting twist though, the new technology will work with existing touch screens, Microsoft said. They showed it running on an existing Dell laptop.
A Microsoft blog with a demo can be found here and I've added in Microsoft's video as well at the end of the post.
Analysis and context: I took three major things away from the multitouch demo.
1. Multitouch is going to be ubiquitous. And by this I don't just mean on every Windows machine. I also expect Apple to have a similar feature on its computers, and quite possibly ahead of Windows 7 final ship date.
2. We're going to see touch on a lot more machines ahead of Windows 7. I expect this will help convince PC makers to include touch screens even in Vista machines so they can be "7-proof." Touch can come in many forms. We've already seen that the laptop's touch pad can prove to be a cost-effective spot for gesture sensitive touch, and I think we will see other interesting gesture recognition approaches beyond just making the full screen touch sensitive.
3. User interfaces are a key selling point in Microsoft's No. 1 longterm Windows goal--making the OS matter. Windows is not just under attack from Apple. It's also under attack from forces that threaten to make the OS less relevant, whether it's browser-based applications or (pardon the phrase, boss) Web operating systems.
Two such efforts are going to be on display here at D: G.ho.st (which presents Wednesday) and Glide, which presents on Thursday.
I spoke with CEO Donald Leka, who talked about how Glide allows documents to be shared across devices, such as a Mac user trying to share a QuickTime file with a mobile phone user that happens to have RealPlayer or Windows Media on their device. The company's support for the iPhone, in particular, has been a boon, Leka said.
"The iPhone is probably the best thing that ever happened," he said.
As is often the case, things were a little less compelling when it comes to the business model and the drivers that will push someone to one of these efforts over another. Leka said the company can make money off commerce and by selling premium subscriptions on top of the 5GB of free storage Glide provides.
Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7
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