Software for the user
Software for the User
Likewise, these things need to work across all the different devices. So it's not just software for the PC or software for the phone or software for the videogame, it's software for the user. And my preferences, my interests, like how I charge things or the news I care about or who my buddies are, all of those things are reflected on those devices. As I move between devices, the people I've chosen to share my presence with becomes available to them. A friend can see, if I want, what game I'm playing and say they might want to play with me, ask me to join in and do something else; if I'm on my PC working, they can notify me that there's a contest coming up, something that they'd like to engage me in. Even watching TV, the ability to chat with your friends while you're watching the same show or different shows should be something that's very straightforward.
So this cross-device approach is a very, very important approach. In fact, that's complemented by the fact that there will be what we call Live services where a lot of your files, your information will actually be stored out in the Internet, and even if you pick somebody else's device up, once you authenticate, all that information becomes available to you. So moving between different PCs can be a very, very easy thing.
There's a lot of themes there, themes of personalization, themes of empowerment, themes of everything moving to the Internet. What is telephony moving to the Internet? That's voice. What is TV moving to the Internet? That's Internet TV or IPTV. People have to have confidence in these things, automatically backed up, security built-in, very reliable systems that use the cloud storage for those kinds of guarantees, and easy connections, connecting to people, connecting up to devices, a very strong way of driving through all these different scenarios and making them very simple.
In sum, it's very revolutionary, but every year we have big milestones, more adoption, and it only really catches up to us in terms of how it's changed the world of media, changed how the business models work there, changed the way that magazines and newspapers are delivered, changed the way that entertainment gets done, bringing these new interactive elements in; TV, where we've picked the new segments we want, we interact with a learning show, we can find the video that wouldn't have been available in a broadcast system; all of that is becoming very, very mainstream.
Now, a huge component to this is going to be the investments we've made in the Windows platform. The Windows PC is a part of this ecosystem, so it's got to connect up, but a very important part, both as it presents a nearby interface, what we call the two-foot interface, and as it presents a ten-foot interface, the Media Center interface.
The Next Generation: Windows Vista
And so we're going to show you tonight a glimpse of a lot of [Windows] Vista that we've never showed before. We're going to ship this by the end of the year, and so we've got a few months here, we'll continue to refine the user interface, get feedback, make sure we've got this exactly right. But we're very excited to show you where we are, show you some of these new capabilities.
So let me ask Aaron Woodman, the group product manager, to come on out and give you a little look at [Windows] Vista. (Applause.)
AARON WOODMAN: Thank you, Bill.
I'm super excited to be here to get the opportunity to show you Windows Vista. You know, as Bill mentioned, there were really three things our customers wanted from the next generation of Windows PCs. They wanted clarity, a way to cut through that clutter. They wanted an increase confidence while using their PC. And lastly, all of our customers have grown to expect Windows to be a bridge to communication and entertainment experiences. Let's take a look at how Windows Vista really starts to deliver.
The first thing you'll notice is a fresh user interface. All the applications are actually surrounded by glass. It gives you the opportunity to see what's in front, but it also gives you a sense of depth and seeing what's happening behind itself.
We've also improved how you switch between applications. In fact, if I go down to the task bar, I actually get now live previews of the applications, including motion video. We've extended that same live preview concept to do fast application switching of ALT-TAB, meaning that I can now see all of the applications as they're running, find the appropriate one, and continue to see what's happening behind it in the applications in a live mode.
Lastly, in Windows Vista we've created an entirely new way to switch between applications, Flip 3D. Flip 3D moves all of my applications into a 3-D space, allowing me to scroll through them with my arrow keys or quickly with my mouse. And you really get a sense of the graphic capabilities behind Windows Vista.
We've also given you a couple of new ways to actually see information itself. The two that I like are Windows Sidebar and Windows Sideshow. The Sidebar is a space over on the right-hand side of the screen that houses small applications or gadgets that give very specific functionality or information at a glance. There are four in my Sidebar. There's actually a picture window showing some of the pictures that my friends have placed up on MSN Spaces, I have an RSS feed; I even have an egg timer. My favorite though is actually a prototype built by our partner, Fox Sports, and this allows me to see the latest upto-date sports information that I care about. The nice part about this gadget, I can drag it to the desktop and see a little bit more if I care about it. It's a great way to stay on top of the information that's important to you and cut through that clutter.
The next innovation is really the Windows Sideshow. I'm going to hold up this laptop so you can get a sense of what I'm talking about, but essentially it's a small LCD screen built right into the side of the laptop. And essentially it gives me some small applications or gadgets, again providing some specific functionality. My favorite is actually the calendar application, meaning that I can look and see where I need to be, when I need to be there, without having even to have me power the laptop on. That's information at your fingertips, that's what you should expect from the next generation of Windows PCs.
Bill talked a lot about information on the PC, and consumers have been clear, they want great tools to find the information when it's relevant to them, search is important to them. Windows Vista delivers. In fact, if I go to the Start menu, I can now type the application I'm looking for without having to search through lots of folders and immediately find the information that's important. I can go to the Windows Vista library and search for content that I care about. And it's going to search through all of those documents, no matter where they're stored, what they're called, and bring the relevant information to me, providing me that sense of clarity that I look for.
And the last thing, when we think about information it would be hard not to talk about the Internet, and the Web has been critical in bringing the information we care about to consumers.
Let's take a look at our implementation of tabbed browsing but with a twist. I'm going to go up and do a quick MSN search on something that I care about. It's going to bring those up, and I'm going to open up new tabs and they're going to open up right underneath the address bar there. I'm going to go through and decide, yeah, mountain biking zone is interesting, not sure what that one is about, couple others here, and you can see they're all opening up on the right hand side. But that twist I talked about is Quick Tabs. This gives me the opportunity to see all those tabs, the state that they're in, and make quick, fast decisions, really taking the clutter out of the concern in deciding, oh, I don't want that tab, not really that one either, that's the one I was looking for; a great way to give tools that consumers are looking for, give them the information that they expect from the next generation of Windows PCs.
Well, what about confidence? We've made huge investments in Windows Vista in terms of the security, making and hardening the Web experience, including things like the anti-phishing browser. My favorite is parental controls. For the first time ever, the Windows operating system is going to have built-in parental controls. I'm going to go ahead and select my son's account, Toby, and you can see the types of restrictions. As a parent, I now get to decide [what I] implement on my PC: I have Web restrictions, time limits, games. Games is a wonderful example of us working with something that the industry has already rallied around, and that's the game ratings from the ESRB. This means that now when you buy a game, on the packaging you see an emblem, on the game itself, and ahead of time you can decide as a parent whether you're comfortable with that PC and your child playing that game on that PC. That puts parents back in control and it gives them that sense of confidence that they expect with having that PC in their home.
Well, what about experiences? It would be hard to come to the Consumer Electronics Show and just talk about clarity and confidence; well, what about the experiences we expect from Windows? I'm going to talk and show three that I think really move ahead: gaming, memories and music.
Gaming is a wonderful place to start. It's been really paralleled with the PC since we started bringing them into our homes. In fact, there's one application I can think about that has this long rich history working with the PC, Microsoft Flight Simulator. The Microsoft Flight Simulator has been around now for over 20 years. Every time the PC has improved in its performance, its capability, its graphic ability, Microsoft Flight Simulator has really been there to take advantage of those opportunities.
I brought with me actually a sneak preview of the next generation of Microsoft Flight Simulator. It's a really immersive environment that's being led by Windows Vista graphics and the next generation of DirectX.
You can see the realism of the reflection. And I'm actually going to drive or going to try to drive with my Xbox 360 controller plugged directly into my Windows Vista PC. You can really start to see the smoke from the boat, the independent and kind of live life that you see with the waves, with some of the birds and the trees that you'll start to see.
This is the immersive environment that people expect from PC gaming in the next generation of Windows PCs. Windows Vista really starts to deliver.
Off the west coast of Maui, it's not a bad place to be.
So the game developers actually have a little bit more than a year to continue working on the product, so the final product is going to be even better. But one thing is for sure, gaming is going to be awesome on Windows Vista.
All right. Well, what about memories? We all expect memories to be part of Windows, and Windows Vista really delivers an entirely new experience. I'm going to open up the Windows Photo Gallery, which is really the hub of the memories experience within Windows Vista. It gives me an opportunity to see a snapshot view of all the memories I care about, including digital photos and digital video.
I can easily and quickly pace over the images that I'm looking for. We've given you a couple of new tools to find the images. We give you dates so you can quickly find things by date, by tags, by keywords. I can search by keyword. It's a great way to put consumers back in control and easily find the memories that are important to them.
We've also implemented edit functionality right into the operating system. I'm going to actually open up a picture that I want to edit and go to fix. And you can see the types of controls over on the right hand side. I'm going to actually select to crop this image and apply that, and then go on to the next picture. You can imagine how many customers have looked for that type of simplicity.
We also want to continue to provide confidence in the experiences themselves. So what can you imagine would be more frustrating for a consumer than coming back to a picture and feeling like they've lost that original fidelity, because of the number of times they've edited it? They've cropped something a few years ago for a print and come back to the photo and decide, man, I really want the content I cropped out.
In Windows Vista we always save an original, which means years later you can come back to this photo and decide actually I want to see the original fidelity, I want to see the original image. We give you the confidence so that you can do what you want with your memories and never feel lost. It's a great way to put consumers back in control of their PC.
Lastly, I want to show you the experience that we've improved in terms of enjoyment. I'm going to go to some of my favorites and open up the Slideshow. The Slideshow is a wonderful way that people have started to enjoy their photos on the PC. It's a wonderful creative way to gather and get a sense and stay connected to the things that are important.
We've made two good additions in terms of the Windows Slideshow in Windows Vista. The first is the addition of themes. In this case it's the white border moving on a sandy beach and those nice transitions. The second improvement is motion video. That means you no longer have to separate your digital still pictures and your digital video pictures. If you're interested in sharing with them, the Windows Slideshow gives you that opportunity. It's a great way to put consumers again back into control of their PCs and give them what they're looking for.
Well, music. It would be hard to come to the Consumer Electronics Show and not talk about music from Microsoft. In fact, I've brought with me the next generation of Windows Media Player. The first thing you should notice is clean user interface. In fact, when I click on artist, I no longer get this list that scrolls on to infinity, I get this nice, clean user interface. We've really done a great job of integrating the graphics, in this case the visuals or album art. I click songs, I not only just get a list of songs but I get the album art associated with that. In fact, it's actually dynamically there so I can decide how much or how little I actually want to see.
We've improved the management experience within the next generation of Windows Media Player. I go to genre and I get what we call Digital Stacks and that's the ability to visually see how much is in the actual collection. And you see blues has two or three albums, bluegrass only has one. If I scroll down, you can see the Latin collection has a little bit more. It really gives you a sense and an ability to make choices very quickly off of some visual information.
Lastly, we've improved performance. When I select songs, I'm going to scroll through, and this is a 10,000 song library. You can see how quickly I get the album art, I get the title, I get the ratings. That's the performance you should expect from the next generation Windows PC.
And because it's Windows Vista, search, which means I have that 10,000 song library, I can instantly scroll down to the ones I'm interested in. I can do it by artist. That's the type of control that we expect consumers are going to want and we're going to deliver within Windows Vista.
