Session 1: A tour through the 2007 Microsoft Partner Pavilion

2007 International CES at the Las Vegas Convention Center

Several Microsoft Employees

For the second year, Microsoft gave members of the Microsoft Featured Communities a private tour of the Microsoft Partner Pavilion before the opening of CES.

There was an added treat this year at the Microsoft Partner Pavilion: an august visitor!

William H. Gates III

Yes, Bill Gates, aka, Bill G. himself.

Taking a tour around the pavilion, Bill introduced himself to us – as if he needed an introduction to a group of alpha-geeks – and thanked us for our help in the Windows Vista beta process.

Bill Gates still has a lot of passion in him for computing in him, despite his looming retirement from Microsoft. As usual, Bill was very forthcoming about Vista, Microsoft, and the state of computing today. He was very stoked about the relatively smooth transition from 32-bit to 64-bit computing.

Session 2: Toshiba PC Innovations

Masa demonstrated the new Toshiba Portégé R400 and the new near-field access point, the Toshiba Wireless Port Replicator.

Session 3: Windows Live

I cannot say enough about Bruce and his crew. As I have mentioned in the past, the Windows Live team is one of the most energetic teams at Microsoft, even more so since they do not have the baggage of legacy applications.

They are very nimble and have many game-changing ideas. Their only barrier just might be the imposition of an innovation tax by established divisions within Microsoft.

Watch this space for more information as soon as I can release it.

Session 4: Windows Vista Ultimate Extras

Vista Ultimate Extras is Microsoft’s way of continually adding value to the premier SKU of Vista.

At the consumer release of Vista, the following Ultimate Extras would be available:

· Windows Hold ‘Em, a game which is Vista’s take on Texas Hold ‘Em

· Multi-user language packs for Windows, a total of 36. English plus 35 other languages.

An impressive feature of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition is the dynamic way users can utilize the multiuser language pack.

· Windows BitLocker™ Online Secure Key Storage

· Windows DreamScene™ which allows for high-resolution video on the desktop. This video can also be integrated into UI content and the APIs are exposed to partners and developers.

· Digital publications, such as

1) Tips and tricks

2) Blog tips

3) Backstage pass to the world of Windows Ultimate Extras, and many more.

Session 5: AMD Platforms

Pat Moorhead, AMD

Pat on behalf of AMD gave us a briefing about their current desktop performance flagship, the Quad-FX, a two-socket solution that aims to preserve a user’s current investment in CPUS and expand on that by allowing the upgrade to AMD’s single-chip quad-core microprocessors when they are released later in the year.

Session 6: Windows Vista & Photography

Art Wolfe

The internationally-acclaimed photographer and TV host, Art Wolfe, was kind enough to share with us his success with (photographic) content delivery using Windows Vista.

More information on Art Wolfe can be found at his eponymous website, www.artwolfe.com.

Session 7: Office 12

For Office 2007, Microsoft recreated the old user interface replacing it with an entirely new and extremely intuitive UI known as The Ribbon.

(Jensen Harris’ An Office UI Blog details the thought, and processes behind this revolutionary new interface.)

Since this was the umpteenth in a series of briefings, Jared decided to show us the impressive graphics and presentation capabilities built into Office 2007.