Gates Pushes Idea of Windows Everywhere

Bill Gates Chairman and CEO of Microsoft gives the Consumer Electronics Show keynote address at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas in this Jan. 5, 2000 file photo. In 2000, Gates correctly explained the rising importance of networked mobile devices, even as PCs were still becoming more prevalent. Indeed, the following year he predicted that the percentage of American homes with PCs would grow from just over 50 percent at the time to 75 percent by 2010.

Microsoft Corp. might not be the unbeatable giant it once seemed to be, but Chairman Bill Gates made the case Sunday night that its technologies are becoming even more flexible and powerful as they seep into automobiles, Internet-based TV networks and living rooms.

A few months away from leaving his daily duties at Microsoft to focus on his philanthropy, Gates used his traditional kickoff keynote at the International Consumer Electronics Show to highlight how Microsoft is extending the reach of its software beyond desktops and servers, and incorporating alternative inputs like voice and touch.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates shows a Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) watch by Fossil during his keynote address for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in this Jan. 8, 2003 file photo.

PC programs were expected to get less airtime than in previous keynotes. That contrast stood out considering not only the tepid response for Microsoft's year-old Windows Vista operating system but also the way that Web-based applications are threatening Microsoft's hold on desktop computing.

Instead Gates planned to bounce from cars — Microsoft's Sync technology for playing music and making phone calls should be in all Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles in the 2009 model year — to the living room. Gates and Robbie Bach, who heads Microsoft's entertainment division, announced an expansion of the high-definition Hollywood movies and TV shows that can be downloaded through the Xbox video game console's online service.

He also was to explain how Mediaroom, the Internet-based television platform that Microsoft created for telecommunications companies to sell, will work with TNT and Showtime to let users select their own camera angles when viewing sports. For example, a Nascar fan could maintain a constant view from his favorite driver's car, or plug into a certain ringside shot in a boxing match. For now, though, Mediaroom is mainly used for TV services in other countries.

And he was scheduled to talk up improvements in ways for people to interact with software by voice, touch and gesture. In addition to the speech-recognizing functions in Sync-enabled cars, Microsoft plans to soon upgrade the voice-activated information searches available through its subsidiary Tellme. It also will augment the system underlying Surface, Microsoft's computer in a table that responds to users' touches and gestures.

Surface is debuting as a virtual concierge in hotels, but Gates hopes it will soon be used in retail stores. For example, Microsoft says, an outdoors-shop customer could use a Surface table to customize a snowboard and transfer an image of his creation to a mobile device simply by putting it on the table.

It was that kind of demonstration that inspired thousands of techies to begin lining up for the speech more than four hours before it was to begin.

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Gadgets to Go Green at Electronics Show

Workers prepare to install a sign at the Intel booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center, in preparation for the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008, in Las Vegas. The CES, the world's largest consumer technology trade show, runs Jan. 7 to Jan. 10.

Consumer electronics aren't exactly easy on the environment — they consume electricity that contributes to global warming, and toxins leach out of them when they end up in landfills.

But the industry that's inviting us to get a new cell phone every year and toss out that old TV in favor of a great new flat panel is also trying to show that it cares.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

Electricians Angela Peterson, top, and Ernest Gutierrez works at the Sharp booth

Electricians connect cables on the back of LED wall at the Motorola booth

Dell's Crystal LCD monitor is one of the most beautiful PC displays we've ever seen, but its spec sheet isn't quite as impressive.

Skype-enabled PSP to be announced at CES?

Bill Gates is reportedly to be at CES next week to roll out something very important having to do with the Xbox 360

At the world's largest trade show for consumer electronics, starting Monday in Las Vegas, manufacturers will be talking not just about megapixels, megahertz and megabytes, but about smart power adapters that don't waste as much electricity, batteries that are easier to recycle, and components made from plants.

Many of the products on display will be striking rather small blows for the environment, but the industry is realizing that even in electronics, going “green” can be a powerful marketing tool.

“Everything I've heard from folks out there is that there is going to be a lot of emphasis on green this year,” said Scot Case, a vice president at consultancy TerraChoice Environmental Marketing Inc.

One of the 2,700 exhibitors at the International Consumer Electronics Show will be Japan's Fujitsu Ltd., which will show off a laptop with a plastic case made from corn rather than petroleum products. The company has sold such a model in Japan since 2006, but is now considering taking it to the North American market.

Environmental awareness among consumers and corporations has now reached the point where manufacturers really are taking notice, said Richard McCormack, senior vice president of marketing at Fujitsu's U.S. arm.

“They're driving manufacturers like us with their pocket book,” McCormack said.

The catch with the corn-based laptop is that the material isn't biodegradable, meaning it doesn't decompose any faster than regular plastic. That's because it still contains some petroleum-based plastic in the mix for rigidity. The plastic still needs to be processed for recycling, after which the corn-based component can biodegrade.

Another company attacking the recycling angle is Z-Power, which has developed a battery technology that it hopes will replace the lithium-ion batteries that power today's laptops and cell phones. Its silver-zinc batteries will show up in laptops from a “major” manufacturer in the summer, according to the Camarillo, Calif., company's chief executive, Ross Dueber.

Lithium-ion batteries are recyclable but contain little recoverable material. The metals in Z-Power's batteries will be recoverable, Dueber said, and with a precious metal like silver in them, there will be a strong incentive to do so. The capacity should be 20-30 percent higher than lithium-ion laptop batteries. The company is also in discussions with cell-phone manufacturers.

PC makers have already come a long way toward making their products recyclable, said Jeff Ziegler, chief executive of Austin-based TechTurn Inc., which processes millions of used computers and other gadgets every year for recycling or reuse. Manufacturers have cut down on the number of different materials that go into their products, simplifying recycling a great deal. They've also cut back on lead solder and other poisonous components.

But as yet, only a few manufacturers, like Sony Corp., take responsibility for recycling their products. Just 12.5 percent of U.S. electronics waste is offered for recycling each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and much of that is dumped rather than recycled.

At the show, the EPA will be announcing a campaign to provide consumers with more places to turn in cell phones for recycling, in partnership with manufacturers and retailers. The agency puts the number of unused cell phones lingering in drawers at 100 million.

Also at the show, manufacturers are expected to trot out computers, especially laptops, that meet the EPA's new, tougher Energy Star 4.0 power consumption requirements, which went into effect in July. The specification now sets maximum levels for power consumption when the computer is on but idle — previously, Energy Star dealt only with the ability to enter “sleep” mode.

There won't be many desktop computers qualifying for the Energy Star rating — their power consumption is growing, with many now hitting 400 watts. Marvell Technology Group Ltd. will be demonstrating chips for power adapters that it says can curb that trend, by convert alternating current into the direct current in a more efficient way, potentially power consumption by half.

The Consumer Electronics Association, the organization that also puts on CES, estimated last year that consumer electronics, including home computers, consume 11 percent of residential electricity in the U.S., more than doubling its share in 10 years.

Television sets are another big power draw, and will become more so as analog TVs are replaced with high-definition sets. Though more energy efficient per inch of screen size, their larger size more than makes up for any gain in efficiency. Plasma sets in particular easily draw 400 watts, or as much as four older tube-type TVs.

A much more power-efficient screen technology will be on display at CES: Samsung Electronics Co. will be bringing a 31-inch TV made of organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs. For now, however, the technology is much too expensive for the mass market, and there's no word on when or if Samsung plans to sell the screen. Sony has announced an 11-inch OLED display for $1,700.

Cell phones, while hardly power-hungry, are quite wasteful: Nokia says two-thirds of the energy a charger uses is drawn when the connected phone is already fully charged. GreenPlug of San Ramon, Calif., will be previewing a solution to that problem, a universal power adapter that “talks” to gadgets to determine their energy need. Apart from cutting wasted electricity, GreenPlug aims to eliminate the need for a different adapter for every phone, MP3 player, and other portable gadget.

Getting other manufacturers to make their products compatible with the GreenPlug hub looks difficult, however. That points to part of the problem with the consumer electronics industry: innovation is happening in a lot of corners, but no one player is big enough to solve all the problems.

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Locals Want More From IBM for Pollution

Contractors for IBM Corp. install a well at North Street and McKinley Avenue as part of a larger effort to monitor and clean underground pollution in Endicott. The pollution, linked to the nearby IBM campus, has prompted legal action from residents and business owners.

Residents and businesses in central upstate New York sued IBM Corp. for more than $100 million Thursday saying pollution from the company's former microelectronics plant in Endicott endangered people in the area.

The state Department of Health has documented higher rates of certain cancers and heart defects in areas affected by pollution south and southwest of the former plant, although health officials have been unable to pinpoint a cause for the illnesses.

IBM began negotiating in 2004 with the plaintiffs, who rejected IBM's offer in November of $3 million to settle more than $100 million in claims.

An underground plume of trichloroethylene first detected in 2003 has penetrated nearby homes and shops as a toxic vapor, said Gerald Williams, one of the attorneys for the 94 plaintiffs.

Exposure to TCE, a metal cleaning solvent, has been linked to illnesses ranging from kidney cancer to brain damage. When exposed to water, TCE turns to a vapor that can travel through the soil and enter basements or houses through cracks in the foundation.

“IBM, with the guidance and direction of the government, is taking steps to do what it can to correct some of these problems. But this is a lawsuit for compensation. These chemicals were in the ground and the air for decades,” Williams said.

As a “sophisticated scientific business entity,” IBM had the scientific expertise to know that the chemicals it used and discarded would endanger residents of the region known as the Southern Tier, according to the complaint.

The 43-page lawsuit claims IBM behaved “wrongfully, wantonly and recklessly with conscious indifference and disregard to the health and safety” of local residents.

IBM said it would fight the lawsuit.

“As we explained to plaintiffs' lawyers before they filed this case, these suits have no basis in science or law, and IBM will defend itself vigorously,” the company said in a statement.

IBM operated a plant at the site from 1924 until it sold the property in 2002, producing circuit boards, integrated circuits, computer systems and other information technology products.

Under a cleanup required by state regulators, IBM has built hundreds of extraction and investigation wells since 1979 to monitor groundwater pollution in the Southern Tier.

After the vapors were detected, the company installed ventilation systems in more than 440 properties, mostly homes. IBM said it also has paid local homeowners another $2.2 million under a program negotiated by the state attorney general's office

Williams said none of the remediation can completely protect residents. So the lawsuit seeks to compensate them.

Residents have suffered permanent physical, emotional and developmental injuries; they have incurred medical, hospital and other health care expenses; and they have experienced loss of income, wages, employment benefits, diminished quality of life, and limitations in their ability to enjoy life as a result of the exposure, according to the lawsuit.

The suit details each plaintiff's allegations, including those of nine cancer victims and three children with congenital heart defects, Williams said.

Attorneys are organizing nearly 1,000 potential plaintiffs into at least five more groups to file claims in coming months, Williams said.

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IBM Hardware Group in Big Restructuring

IBM Corp. is restructuring its hardware division around customer types rather than individual products, marking the biggest such realignment in the unit in 15 years.

In an internal memo sent to the hardware group Thursday, the head of the division, William Zeitler, said the changes would strengthen IBM's ability to sell technology to small and medium-sized businesses and to design products specifically for them.

IBM gets most of its business from big corporations and governments, but it has been trying to improve sales of services, software and servers to smaller companies because their technology purchases are growing at a faster rate.

Although IBM will still report hardware revenue by product category as it traditionally has, the realignment will create four client segments, including one governing hardware for large organizations and a separate one for small and mid-sized customers.

The third segment will focus on “industry systems” in retail, telecommunications and health care, and the fourth on microelectronics, serving buyers of IBM's custom microprocessors.

Analyst Bob Djurdjevic of Annex Research said the realignment should help IBM move quicker and more in tune with the needs of smaller customers. While IBM's chairman and chief executive, Sam Palmisano, has been talking about “lowering the center of gravity of the company,” that has been “mainly rhetoric” until now, Djurdjevic said.

Palmisano said in 2007 that sales to small and medium customers might soon become IBM's single largest customer segment, surpassing the financial-services industry. IBM claims small and medium businesses accounted for $17 billion of its 2006 revenue, while financial services rang up $25 billion.

However, that figure is not entirely as it may appear: It represents revenue reaped by IBM sales teams other than the ones who sell into the world's very largest organizations. As a result, companies with many thousands of people can get touted as small and medium business sales for IBM. If IBM were to count only the sales into companies with fewer than 1,000 people, it is believed the figure would have been closer to $11 billion in 2006.

Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM is due to report 2007 financial figures Jan. 17.

Its shares closed up 21 cents at $104.90 Thursday.

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