Well, Bill Gates once again dazzled audiences at his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Shows (CES) in Las Vegas this morning. Some of the highlights of the address were the demonstration of build 2410 of Whistler, Microsoft's upcoming operating system built on the Windows 2000 platform. We had the opportunity to see how Whistler handles an array of multimedia applications and features.

The major part of the address was, of course, the demonstration of Microsoft's Xbox gaming console which is due to be released in Fall of this year. After the unveiling of the drape over the Xbox console, Bill Gates stoood by for a few moments so everybody could get a nice picture of him and his revolutionary new product. From the get go, we could see that this was very different than the prototype we privately saw at E3 in May. He stated that the version being tested was running 1/5th of the final power (the xbox development kit 1) and was the final design bar a few breakthrough-in-technology NVIDIA components.

He showed us that the final design (which we posted earlier this week) included 4 ports for multiple gameplayers, on/off switch, and eject in the front with Digital Connector (HDTV compatible) and Ethernet ports in the back. Next the controllers were shown to us - and were said to have "Rumble Technology"(a distant cousin of Force Feedback technology) and to have ample buttons for all the features gamers and developers could need.

It is said that character's personalities in Xbox games were previously only limited to real-life films. First noting that the Xbox is leveraging PC technology in many cases of its development, two games were then demonstrated. The first was Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee published by Microsoft. First shown on a current system in 2D, the game looked appealing and fun. Next, though, we were shown the game on Xbox. What we saw this time was a striking interactive 3D world complete with detailed shadows, textures and sound. The next game was Malice, developed by Argonaut games. This game was not any less appealing than the previous and "uses the same rendering techniques that were used in the “Toy Story” movies. With a character-driven, quest-based plot rich in detail and sumptuous in visual humor, “Malice” is a unique, fast-paced and challenging 3-D action-adventure game."

Then, WWF's "The Rock" came on the stage after an announcement that a WWF game was being developed for the Xbox. The Rock and Bill Gates exchanged some laughter, saying that they have many things in common such as: both being tops in their respective industries, both being top authors and having compelling "catch-phrases."

As we can see, this will be an interesting year in the Microsoft world - especially with Whistler and Xbox. Microsoft's upcoming gaming console is better than all the rest, taking us into a new realm of the gaming world never seen before.