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Gates unveils his 'Urge' — In challenge to iTunes, Microsoft unveils music service and other entertainment plans. — LAS VEGAS (CNNMoney.com) - Bill Gates aims to take over your living room and late Wednesday he unveiled a new music service and new software to do it.
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Keynote Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation — 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show — Las Vegas, Nevada — ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Chairman and Chief Software Architect of the Microsoft Corporation, Mr. Bill Gates. (Applause.)

Gates aims barbs at dueling formats — LAS VEGAS — Bill Gates' annual speech Wednesday to open the Consumer Electronics Show had the usual funny bits and views on future technology. But the Microsoft chairman also used the podium to fire a volley in a war over digital media formats that's erupting …
Discussion:
Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

In Digital Music, Its Gates Vs Jobs — Napster, Real and other music pretenders you have been warned - Microsoft will own you! If you were looking for proof that you will become one of the minions in Microsoft's grand music strategy, all you needed to do was tune in to the webcast of Bill G's keynote at CES.
Discussion:
Get Real

Bill Gates keynote at CES (that playtable rocks)
Discussion:
Associated Press, Thomas Hawk's Digital …, microsoft.com, B2Day, TechBlog, Daily Wireless, Guardian Unlimited, Cameron's Brain, InsideMicrosoft, Search Engine Watch Blog, Web 2.0 Explorer, Lost Remote TV Blog, Ed Bott's Windows Expertise, Michael Gartenberg, PodTech Comments …, Things That, Gamerscore Blog and John Battelle's Searchblog

Google to Offer Video Downloads, Software That Rivals Microsoft's — Google Inc. plans to announce Friday that it will begin allowing consumers to buy videos from major content partners through the Google site and will also roll out a new downloadable bundle of software for consumers …
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Google to sell video, take on Apple; announces Google Pack — Tomorrow Google will announce a new commercial video download service, according to multiple sources. The service, which will be an addition to Google's Video Search, will allow users to buy video content for pre-determined prices …

Behind the magic curtain — Next week Steve Jobs of Apple will grab media attention with another simple-looking stage show. Mike Evangelist tells the insider secrets of his gruelling preparation — If the chief executive of Cadbury-Schweppes speaks at a conference …

What's NXT? LEGO Group Unveils LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ NXT Robotics Toolset at Consumer Electronics Show — LAS VEGAS - LEGO Group today announces LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ NXT, a new system that redefines the consumer robotics category the company created in 1998.
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CES 2006: Rhapsody replaces iTunes on HP's PCs — Winning a coveted piece of digital real estate, RealNetworks has struck a deal to make its Rhapsody software the default for playing and buying music on Hewlett-Packard's consumer PCs in the United States — replacing Apple's iTunes in that role.
Discussion:
Guardian Unlimited
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Enough Of These Damn VoIP Silos — If you are a consumer going shopping for VoIP-related product/service, welcome to land of confusion. And if you are looking at CES for help, well you are out-of-luck pardner! — You can walk into Radio Shack and look hard for the much vaunted Skype kit …
Discussion:
Techdirt, robhyndman.com, The Jeff Pulver Blog, Mark Evans, rexblog.com and The Intuitive Life …

Bubble Time: Tiny Company, Barely Any Revenue, Expects To IPO — from the where-have-we-seen-this-before... dept. — Remember back in the bubble years where startups that were barely a year old and had no revenue could go public at huge valuations? Maybe they really are coming back.
Discussion:
Moore's Lore

A Marriage Not Made in Heaven — YOU thought the apocalypse was upon us when Apple switched to processor chips from Intel, which Mac fans had considered the Dark Side for more than 20 years? — Well, try this on for size: Palm's new Treo 700W cellphone-organizer runs on software from Microsoft.
Discussion:
The Consumer Electronics …

How Not To Feed The Media and How To Short Change The Exhibitors — As a member of the press who has come to CES for many years, one of the benefits that helps us all file our stories is the availability of Internet access. This year, with CES at it's all time largest in number of exhibitors and and crowd …
Discussion:
Om Malik on Broadband

BitPass Acquires Yaga — Commerce Platform Provider Extends Lead in Digital Content Market, Gains Technology for Subscriptions and Payment Aggregation — MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ — BitPass, Inc., provider of the leading commerce platform for digital content and services …

Fox to sell TV episodes on DirecTV — News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group on Thursday said it plans to make some of its cable and broadcast television shows available to subscribers of sister company DirecTV for a fee. The owners of the FX cable network and Fox Broadcasting …