Okay, I’m a little late on this, but what’s the rush, really?  Everybody knows that I’m going to have an opinion on Microsoft’s CES keynote, and everybody also knows that until I say it, it just hasn’t been said.

Now, as we all remember, I was far from impressed last year, because the presentation was “phoned in” to say the least.  It was nothing more than an hour-long commercial for Windows 7, which at the time, was already a huge success to begin with.   There really wasn’t much of a point in watching, and to make matters worse, as I had mentioned before, why would anyone wear a sweater to Las Vegas?

Well, its 2011 now, and thankfully someone must have caught wind of what I had said last year, because Microsoft put forth a markedly better effort this time.  Granted, there still weren’t any “Ballmer goes ballistic” moments, but that’s not supposed the point. The presentation is supposed to be about the company and its products, not Steve Ballmer.

On with it.

Right off the bat, I have to say the Kinect portion of the presentation caught my eye.  Being disabled, I would normally have no real use for a Kinect, so I have been nothing more than partially interested bystander in the whole Kinect craze. However, with the onset of feature like gesture control for media usage, I can definitely see a use-case for me there.  I also got a huge kick out of the new avatar functions, the facial recognition is really cool, as is the chat function.    I think it would be a fun way to do a podcast, for example. Considering how everyone Mark and I have ever worked with in the podcast front thinks we’re just clowns anyway, we may as well just go all out and turn our work into cartoons then, eh?

Either way, I think I see myself as a Kinect user in the future, and I never thought I would say that.

Yes, Really.

The obligatory mention and brief walkthrough of the Windows Phone 7 came next.  Now, I know that there are probably some of you out there who probably don’t think this was necessary, because you all knew about WP7 months ago, and you saw the AT&T “presser” and what have you.  Well, I’m here to tell you that showing off Windows Phone 7 indeed was necessary, because not everyone watches the somewhat creepy, self-promoting internal events.  Yes, some of us do, and some of us enjoy them (myself included.)  But we have to face facts here.  That doesn’t make us exactly normal, you know.

While it is true that the over-caffeinated presenter for that portion of the presentation left something to be desired, it still needed to be done.

To disclose, I myself am a WP7 Samsung Focus owner, and I love it.  Is it the absolute best phone available?  No.  But do I agree with Steve Ballmer when he says WP7 is the “best new phone” out there?  I absolutely do.  It’s a stunning “1.0 product” which will improve over time.  Speaking for myself, If Microsoft doesn’t drop the ball, I’ll be a Windows Phone customer for life.  Nicely done, Redmond.

OMG it’s so…small!

Lastly, Microsoft spoke about new mobile devices which will be utilizing Intel’s “Sandy Bridge” and AMD’s “Fusion APU” technology.  Initially I was a bit concerned that this portion of the presentation would be nothing more than a 15-minute shill-fest for Windows 7.  Thankfully I was wrong.

These new processing technologies will certainly revolutionize the netbook and other mobile markets.  I was taken aback by the high quality animations and video running at high frame rates on what are traditionally considered to be low power (Read: low performance) devices.  I also may have to take back my apathy toward the concept of Windows 7 on a tablet PC, as I was quite impressed with the Eee Slate EP121.  I may even buy one.  We shall see.

Yes, I know, a $1,000 tablet seems expensive, but if you understand hardware like I and my buddy Paul O’Flaherty do, it begins to make sense.

All in all, while not ground-shaking, I think this was a really solid presentation by Microsoft, especially when you contrast it to those of years past.  I think the biggest difference this time around was that unlike last year, Microsoft showed off several solid products instead of just one.  Not only that, while these products are popular now, everybody knows that they haven’t “peaked” yet, and that alone could be enough to keep the buzz going for quite a while.

…And oh yeah…no sweater either.