bill gates
News
Gates Wants To Bring Natal Tech To PC
8:00AM Brian Crecente
Microsoft’s Project Natal, the motion-sensing game controls for the Xbox 360 unveiled at E3, is also being developed for PC use, Bill Gates told Cnet in a recent interview. More »
News
When Will It Be Wrong To Call The Xbox 360 A Game Console?
3:40AM Stephen Totilo | Kotaku recently asked Microsoft if the flourishing of non-gaming features like Netflix, Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter on the Xbox 360 will someday invalidate the classification of the device as a gaming console. More »
“Online Will Be Xbox 360 Breakthrough for Japan”
6:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Japan loves many things. For example, Louis Vuitton. Japan loves Louis Vuitton. iPods, Japan loves iPods. Japan does not love the Xbox 360. What does Bill Gates think about that? While visiting Japan, Microsoft founder Bill Gates did offer this: Product share varies from country to country. In the US and the UK, the share [of Xbox 360] is high, but besides Japan, there are other areas we haven’t penetrated. From now on, I think the breakthrough’s going to be the online service, and you’ll be surprised if you look at that. You know something else that’s surprising? The weekly Japanese sales figures. Bill Gates Talks Online [Mainichi Thanks, Ben!] [Pic] More »
Msoft: Don’t Tell Bill Your 360 Problems
9:00AM Brian Crecente | It was a little stunning to learn last week that at least one disgruntled Xbox 360 owner had decided to skip the regular channels when dealing with a burnt out 360 and instead went straight to Bill Gates. Even more stunning, Gates apparently knocked some heads and got the guy sorted out in record time (24 hours). While Consumerist reader, and Xbox 360 owner, Jon was delighted with the outcome, it seems Microsoft was not so much. Today they’ve dropped us a friendly note to remind everyone that Bill really isn’t your go-to guy for Red Rings of Death: Bill Gates or Microsoft executives are not an appropriate escalation point for customer service issues. Customers experiencing issues with their Xbox 360 console should contact Xbox Customer Service. Our customer service team is well equipped to ensure that the repair process goes smoothly. That said, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience. We are continually improving the design and performance of the Xbox 360 consoles to decrease the likelihood that a customer will experience the three flashing red lights. In the event they do, they are covered for three years under our extended warranty. Wow, can you imagine the tongue lashing the likely tsunami of angry emails spurred? Gates, I suspect, may be retired, but he’s not THAT retired. Emailing Bill Gates Results in New Xbox [Consumerist] More »
Emailing Bill Gates Results in New Xbox 360
3:32PM Brian Ashcraft | What sucks worse than getting the Red Ring of Death? Getting the console fixed. Sure, there are some success stories regarding Xbox customer support. But there are some real headaches as well. Over at The Consumerist, tipster Jon took matters into his own hands. When his launch Xbox 360 crapped out, he emailed Bill Gates and customer service VP Kathleen Hogan. Within 24 hours, he got a reply from the escalation department saying that a new console was on its way. Jon tells The Consumerist: More »
Peeing Next to Bill Gates
4:49PM Brian Ashcraft | So Bill Gates gave his last keynote. End of an era! But what about the man? Some of you would like to know more. We’ve run loads of creepy KotakuStalku posts, but this has to be one of the creepier. (Oh goodie!) France’s most famous blogger Loic Le Meur dishes to Shiny Shiny’s Kat about the time he took a whiz next to Microsoft honcho Bill Gates at another conference. Le Meur says: You know what I’ll tell you. I will look like I’m full of shit if I tell you… I went to the bathroom, and the person next to me was Bill Gates. So, I had more than eye contact. Well, no contact. No, no, there wasn’t any contact, right. But, you know, it’s kind of a weird situation. You’re kinda like, ‘I know this guy.’ There was no bodyguard or nothing there… That’s a true story. True or not, we take this as startling evidence that Bill Gates is in fact human. Peeing Next to Bill Gates [Shiny Shiny] [Pic] More »
Bill Gates Last Day At Microsoft: The Movie
2:14PM Michael McWhertor | Normally, “humorous” clips that involve executives showing off their acting chops are nothing short of cringe-worthy, an exercise in amateur comic timing. Not this fictional video of Bill Gates’ last day of full responsibilities at Microsoft, however, as the solid cameos and moments that capitalise on Bill’s inherent geekiness make the head Borg at MS seem hilariously human. Stick around for Bill’s blippy wailing on a Guitar Hero II controller. This clip, courtesy of our brothers at Gizmodo, represents but a grain of sand in the vast desert that is their CES 2008 coverage. More »
Gates: Live Outage a “Hiccup”
9:58AM Brian Crecente | Sure Microsoft’s recent Xbox Live issues ticked off a bunch of new Xbox 360 owners and led to the company promising to hand out a free game down the line, but it was really just a hiccup says Bill Gates in a recent interview with sister site Gizmodo. Actually we’re not entirely sure what he says. He seems to start speaking tongues halfway into his whole reliability-issue-was-a-hiccup comment. He says something about downloading curve, or something about him, or maybe he mentions peanuts, it’s hard to say. But he definitely does call the Live reliability issue a hiccup. Can anyone else make sense of the full comment? Maybe he’s spilling some beans about why Live was out. This is what I got: Xbox live, which was immensely risky, we hadn’t been in the hardware business. We even had a hiccup in terms of ahhhhh… me not downloading curve… on that one reliability issue we ran into it. But Xbox alone has been fantastic success. A huge asset for the company. BIll Gates Explains the Difference Between Microsoft and Apple [Gizmodo] More »
News
Slash, Bill Gates, Robbie Bach Form Merino Wool Revolver
3:11PM Kotaku US Edition | Bill Gates final CES keynote wasn’t the most action-packed, megaton-heavy affair, but there was one startling revelation. It wasn’t so much an announcement as it was an implication, but it would seem that Slash is ready to join another supergroup, one that’s unnamed, but we’re calling Merino Wool Revolver for now. The band looks to feature two toy guitarists—Bill and Robbie—and one real guitarist, a clear indicator into which of the three independently wealthy men will pull the most groupie arse. Hopefully, the three will feature as bosses in Guitar Hero Encore: Non-threatening Pastel Sweater Edition. Hey, it couldn’t be any worse than Rocks the 80s. More »
