Rochak Chauhan::Unpredictably Exciting » Bill Gates

Bill Gates signals end of computer mouse era

rochakchauhan — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:03:12 +0000

London (PTI): Microsoft is developing a system that could spell the end the use of computer mouse, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has said.

“The way you interact with the system will change dramatically,” the billionaire said at a conference in Canada, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph on Friday.

He said that computer users of the future will control their machines by voice and pen as well as touch.

Users of Windows 7 will issue commands by touching the screen rather than by the traditional keyboard and mouse combination that has dominated since the 1970s.

Windows 7 is due to be released in 2010 and is Microsoft’s attempt to catch up with Apple, whose touch screen iPhone has proved popular.

Touch screens are appearing on a host of other devices, including sat-navs, mobile phones and remote controls. A touch screen BlackBerry is expected shortly.

Bill Gates ditches Facebook for LinkedIn, ad deal coming?

rochakchauhan — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:05:57 +0000

Earlier this month, Microsoft blog sites erupted with the news that Bill Gates had cancelled his Facebook account after The Sun ran a story saying that Gates made the move because he was “getting more than 8,000 friend requests a DAY.” Speculation ranging from Gates having a secret profile to someone else controlling his account quickly began to surface. Despite many rumors of Microsoft buying Facebook in September of last year, all that ended up happening was a $240 million advertising agreement. It would appear that Gates has realized he has no interest in Facebook, beyond corporate deals, simply because he’s a businessman.

And what’s the Facebook equivalent for businessmen? LinkedIn. Significantly less popular than Facebook (according to Alexa, it ranks 215 on the web as opposed to a rank of 7), it is oriented around expanding business contacts and building an electronic résumé. News.com first broke the story that Gates had moved to LinkedIn, saying that he would use the service to ask the site’s 19 million members “how technology can be better utilized for charitable causes.”

The social networking site was down on Thursday because of “upgrades to improve our service.” Supposedly, a “notable advertising announcement” is also on its way. Could Gates’ move have been part of an advertising deal with LinkedIn? Considering Gates is the number one searched person on the site, and since Google already has MySpace under its thumb, I would say such a move is only a matter of time.

Chairman and cofounder of the largest software company in the world, Gates is always being watched very closely by the tech industry, even more so I would say since he decided to give up his day-to-day duties at Microsoft, by July 2008. After his last CES keynote and his last day, his plans and decisions seem to be less out in the open, but this only makes them more of a big deal. As demonstrated just over a week ago, it will be a long while before we see the last of Gates, especially when it comes to Microsoft.

Bill Gates deletes his Facebook account

rochakchauhan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:55:10 +0000

London, Feb 09: Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has deleted his Facebook account after being inundated by friend requests from a huge number of people.

The computer mogul forked out 120 million pounds to get a 1.6% stake in the social networking website last year.

A colleague has revealed that Gates used to spend about 30 minutes chatting with his pals daily.

However, Gates was compelled to delete his account after he started to receive over 8,000 friend requests a day, and spotted several weird fan sites about him, said the source.

“Sadly the attention does mean Bill has had to close the account which got him so hooked in the first place,” the source said.

Bureau Report