Live From CES: Larry Page Keynote Address Liveblog

Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: Accessories, CES, CES 2006, Corporate News, Internet

We’re live at the Larry Page keynote for Google. We’ll do our best to make note of the cool stuff…

4:15 Very cool Google Earth demonstration video, featuring a bunch of National Geographic pictures overlayed, showing sheep and such. And the Grand Canyon.

4:20 Google’s Larry Page has come on stage

on Stanley, the winning DARPA entry.

4:22 Larry’s showing us the results of a collaborative effort with VW to develop Google Earth into a car dashboard… Perhaps this is the beginning of Google in embedded devices…

Now, he’s showing us Google Maps on a live cell phone… AJAX over cell? He’s showing scrolling on a satellite map. google.com/glm

4:27 I’m noticing Page sounds sort of like Ernie from Sesame Street…

(The rest, after the jump…)

4:30 He’s talking about interconnection amongst devices, allowing all our fun devices to actually talk together without using a computer, and making things a lot easier in general, through use of the internet. Instead of relying on various software stacks, he’s talking about supporting open standards that bounce things over the net and allow them to interact without requiring the compatibility that proprietary software does.

4:31 “You should be able to plug in devices anywhere and have them work.” “Why can’t you plug your TV into any convenient outlet? Ethernet, coax, USB? It shouldn’t be a big deal. It shouldn’t reqiure any software. Why can’t your bluetooth cell phone start your car? There’s a million things, and we can’t think of all of them, but if we have communication, we’ll be able to do more and more of them.”

4:33 “If one in a million power adapters catch fire and you have a thousand adapters, it starts to become an issue…” He’s talking more and more about standards, even through power systems.

4:35 Singing the praises of Bluetooth phones and things working with standards.

4:36 Summarizing the first section:
“Make adapoters work with everything. Let the best transport hardware win.
Adapt standards for security, discovery, peer-forwarding to internet.”
“Audio, video, displays, indicators, storages, keyboards and io devices, power transmission and state.”

USB + Communicate about transmit power + client-client communications would be big help.”

4:37 Discussing Google’s installation of free wifi in their home town.

4:41 He’s announcing Google Pack: http://pack.google.com “having the right software on your computer, as easy as going to the Google homepage.”
Basically, you can go and in one click, get updates for Firefox, Ad Aware, Norton, Adobe and everything else. And it’s free.

4:43 Demoing Google Pack, showing how easy it is to keep everything.
Google Updater grabs the latest updates and installs everything automatically, for multiple vendors (that they support). “We’ve enforced some guidelines on the software makers so they don’t annoy you.” No pop-ups, no stepping on other installations.

4:45 “We actually have one more thing to announce.” And now there’s Robin Williams, acting as a Google implant demo.

4:53 “The new Apple iProbe. You’ll be getting anal sounds like you’ve never heard before.” I love Robin Williams.”

4:54 Now onto Google Video. We’re watching a video on what the various content providers think of Google Video.

4:59 For a lot of providers, it costs quite a bit of money to create content, and they need a way to monetize it. “what we’re annoucning today is Google VideoStore. It allows anyone to sell video, and it puts the content producers in charge and they can choose what to charge for their content.”

Buy and rent videos online
Over 3,000 titles with mroe added everyday
Watch videos in the new Google Video Player

Full NBA downloads 24 hours after the game.

Kenny Smith comes on stage, Larry Page: “Who the hell are you?” (I was thinking the same thing.)

5:02 Premiere partner with CBS. CBS CSI, Surivor and Amazing Race will be available along with classics like Star Trek, Brady Bunch and more. ($1.99 each.)
CBS President/CEO now on stage with Page, speaking.

CBS apparently split from Viacom to allow them to better distribute their content…  “Google is and will remain a very Brady Place.” (CBS Prez.)

5:06 Showing a quick demo of the Google Video Store. Of course, they’re running Firefox. Multiple formats at the point of purchase: Windowx/Mac, iPod, PSP. Demoing purchasing, while watching the preview using your Google account.

Showing new Google Video Player, standalone, outside of browser app. Splits episodes into miniature chapters, able to sort by frames and see where you want to jump to, simply.

5:09 Page announces he wants to do a question/answer session. Brings Robin Williams back on stage. Here are a few:
Q: “When is the Google PC and operating system coming out?”
A: “Is there a rumor about that?”

Q: “What will you do if ISPs try to backcharge or throttle you down?”
A: “It would stifle innovation, it would be a horrible thing for the world.”

Q: “What’s the largest resolution they’ll be able to grab from the video store?”
A: “640x480”

Q: “When will Google’s apps go to other platforms, incl. video player?”
A: “We’ve not done as well as we should, but we’re working on it. We have some teams working on them.”

Q: “When will we see google wifi cross country?”
A: “It was done as an experiment, so we’re not sure what it’d cost, but it was part of 20% time.”