For Microsoft's last CES keynote, Ballmer hawks Windows 8, Kinect

IDG News Service - Microsoft's motion-sensing Kinect technology will be available for Windows PCs in a few weeks and is destined for a lot more than just gaming, CEO Steve Ballmer said at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas Monday.

It was Microsoft's last keynote at CES, and Ballmer was joined on stage by actor Ryan Seacrest who helped host the event. But there was no surprise appearance from Bill Gates, as some had expected, and not much in the way of big news -- perhaps a reminder of why Microsoft has decided to give up the CES stage.

Ballmer announced that Nokia's Lumia 800 Windows Phone will go on sale at Microsoft's retail stores in the US "in the next few months." The phone will be sold unlocked, he said, meaning Microsoft hasn't signed a contract with a wireless carrier to offer it.

He also announced a partnership with Fox that will bring the TV shows Glee, Family Guy and Bones to the Xbox, and with Comcast for its Xfinity TV service. The new programs will come to the Xbox this year, he said.

Aside from that, there were lengthy demonstrations of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system and the new Metro interface, and of its Windows Phone software, but there was little new information about those products.

Microsoft announced its biggest news at the show earlier in the day, when Ballmer appeared on stage at an AT&T event to announce Nokia's first Windows Phone, the Lumia 900.

A Windows manager showed a version of the game "Cut the Rope" that has been developed in HTML 5 for Internet Explorer 9. She also showed a password feature for Windows 8 that will let people unlock their PC by clicking on parts of a photo in the right order, instead of typing a password.

A beta of Windows 8 will be available for testing in late February, she said, and the Windows 8 store will open with a selection of free apps at that time too, she said. Eventually, businesses will be able to distribute corporate apps to employees through the store as well, she said.

Seacrest kept the 90-minute show moving along and earned his money with kind words about Microsoft's products. "From Xbox to phones to Windows PCs, I've always been impressed by their products," he said at one point.

There was surprisingly little reminiscing about Microsoft's keynotes, apart from a video at the beginning that showed some of Ballmer's and Gates' more memorable moments. Microsoft has given 15 of the last 18 keynotes at CES, starting with Gates in 1995 -- the year Yahoo was incorporated and just before the web went mainstream. Last month it said it would no longer have a big presence at CES, because the show doesn't fit with the timing of its big product releases.