Touch down in Las Vegas and a full sprint up the escalator of one of the city's most confusing hotels later and Kotaku is in the house. CES 2008 is about to kick off proper tomorrow, but Microsoft bigwig Bill Gates is just about to take the stage in the Venetian's Palazzo Ballroom to deliver his final CES keynote. Gary Shapiro just left the stage to give Bill some extra space, but not before heaping kudos on the man and refreshing the crowd's memory on exactly who Gates is. Mr. Gates has finally taken the stage. He looks dapper in lavender and black, not unlike an Advent calendar worth a few billion dollars. Bill chats up Sync, Vista and integration across platforms, even mentioning video games in his intro. For the rest of the keynote, make the break.

6:40: Bill is now showing a humorous video—which is uncharacteristically and genuinely funny—about Bill's last day of full time responsibilities at MS, complete with cameos from Brian Williams, Steve Ballmer, Robbie Bach and... Matthew McConaughey as his high as a kite personal trainer. Yup, there's Jay Z producing a track from Bill. Oh no, it's Bono. Bill's rockin' an Xbox 360 wireless controller in an audition of sorts with Bono.

The cameos continue—Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Napoleon Dynamite, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Gore. This thing must've cost a fortune.

Make with the Xboxes and stuff already, Bill!

6:52 Bill's talking about "Connected Experiences", highlighting products like laptops, Xbox 360s, Zunes, handheld devices, moving on to emerging technologies and the future of displays and the company's own Surface tech. 3D environments for Web experiences, including hi-def video and audio, integrated with a handheld, with a prototype shown on screen, will be the next step in consumer electronics.

6:57 He moves on to human interactivity with devices, the natural interface, namedropping the iPhone's touchscreen interface (and Surface's, natch) and Sync, the voice controlled in-car system the company is pushing. He keeps a stiff upper lip about Vista, pointing out the number of users and the Windows mobile platform.

7:01 One of Bill's cohorts, Mika, takes over for a few minutes. She's talking up Live single sign in, starting off with Windows Live calendar. Next up is Windows Live Events, which couldn't look any more exactly like an Evite. I can't believe she hasn't turned off that grating "click.wav" navigation sound. Now she's on about Windows Live Photo Gallery. She pieces together a panoramic photo from a handful of JPEGs. It's all very on-the-go and seamless, of course. You'll be sharing photos with friends and family in no time, ideally.

7:05 Bill's back, talking about a fantasy world in which he snowboards with other Microsoft execs. He's got a Surface display in front of him with a retail mock-up from a snowboard shop, applying paintjobs, decals, for a custom job. Wonder if the Forza Motorsport team consulted. Trying to keep this on-topic! He places his Windows Mobile phone on the Surface and sends his design to his snowboarding buddies. Synergy!!

7:08 Silverlight, the Flash competitor of sorts, is given some screen time. Bill announces that partner NBC will be using Silverlight for broadcasting via the Web for events like Live Earth and the 2008 Olympic Games via MSN. Bob Costas has visions of the "ultimate digital destination on the Web." A joke follows.

7:12 Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment devices division is up next. Hopefully, he'll talk about lots of Xbox 360 stuff! Bach talks up Connected Entertainment, too, kicking off with gaming. "Windows Vista gaming has continue to grow and be strong," he says. He reiterates the 17.7 million Xbox 360s sold and $3.5 billion plus in business for the final quarter of 2007. Better than Wii, he says, and better than Sony. 10 million registered Xbox Live members. He has two very important announcements, with ABC and Disney bringing their shows—Lost, Hannah Montana, Desperate Housewives—to Live and MGM bringing films to Live. That includes The Terminator and...well, that's all you really need to know, unless Legally Blonde does something for you.

7:15 Bach announces that Samsung, HP will add Media Center extender functionality to their devices. Microsoft Mediaroom has some 1 million "screens" using the service. Interactive applications for programming from NASCAR, CNN and Showtime allows for users to customize programming and interact with live broadcasts. British Telecom has partnered with MS to sell Xbox 360s as gaming devices and set top boxes.

7:20Zune is up, with Robbie giving it props for its late year revision. He's talking up the Social service, but lobs to Molly O'Donnell for the details. Molly welcomes us to it. She's "GrooveJasmine" and shows off her Zune Card, which tracks artists, songs and allow for tagging. Hipster music is namedropped as some of Molly's faves. "People powered music discovery" leads us into Bach's own playlist, which includes The Shins (oops! bad timing!).

7:23 Now it's time for Sync, so it's obviously time to drive a crossover vehicle onstage. A Zune is plugged in, with a Windows Mobile device also syncing up contacts. Bach commands Sync to play Gary Numan's "Cars" and sounds a bit surprised to hear it work as expected. Sync upgrades, including auto 911 dialing, are touched on briefly.

7:26 With mobile phones outselling PCs 4-to-1, according to Bach, Windows Mobile is a Big Deal. Molly returns for "say and see" service TellMe. She says "movies" into the phone, which looks, via GPS, at local Las Vegas theaters. Robbie really wants to see Sweeney Todd!! She buys tickets with voice, sends info to Robbie, all with the power of her voice.

7:31 Robbie's about to beat feet, welcoming Bill back onstage for the "big finale." Gates' mobile prototype device features visual recognition of people (recognizes Bach), places (notes the Paramount Theater on the backdrop) and has 3D mapping support, with location information, tapping into contacts and Web data. Bill uses the device to look back on his CES history, including the original Xbox unveiling featuring Duane "The Rock" Johnson.

7:36 Bill and Robbie are about to partake in a Guitar Hero III axe-off. Bach has a ringer though, in TipperQueen, aka Kelly Law-Yone. She's burns through a bit of "Welcome To The Jungle" and volleys to Bill. Of course, Bill has his own ringer. It's "Guitar Hero God" Slash, who seems to be well preserved. He plays a few notes and makes with the contract obligation.

7:38 And that's it. Corporate dog and pony show over! Hope you didn't stay up past your bedtime for this one, folks! Tomorrow should probably be a bit more exciting, when hands-on impressions of games and executive interviews kick off.

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