Microsoft shows nothing new at CES

It has to be said, Microsoft has shown us nothing new, interesting, or even slightly exciting at this years CES show in Las Vegas. I watched the first half hour or so of the live feed; Microsoft's keynote and opportunity to show off a few things. I went to bed feeling empty, dissatisfied and underwhelmed - a lot like a classic iPod with only 2% storage used.

Everything they showed off, albeit by a group product manager who looked like she was high on something, had been reported earlier by my colleagues, Mary Jo Foley and Ed Bott. While this is no disrespect to my colleagues for doing their job, it just shows Microsoft repeating the same old record; expo after expo, show after show.

• Windows 7 beta (build 7000) was released onto MSDN and TechNet last night: but the same build has been available for non-legit downloads and on torrents.

• Windows Live integration with Facebook and other social networks, blogs and communities was shown on-stage: but these have been part of Windows Live wave 3 for about a month, give or take a week.

• Windows Live Essentials was a big part of the keynote, but again has been live for a while now; so nothing too new, exciting or interesting for that matter.

• Windows Mobile was mentioned briefly, and showed better Pocket Internet Explorer capabilities, but as Internet phenomenon Long Zheng pointed out, wouldn't or couldn't be available on the particular Palm Treo device being shown.

• Finally, the features being shown in the beta build of Windows 7, including Aero Peek, Aero Snap, the new taskbar and window management were shown, much to gasp, semi-sarcastic awe and pathetic half-arsed applause of the crowd. But these have all been shown months before at WinHEC at the end of November, and many times in-between. Damn that god-like genius Rafael Rivera for creating such an awesome blue badge emulating patch for the pre-beta builds.

I bet Steve Jobs would be spinning in his soon-to-be-filled grave. (Only kidding, but as people have pointed out, who really knows?)

As far as I'm concerned, I'm glad I didn't fork out the best part of £2,000 to be there. Bott is in Hawaii, Foley is in New York, Thurrott wasn't even near Vegas, and it seems only the idiots and the evidentially illiterate, who haven't been reading the news, have actually gone to the CES.

Shame, shame, shame on you, Microsoft. I expected (meh) a little better. Thoughts?