[Top stories] from [CNN.com]
[CES]
By John D. Sutter, CNN
January 7, 2010 -- Updated 1033 GMT (1833 HKT)
Microsoft opens CES without much-hyped tablet, highlights past successes
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
>Microsoft did not announce its own tablet-style computer as previously expected
> Project Natal, Microsoft's body-sensing gaming system will be available this holiday season
> Natal uses cameras to sense body movements, replicate them on screen
Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer opened up the largest consumer technology trade show in the world with a tone that was both reflective and energized, but without living up to much -- if any -- of the anticipation that preceded the speech.
Some tech insiders had expected Microsoft to use its keynote slot Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show to debut a tablet-sized computer, a much-hyped category of electronics that is sized between mobile phones and laptops and usually has a touch-sensitive screen.
Apple, the company's chief rival, is rumored to be announcing a tablet later in January.
While Ballmer did briefly show off tablet-sized computers that run on Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, he did not announce a Microsoft tablet computer; nor did he dazzle the technophile crowd with many new products or announcements.
Instead, Ballmer chose largely to highlight the company's past successes, like Windows 7, the Xbox 360, its Zune HD portable music player and the search engine Bing. Thirty-nine million Xbox 360s have been sold worldwide, and Bing has gained 11 million new users in recent months, he said.
He also mused on the history of technology and said he is going to be headstrong about the fact that the future will be just as innovative and inspiring as the past.
Noting that the global middle class -- Microsoft's customer base -- is expected to jump from 1 billion to 4 billion people in coming decades, Ballmer said, "I'm bullish, and we can all be bullish in terms of the long-term prospects of our industry."
A substantial portion of the keynote focused on entertainment and gaming, and some news did come out of that part of the talk.
Microsoft announced Project Natal, a new controller-free video gaming system, which reads a players body movements with cameras and mimics them with avatars on screen, will be available for purchase by the holiday season this year.
The company had demonstrated the system at another trade show last year, but had not set a release date until Wednesday. It is still unclear how much the system will cost, although Microsoft says Natal add-ons will work with its existing Xbox 360 gaming console.
Robbie Bach, Microsoft's president for entertainment and devices, also announced a number of new games for the Xbox, including a new edition of the popular game Halo, which is due out in the spring.
"What Star Wars is to film and what Harry Potter is to fantasy books, Halo is to the gaming industry," he said.
Ballmer and Windows senior product manager Ryan Asdourian touted the success of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, which has won favorable reviews since it was released last year. Ballmer said the operating system has helped buoy PC sales in the down economy.
Asdourian said the beauty of PCs is that there are so many to choose from -- from desktops to netbooks, notebooks and now tablets.
"The great part about being a PC?" he asked. "You can find one that matches your style, your needs, and of course, your budget."
Ballmer and Asdourian briefly showed off Windows-running tablet computers from HP, Pegatron and Asus. Ballmer referred to them by another name: "slate PCs."
Some attendees said they left the speech disappointed.
"We were really bored by it," said Paul Miller, an editor at a gadget-focused blog called Engadget. "This is CES, and you're looking for what's new.
"For them to show us a bunch of products and functions that we'd already seen, it just seemed like a waste of time."
Ben Parr, co-editor of the social media and tech blog Mashable, said he had expected more from Microsoft's keynote, but that the company did show off the fact that it had a good year in 2009.
"It's still all very cool and Ballmer and company did a good job reminding us what sorts of things we'll expect in 2010," he said.
At times in the keynote, Ballmer ruminated on the power technology has to transform peoples' lives. He mentioned several Microsoft research projects, including those to make health care data more useful for patients, to help researchers use software to find a vaccine for HIV/AIDS and to make homes more energy efficient.
"All of us here tonight have a real responsibility to use technology for the betterment of the society and the betterment of the planet," Ballmer said in the address.
Dylan Tweney, senior editor at Wired, said Microsoft doesn't get enough credit for its lofty and often-futuristic research goals. The problem, he said, as that these concepts don't always translate into better experiences for consumers.
He also said Apple's rumored announcement of a tablet computer was hanging over Microsoft's talk. "Apple has been very smart in making inroads into home entertainment," he said, "and you could sort of see how somebody like Microsoft might look at the prospect of an Apple tablet and be very nervous."
[World]
January 7, 2010 -- Updated 1220 GMT (2020 HKT)
Minister: U.S. terror suspect met with radical cleric
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> U.S. officials evaluating whether Anwar al-Awlaki played a role in the botched bomb plot
> Al-Awlaki's name also surfaced as U.S. officials investigated U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of shooting 13 people
> Attempt to ignite explosives hidden in Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab's underwear failed to bring down plane
> Federal jury indicted AbdulMutallab on six counts, including attempt to murder the other 289 people aboard
Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Terror suspect Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab met with radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, a top government official said Thursday.
The meeting took place in Shabwa, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of the capital, Sanaa, according to Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Rashad Al-Alemi.
No other details about the encounter were immediately available.
U.S. intelligence officials have been evaluating whether al-Awlaki played a role in the botched attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet en route from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan on Christmas Day. The attempt to ignite explosives hidden in AbdulMutallab's underwear failed to bring down the plane.
A federal grand jury indicted AbdulMutallab Wednesday on six counts, including an attempt to murder the other 289 people aboard.
If convicted, the 23-year-old Nigerian national faces a sentence of life in prison.
Al-Awlaki's name also surfaced in November when U.S. officials revealed he and Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5 -- had exchanged e-mails. The intercepted e-mails between the two, officials said, had not set off alarm bells.
The cleric recently told Al Jazeera's Arabic-language Web site that he had been in touch with Hasan in recent years. In that interview, al-Awlaki said he met Hasan nine years ago while serving as an imam at a mosque in the Washington area.
The cleric said Hasan communicated with him via e-mail starting about a year before the shooting rampage -- seeking advice about killing U.S. troops, the cleric said.
The 9/11 Commission Report says al-Awlaki had contact with two of the 9/11 hijackers while they were in the United States, though there is no evidence he knew of the plot.
Al-Awlaki is believed to have fled to Yemen in 2003 or 2004. Since then, he has been referred to as a "rock star" by some of those who incite radicalism on the Internet.
His current whereabouts are unknown to U.S. officials. Some have speculated that he was killed in a recent strike on suspected jihadist hideouts in Yemen.
But a U.S. official said the intelligence community believes al-Awlaki is alive. His own family was quoted last week as having said the same thing.
He may have been among al Qaeda operatives targeted in a December 24 airstrike in Yemen that killed some 30 militants, the Yemen news agency SABA reported at the time of the attack.
[CES]
By John D. Sutter, CNN
January 7, 2010 -- Updated 1033 GMT (1833 HKT)
Microsoft opens CES without much-hyped tablet, highlights past successes
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
>Microsoft did not announce its own tablet-style computer as previously expected
> Project Natal, Microsoft's body-sensing gaming system will be available this holiday season
> Natal uses cameras to sense body movements, replicate them on screen
Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer opened up the largest consumer technology trade show in the world with a tone that was both reflective and energized, but without living up to much -- if any -- of the anticipation that preceded the speech.
Some tech insiders had expected Microsoft to use its keynote slot Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show to debut a tablet-sized computer, a much-hyped category of electronics that is sized between mobile phones and laptops and usually has a touch-sensitive screen.
Apple, the company's chief rival, is rumored to be announcing a tablet later in January.
While Ballmer did briefly show off tablet-sized computers that run on Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, he did not announce a Microsoft tablet computer; nor did he dazzle the technophile crowd with many new products or announcements.
Instead, Ballmer chose largely to highlight the company's past successes, like Windows 7, the Xbox 360, its Zune HD portable music player and the search engine Bing. Thirty-nine million Xbox 360s have been sold worldwide, and Bing has gained 11 million new users in recent months, he said.
He also mused on the history of technology and said he is going to be headstrong about the fact that the future will be just as innovative and inspiring as the past.
Noting that the global middle class -- Microsoft's customer base -- is expected to jump from 1 billion to 4 billion people in coming decades, Ballmer said, "I'm bullish, and we can all be bullish in terms of the long-term prospects of our industry."
A substantial portion of the keynote focused on entertainment and gaming, and some news did come out of that part of the talk.
Microsoft announced Project Natal, a new controller-free video gaming system, which reads a players body movements with cameras and mimics them with avatars on screen, will be available for purchase by the holiday season this year.
The company had demonstrated the system at another trade show last year, but had not set a release date until Wednesday. It is still unclear how much the system will cost, although Microsoft says Natal add-ons will work with its existing Xbox 360 gaming console.
Robbie Bach, Microsoft's president for entertainment and devices, also announced a number of new games for the Xbox, including a new edition of the popular game Halo, which is due out in the spring.
"What Star Wars is to film and what Harry Potter is to fantasy books, Halo is to the gaming industry," he said.
Ballmer and Windows senior product manager Ryan Asdourian touted the success of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, which has won favorable reviews since it was released last year. Ballmer said the operating system has helped buoy PC sales in the down economy.
Asdourian said the beauty of PCs is that there are so many to choose from -- from desktops to netbooks, notebooks and now tablets.
"The great part about being a PC?" he asked. "You can find one that matches your style, your needs, and of course, your budget."
Ballmer and Asdourian briefly showed off Windows-running tablet computers from HP, Pegatron and Asus. Ballmer referred to them by another name: "slate PCs."
Some attendees said they left the speech disappointed.
"We were really bored by it," said Paul Miller, an editor at a gadget-focused blog called Engadget. "This is CES, and you're looking for what's new.
"For them to show us a bunch of products and functions that we'd already seen, it just seemed like a waste of time."
Ben Parr, co-editor of the social media and tech blog Mashable, said he had expected more from Microsoft's keynote, but that the company did show off the fact that it had a good year in 2009.
"It's still all very cool and Ballmer and company did a good job reminding us what sorts of things we'll expect in 2010," he said.
At times in the keynote, Ballmer ruminated on the power technology has to transform peoples' lives. He mentioned several Microsoft research projects, including those to make health care data more useful for patients, to help researchers use software to find a vaccine for HIV/AIDS and to make homes more energy efficient.
"All of us here tonight have a real responsibility to use technology for the betterment of the society and the betterment of the planet," Ballmer said in the address.
Dylan Tweney, senior editor at Wired, said Microsoft doesn't get enough credit for its lofty and often-futuristic research goals. The problem, he said, as that these concepts don't always translate into better experiences for consumers.
He also said Apple's rumored announcement of a tablet computer was hanging over Microsoft's talk. "Apple has been very smart in making inroads into home entertainment," he said, "and you could sort of see how somebody like Microsoft might look at the prospect of an Apple tablet and be very nervous."
[World]
January 7, 2010 -- Updated 1220 GMT (2020 HKT)
Minister: U.S. terror suspect met with radical cleric
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> U.S. officials evaluating whether Anwar al-Awlaki played a role in the botched bomb plot
> Al-Awlaki's name also surfaced as U.S. officials investigated U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of shooting 13 people
> Attempt to ignite explosives hidden in Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab's underwear failed to bring down plane
> Federal jury indicted AbdulMutallab on six counts, including attempt to murder the other 289 people aboard
Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Terror suspect Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab met with radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, a top government official said Thursday.
The meeting took place in Shabwa, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of the capital, Sanaa, according to Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Rashad Al-Alemi.
No other details about the encounter were immediately available.
U.S. intelligence officials have been evaluating whether al-Awlaki played a role in the botched attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet en route from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan on Christmas Day. The attempt to ignite explosives hidden in AbdulMutallab's underwear failed to bring down the plane.
A federal grand jury indicted AbdulMutallab Wednesday on six counts, including an attempt to murder the other 289 people aboard.
If convicted, the 23-year-old Nigerian national faces a sentence of life in prison.
Al-Awlaki's name also surfaced in November when U.S. officials revealed he and Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5 -- had exchanged e-mails. The intercepted e-mails between the two, officials said, had not set off alarm bells.
The cleric recently told Al Jazeera's Arabic-language Web site that he had been in touch with Hasan in recent years. In that interview, al-Awlaki said he met Hasan nine years ago while serving as an imam at a mosque in the Washington area.
The cleric said Hasan communicated with him via e-mail starting about a year before the shooting rampage -- seeking advice about killing U.S. troops, the cleric said.
The 9/11 Commission Report says al-Awlaki had contact with two of the 9/11 hijackers while they were in the United States, though there is no evidence he knew of the plot.
Al-Awlaki is believed to have fled to Yemen in 2003 or 2004. Since then, he has been referred to as a "rock star" by some of those who incite radicalism on the Internet.
His current whereabouts are unknown to U.S. officials. Some have speculated that he was killed in a recent strike on suspected jihadist hideouts in Yemen.
But a U.S. official said the intelligence community believes al-Awlaki is alive. His own family was quoted last week as having said the same thing.
He may have been among al Qaeda operatives targeted in a December 24 airstrike in Yemen that killed some 30 militants, the Yemen news agency SABA reported at the time of the attack.
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