Steve Ballmer signs a student’s Macbook during his visit to Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee on January 20, 2010:

Direct link to video via YouTube here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“For years, we’ve relied on familiar GUI (graphical user interface) tools and methods — the keyboard and mouse; menus and commands; clicking and scrolling; files and folders — to control and manipulate computers and the applications that run on them,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer writes for The Huffington Post.

“But I believe we will look back on 2010 as the year we expanded beyond the mouse and keyboard and started incorporating more natural forms of interaction such as touch, speech, gestures, handwriting, and vision — what computer scientists call the ‘NUI’ or natural user interface,” Ballmer writes.

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

“Last night’s keynote address by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer came and went without a mention of a Microsoft tablet. Ballmer had a line up of products that included a tablet PC from HP. He spent less than a minute showing it off,” Laura Sydell reports for NPR.

“This morning, I interviewed Ballmer and asked him about the market for tablet/slate computers,” Sydell reports. “He made the excitement sound like empty chatter. He claimed to believe that there isn’t a sizeable market for the tablet. ‘They’re interesting,’ he said. ‘But it’s not like they’re big numbers compared to the total number of smart devices in the world.’”

“As the world knows, everyone is anticipating a tablet computer from Apple later this winter. Based on the veracity of past rumors about Apple, I believe this to be true,” Sydell reports. “I asked Ballmer, ‘Why would Apple spend so much money and time on a tablet if there wasn’t a big market?’ He deftly deflected my question saying, ‘You’d have to ask Apple.’”
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Bishop reports, “When Ballmer was making his big entrance — slapping hands, running around, and generally whooping things up, as is his tradition at these events. That was when he spotted someone at field level, allegedly a member of the Windows group, using an iPhone to take his picture.”

“Ballmer grabbed the Apple device from the employee and made some funny remarks as everyone booed. Then he put it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it, before walking away,” Bishop reports. “The scene was visible on the big screen, so even people in the upper deck could see what was happening.”

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