The Microsoft keynote is kicking off CES 2009 on January 7th. As reported Microsoft will broadcast Steve Ballmer's keynote live via webcast. I did not have high hopes for any super cool announcements, but some neat things like a Windows 7 release date and unannounced features would have been nice. Also because Robbie Bach is there some exciting Xbox news would have been fine too. Update: Microsoft CES Keynote Highlights

TechCrunch is smashing this hopes with leaking what Steve Ballmer is going to announce at his first CES keynote.
The announcements are comprised of Windows 7 is going public beta, Windows Mobile will support Flash end of Q1 2009, new homenetworking dubbed HomeGroups (see MSDN) is making home networking on Windows finally easy, and two new Halo Games that are already known: Halo Wars and Halo 3: Recon; and this is supposed to be it. So the only reason remaining to watch the Microsoft CES 2009 keynote are the fun video skids they hopefully keep doing despite Bill Gates' departure and outbursts of Ballmer. More CES 2009 News.