At a presentation the evening before last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates displayed two new software initiatives that will extend the personal computer's reach within the household. If adopted, the initiatives could change the way consumers watch and interact with their televisions.

Gates, who envisions his company's software as the foundation of what he calls ?the digital decade,? said that he wants Microsoft products in every home electronic entertainment and communication device, from the stereo to the television.

?Just like hardware now, we [software companies] have a different framework to think about,? Gates said. ?It's about many devices?and it's about the idea of services ? services to make your information immediately available, services to authenticate who you are.?

Gates added that software adds value to digital media by helping people organize and update data ? even while watching a feature film.

Freestyle, one of Microsoft's new software initiatives, will help people organize and access data anywhere in the home, Gates said. Freestyle will allow consumers to use a remote control to interact with the television in the same way they would with a computer. For example, with a remote control a user could pull down family photos stored on a hard disk and share them with friends on a wide-screen TV in the living room.

The other initiative, called Mira, brings wireless capabilities to a personal computer that serves as a Web tablet, or screen, as well. This tablet can be removed from the hard drive and still interact with the Internet and the television and can be used anywhere in the house.

Gates stressed his company's drive to assure that all electronic devices can work with each other. At the presentation, he asked a Microsoft employee to demonstrate how a consumer could, from outside the home, tell his or her personal video recorder to capture a specific television show using Microsoft's UltimateTV, which provides PVR services as well as Internet access to television users. UltimateTV now can receive commands to record specific programs via the Internet. (Microsoft also announced a new service last week called UltimateTV Movies, which allows a consumer to receive information and reviews about which movies to watch.)

This year Gates also plans to bring the Internet to Microsoft's new game console, Xbox. Since its market introduction in November, 1.5 million Xbox consoles have been sold ? as many as they could make in such a short time, as Gates puts it. Microsoft expects to sell between 4.4 million and 6 million by the end of June, which would help extend Microsoft's reach in U.S. households.

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