Gates kicks off CES with vision of wired home

For more than a decade, Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates and others in the tech industry have touted a vision of a connected lifestyle, in which digital content can move across devices throughout the home and be taken on the go.

It's been a slow march. But as Gates kicked off the International Consumer Electronics Show late Sunday, the industry has come further than ever in delivering on that concept.

"Every year represents a lot of progress," he said in an interview Sunday with The Associated Press.

The improvements have taken many forms.

Building the underlying networks. Developing the technologies to get devices to communicate. Creating the hardware that can handle the digital data. Returning to the drawing board when there were flops. And finally, getting the backing of entertainment sources to embrace this new era of media consumption.

But more work remains, Gates said.