Brokaw Asks Bill Gates: Do You Have An iPod? (VIDEO)

As Bill Gates retires from his day-to-day work at Microsoft, he talks to Tom Brokaw about his career, his famous temper, computer games and kids and... iPods. Watch below, then read about life after he and Steve Jobs retire.

And here's some pretty awkward video of Gates' last day at the office, including a presidential-looking signing:

Comments

[arvay]

Tom Brokaw as a replacement for Tim Russert? A bad joke. A face, voice and attitudes from the past, a Waspoid mannequin focused on "responsibility" (i.e. don't offend the powerful). NBC has one too -- Brian Williams.

At least Gates' mind dates from the 60s and 70s -- Brokaw is the voice of the long-dead Eisenhower mind-set, rising like a county club zombie to serve the new American fascist government.

[Bettysdad]

That Brokaw guy is one hell of an investigative journalist.

The "i-Pod" question was asked years ago.

What a clown.

[jrb35]

Seth Myers on SNL said it best...

"Microsoft introduced the Zune this week. The Zune, as in, 'Wow, your Zune isn't nearly as cool as my IPod.'"

[TERRYKEITH4]

The main reason I buy Microsoft! CHARITIE!!!! Apple? Can you step up to the plate?

[paulbikes]

The main reason i use Ubuntu Linux? Its better than Apple and Microsoft! Second reason? Apple's prices are hilariously un-reasonable and Microsofts a joke. Vista? are you kidding?

Do yourself a favor, go download ubuntu 8.04, i bet you will love it. and you can still run windows only programs through a program called wine.

[Erdgeist]

Zune is amazing--a perfect copy of an iPod like so many other things from Microsoft. But soon that is all going to come to a halt. Microsoft can't keep up with Apple's superior OS or its ability to write, now, its own chips. Apple by the way doesn't depend on Steve Jobs. It is a living ideal of beauty, quality, simplicity, and innovation.

[paulbikes]

I agree, microsoft isnt doing anything worthwhile anymore, and allot of what appears to be copying. I love everything about apple save for the price gouging. It has improved dramatically in the last year. but i just built a computer for 600usd that vastly out performs the macbookpro that cost 2500usd 20 months ago and already broke on me. outside of warranty.

Also, OSX is Linux based, and ive noticed that while ubuntu 8.04 (free linux, ubuntu.com) dosent have allot of the nifty, ram-intensive features that osx does, it does all the same things in its own way, and uses a fraction the ram to do it.

Ipods and iphones are awesome, but always get the extended plan...

[kellygrrrl]

I am not a techie or an actress or an investment wizard
so it is not my place to judge Bill Gates or Angelina Jolie or Warren Buffett professionally

but

I am a humanitarian, and in my book, any billionaire who is putting their money where their mouth is gets a Round of Applause from me.

I have high hopes that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will do great things.

Thanks Bill

[paulbikes]

Ditto!

[asus389]

The part where Tom asked him if he has an iPod is kind of funny. Of course hes going to say he has a Zune, its a perfect opportunity for a shameless plug for an MS product. However, if he hadn't ever used an iPod, there would be no such thing as a Zune... the Zune was obviously *ahem* "inspired" by the iPod...

[Merin]

Right - because the iPod was the very first MP3 player.

Wait, no. There were quite a few companies making MP3 players well before the iPod, and some of those used Microsoft software.

The iPod had a slick yuppie campaign that worked with snobs and kids. After that it became the default like "Kleenex" and "Saran Wrap" and "Jell-O" - not necessarily the best or worst, just the most well known.

[paulbikes]

Remember the mp3 players you could fit like 8 songs on? not even a whole album!

[CeciliaBertrand]

I am very proud of Bill and Melinda Gates, and Steve Jobs. I cannot ever thank them enough!

[nogimmicks]

I respect Tom Brokaw, but that question have asked before, e.g. Peter Jennings of ABC in 2005. Tom needs new material.

[raker]

Maybe Brokaw has a clog in one of his internets tubes.

[the964kid]

Thats a silly question, Bill Gates and others are the ones that bailed out Apple years ago when it looked like Apple was about to go out of business, and they also re-installed Steve Jobs over there as head of Apple. As many know Gates and Jobs were room mates at MIT, and Gates' Windows was basically a rip off of Jobs' original Mac operating system. So, bottom line: Bill Gates likes Apple and makes money off of Apple as a shareholder.

[suec03]

How could they have been roommates when Gates attended Harvard College and Jobs attended Reed College in Oregon?

[syrupcore]

um. room mates? teehee. the legends grow...

[asus389]

Microsoft invested 150M in Apple and got non-voting stock. They sold this stock a long time ago and more than doubled their investment. It was more of a symbolic gesture anyways, at a time when MS was getting sued by the DOJ for anti-trust violations.

MS had nothing to do with Steve Jobs coming back. Apple merged with NeXT in 1997 and Steve Jobs came with that merger. The NeXT operating system NeXTstep was the foundation of Apples the new OS, Mac OS X.

Gates was roomates (or at least friends with) with Paul Allen at Harvard, not Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs went to Reed College in OR. I doubt they even knew eachtother before Apple had MS write BASIC for the Apple II.

[Bettysdad]

Once upon a time there was a man called Steve Wozniak...

[WasteNJ]

The comedy video of Bill Gates' last day is hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HA4lSUhlbw

Like him or hate him, he's the reason you are able to type on this blog. The advent of the Graphic User Interface (GUI) which, although Bill bought it for $8000, radically changed the course of history. Bill and Steve Jobs were the early pioneers of the home PC; visionaries, but flawed visionaries.
If interested, watch the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley", it's a story about Gates and Jobs' start and rise to massive power and influence.

[datacine]

Even better than "Pirates of Silcon Valley" is Robert X. Cringley's "Triumph Of The Nerds: The Rise Of Accidental Empires" (1996) prodeced for BBC and shown on PBS here in USA. Much better telling of the story. Available on DVD now. This was the basis for "Pirates....."

[troykendal]

I wonder how bill and melinda will spend their time and money the next 30 years?

[HatingTheGame]

In case you missed it, they're busy trying to save lives.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm

[axt113]

That still makes me angry, I was so used to being able to hate him as this evil coroporate swindler, and then he started doing charitable works and helping people, dangit, why can't these people stay evil so I can continue to hate them :-P

But seriously I respect all the good work he's done recently

[ZimboChick]

u should GOOGLE more

[syrupcore]

or http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com/search.pl?query=bill+melinda+gates+foundation

best url ever. oh, there was "www.johnkerryisadouchebagbutimvotingforhimanyway.com" that was pretty rad. it's a link farm now, sadly.

[Bettysdad]

Giving away the money they took from us to make themselves look good?

They'll never give away enough to make any impact in their lives.