Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, his first time at CES, gave the pre-opening night keynote at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Since we haven't followed the intricacies of Microsoft (except when it was the MS in MSNBC) we'll leave it to VentureBeat to give you the full story.

I did Tweet the event (on, of all devices, an Apple iPhone). The most recent tweets are up top:

• Ballmer on Trends: "screens and displays will be everywhere." Communications will move seamlessly. Voice, video, and text.

• New for XBOX: 1 vs. 100 coming to Live Experience in March. Kodu, community platform, to launch. Where users create their own games.

• Best holiday ever for XBOX. Expecting "accelerated progress." Zune social now has 2 million members. Two new titles in Halo series in '09

• After Windows 7 demo there's a musical interlude from Tripod. That makes Microsoft ultra-cool. Not easy to incorporate xbox in lyrics.

• Ballmer on Windows Mobile: 20 million windows mobile phones sold in the last year...As I Tweet this from my iPhone.

• Ballmer: Windows Live enhancements include deals with facebook and Dell.

• Ballmer announces Windows 7 beta to be made available worldwide on Friday.

• Ballmer: "At this time economically, the choice that offers the most sense is the PC. That's why I am a PC."

• Ballmer: Bringing together PC, TV & phone and the Internet "cloud" is the last step to connectivity. Windows is the way to get there.

• Ballmer: "It's no longer about the desktop." Computer, phone, and TV are part of a "Single, seamless ecosystem."

• Ballmer: "so this is CES." Talks about Gates' "incredible work" across the globe. Jokes that he ignores Jerry Yang's Facebook friend reqs

• A CES "rap" preceeds Steve Ballmer keynote in packed Palazzo ballroom at the Venetian. What recession?