X-Box: Are you hoping, as many of us are, that Bill Gates' upcoming keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show will bring the biggest revelation yet about Microsoft's rumored X-Box console? Well you may have to wait a while ...

Microsoft has already confirmed that the subject of Gates' upcoming speech will be his company's "vision to bring information and entertainment to consumers ... providing underlying technologies for both computers and consumer devices." But is this a thinly-veiled reference to the often publicly denied but commonly talked about off-the-record X-Box console?

Apparently not. Talking to Next Generation magazine, one inside source commented, "If this is going to be a game machine first, then it would send the wrong message to make a big announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show, especially so close to the Game Developers Conference and E3."