WSJ: D5 Morning Session

The morning session over and I've got a little time before I meet with Palm, so I'll sum up the morning events. They kicked things off with a social breakfast, then they jumped right into the good stuff when Steve Ballmer took the stage.Mossberg got some good shots in like asking why Vista took 5 years to get out. In a way, Ballmer admitted to making mistakes with Vista along the way. They tried to do too much at once and it got out of hand.Of course you can't forget about the Zune, as it turns out, Microsoft has no plans to ever build their own factories to produce them. He calls the hardware just a method of delivering services. A very interesting point of view I think. He does promise that something new and better will be out in time for Christmas, so we'll keep our eyes out for that.They finally wrapped up their smalltalk and moved onto what we've really been waiting for: the unveiling of the Surface table. They were sure to let us know that the table was massive multitouch, not just Multitouch. It's got 5 cameras and DLP system on the inside. The machine is always on, so you don't have to worry about boot times. (Mossberg got another good jab in there) It was really cool seeing three people up there dragging around pictures and even videos while they were still playing.To show off the wireless capabilities they set a camera on the table and instantly pictures came out onto the surface of the table. The table software is of course based on Windows Vista, so we should assume that many of the same features will be included.The table will come in varying sizes including ones that can be hung on the wall, and as Mossberg pointed out, although it can detect T-Mobile phones and list their features, it will not actually make T-Mobile terrible. I think he needs to lay off the caffeine.They ended their cool demo and went on to talk about online search, mobile phones. Ballmer said no to a mobile phone in the future citing that they were more concerned about software that runs on phones. Mossberg pointed out that when he and Ballmer talked about music players a few years back he also said they wouldn't make one. He didn't really have a direct response to that.They took a few questions from the audience after that, which wrapped up their chat. Check back with us later for more coverage.