Visions of the Future
While the PocketPC may not be extremely popular in the handheld market, nor is it exactly dead in the water, Bill Gates and company aren't wasting any time moving into the future. Monday at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas Gates will debute a new product from Microsoft thus far simply named the Tablet PC.
The name practically details the device without any previous knowledge. It will hopefully provide the computing power of a notebook in the size of a legal pad, with voice-driven commands coming soon.
The device first appeared in June when Microsoft announced its .Net strategy. According to the MSNBC article, sources at Microsoft say the project has barely gotten its feet wet, and there is less than 10 of the prototype Tablet PCs in existence.
Those sources also say that the device will most likely run on embedded Windows NT, and be powered by the low energy consumption Transmeta Crusoe proecessor. Adobe is currently working on software for the Tablet PC, and MS research hopes to greatly improve voice recognition before the product hits retail shelves to boost its usability, as right now it relies on pen input for functions.
Read the article on MSNBC for more information.