THE WINDOWSFORDEVICES.COM WEEKLY NEWSLETTER WindowsForDevices.com Newsletter -- November 18, 2002 

Monday, November 18, 2002

By Alexander Wolfe, executive editor
 

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IN THIS ISSUE:

THE WEEK AHEAD:
1)SIC TRANSIT COMDEX?

TOP NEWS TIP SHEET:
2) IS EMBEDDED GAMING MOVING TO A CONNECTED MODEL?
3) CAN WE TALK OPEN & SHARED SOURCE? OF COURSE.
4) COULD WIRELESS USB CHALLENGE BLUETOOTH?
5) STICK A TINY TV TUNER IN YOUR PDA.
6) 16-BIT MICROCONTROLLER INTERFACES BLUETOOTH TO USB, CAN.
7) CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THE TABLET PC?
8) HERE'S  A BIG SOFTWARE TOOLKIT FOR SMALL MOBILE DEVICES.


*************************THE WEEK AHEAD*************************

1) THE WEEK AHEAD: SIC TRANSIT COMDEX?
Remember when Comdex was all about PCs? That was so 20th century. 
With PC growth stagnant, the focus this year is on smart devices, 
many of which use embedded Windows.

More specifically, several companies are expected to use Comdex to
show off prototype versions of their long-awaited "smart displays."
These are first-generation implementations of Microsoft's CE.NET-
based wireless webpad reference design. The smart display is akin 
to a thin client in that it's used as a front-end to more powerful 
desktop PC. But it's got the advantage of being mobile--and it's 
equipped with a touch screen--so it has the potential of becoming 
the mother of all remote controls.

Indeed, some of the items those displays might soon be controlling 
are the subject of another go-to-market initiative Microsoft will 
disclose. It's called smart personal object technology (SPOT). From
your coffee maker's point of view, it's more of a Microsoft 
reference spec to enable embedded control to be folded into 
household appliances of all sizes. If successful, it might reawaken
interest in that manse of the mid-1980s as an "electronic home."

To tote up the bill for all this technology, you might want to use 
one of the dozen or more Pocket PCs which will debut at Comdex. The
prospect that Dell will show its long-awaited first entry into 
that market segment has created the most pre-show buzz. For 
developers, two big questions loom: When will Pocket PC designs 
roll over completely to CE.NET from 3.0? (Reportedly, that's 
ongoing right now.) And, will existing 3.0 devices and/or apps be 
upgradeable to their .NET successors?

Tablet PCs, which were formally introduced only a few weeks ago, 
will be the other big devices in the Comdex product parade. And big
they are; many of the first crop are the same size as laptops. They
run Windows XP Tablet PC edition (which is XP plus handwriting 
recognition software). So, since their computing capability is 
"visible," strictly speaking they're not embedded devices. However,
 like the Supreme Court, we think we know embedded when we see it. 
These include some tablet-like prototypes the size of James Bond 
devices. We're also aware of a number of seemingly quite practical,
 vertical-market handhelds that could give other platforms a run 
for their money.


*************************TOP NEWS TIP SHEET*************************


2) IS EMBEDDED GAMING MOVING TO A CONNECTED MODEL?
For Microsoft, it might be. They've just launched the "Xbox Live" 
online broadband network. This teenager's dream is billed as the 
ultimate online arena for collaborative gaming. We see it as an 
attempt to move a successful embedded platform--Xbox--away from an 
"each user is a island" model into a networked consumer-electronics
entertainment paradigm. If successful (or even if not), this could
be Microsoft's first of many networking moves to tie together all 
of its digital media technologies.
story

3) CAN WE TALK OPEN & SHARED SOURCE? OF COURSE.
We've got a double dose this week. First up, executive editor and 
columnist Alexander Wolfe sticks his neck out and opines that 
opening up Windows would be a good thing. Separately, we report the
introduction of a tool called Dotfuscator that's supposed to make 
it easier for applications developers to do what they're always 
imploring operating system vendors (like Microsoft) not to do -- 
namely, hide source code. 
story
story


4) COULD WIRELESS USB CHALLENGE BLUETOOTH?
Not this week, but maybe someday soon, if Cypress Semiconductor has
its way. They say their new CY694X Wireless USB chip--which uses 
spread-spectrum modulation and a center frequency of 2.4 GHz-- can 
connect up to seven devices from up to 30 feet apart. And at about 
$4 in quantity, Cypress says it'll be cheaper to implement than 
Bluetooth. Samples are now available.
story


5) STICK A TINY TV TUNER IN YOUR PDA.
Sorry, this single-chip TV-tuner module from Sony will be available
only for the Japanese market when it's released in Q1 of 2003. But 
it's a good forward-looking indication of just how much 
functionality is becoming available for integration into small 
devices. The module measures 0.98 x 0.79 x 0.12 in., or about the 
same as a standard 80-yen postage stamp, according to Sony. We 
didn't  have one of those around, but we measured a 37-cent U.S. 
"flag" stamp we found stuck to a piece of snail mail and the height
and width were pretty close. (Though our stamp wasn't 0.12-inch 
thick.)
story

6) 16-BIT MICROCONTROLLER INTERFACES BLUETOOTH TO USB, CAN.
The new CP3000 family is built around National's CR16C 16-bit RISC 
microcontroller core. The CP3BT10 interfaces Bluetooth to USB, 
Access.bus, and USART. The T13 connects Bluetooth to the industrial
CAN bus. Other spins for automotive and industrial applications are
also available. The devices are sampling now. Prices range from $6 
to $8 in quantity. 
story

7) CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THE TABLET PC?
Then you've come to the right Web site. We went to Bill Gates' 
splashy introduction in New York and took notes. We've also posted 
pictures and specs for most of the first generation models. And 
they're all accessible from a single location:
story


8) HERE'S A BIG SOFTWARE TOOLKIT FOR SMALL MOBILE DEVICES.
Are you familiar with Microsoft's Mobile Internet Toolkit? You 
should be. MMIT extends the familiar Visual Studio .NET integrated 
development environment to make mobile programming easier. We'd 
like to take the credit for a great technical article on  this 
stuff, but that rightly goes to embedded Windows experts Paul Yao 
and David Durant, who originally wrote it for Microsoft's 
Developers Network.
story


****QUICK REFERENCE GUIDES OF EMBEDDED WINDOWS PRODUCTS***

HANDHELDS AND PDAs
story

SMARTPHONES
story

WEBPADS
story


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