HEATHER NEWMAN & MIKE WENDLAND: Gates' vision gains clarity
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MIKE WENDLAND:
Next medium for news is
that handy cell phone
■
Amazon Tops Forecasts
on Sales Surge
Sun Posts Fiscal FourthQuarter Profit
HEATHER NEWMAN & MIKE WENDLAND:
Gates' vision gains clarity
January 9, 2002
Microsoft Vista May
Face Trademark
Trouble
Samsung, XM to Make
MP3/radio Player
Motorola to Offer Yahoo
Access on Devices
BY HEATHER NEWMAN
AND MIKE WENDLAND
FREE PRESS COLUMNISTS
LAS VEGAS -- It's no longer all about the PC and a couple of
peripherals like printers or scanners.
Think bigger, say industry leaders at the Consumer Electronics Show.
IBM Aims to Maintain
Server Dominance
Earthlink 2Q Profit
Slides 12 Percent
Residents Fight to Keep
Analog Cell Phones
IDT Refiles Papers for
Proposed ICS Merger
Microsoft Begins New
Piracy Restrictions
Budget a boost for valley
HP, Compaq set
shareholder votes for
mid-March
Critical Path ex-officials
charged with investor
fraud
Mixed results for
California, Silicon Valley
in Bush budget plan
Think ecosystems.
That's the new buzzword to describe technology's evolution into a
world in which the PC, the laptop, Mom and Dad's handheld
organizers, the family car, the big-screen TV, the stereo, the DVD
player, the digital camera and even the home security system are all
linked to form what Bill Gates and his band of high-tech boosters call
an ecosystem.
Everywhere you look at the 1.2-million-square-foot show, exhibitors are
touting gadgets that use the rapidly growing advances in wireless
networking to make all our entertainment and information systems,
home appliances and onboard automobile computers talk to each
other.
Just what they'll say or why we need this we aren't quite sure yet,
despite the dizzying hype by the vendors. Still, it's obvious that a trend
is in full swing. Gates set the stage with his CES keynote address
Monday night.
The Microsoft mogul announced two new products that tie his vision of
a high-tech ecosystem together: Freestyle, a technology to link PCs
and television and entertainment centers with an advanced remotecontrol device, and Mira, software to run a flat-screen computer
monitor that can be detached and carried all over the house like a PC
tablet.
To make his point on why we want this, Gates showed a video
depicting a user taking a Mira screen into the bathroom.
Palm to target business
http://www.freep.com/money/tech/1ces9_20020109.htm (1 of 3)7/28/2005 12:01:05 AM
DATABASE: News and
notes
■
HEATHER NEWMAN & MIKE WENDLAND: Gates' vision gains clarity
market in battle with
Microsoft
Verizon posts $2 billion
loss
EU clears HP, Compaq
mega-merger
Britain meets its Future
at high-tech show
Judge queries
Microsoft, U.S. on
settlement hearing
EU clears HP purchase
of Compaq
Gates has been making his case for the PC as the engine of a wired
home for several years. He's even formed a whole new Microsoft
division to push this, called eHome. But in his opening speech at this
annual high-tech gathering, his third in as many years, Gates' vision
seemed the clearest yet.
That's because all these technologies are no longer laboratory dreams,
thanks to the Internet and advances in wireless networking.
From online gaming, to automobiles that use wireless Internet
connections to talk to computers, to interactive digital television
services that can be used to download and distribute DVD-quality
movies throughout the home, the clear message to consumers is that
we can create our own technology ecosystems.
For instance, we're writing this column on laptops that access the
Internet via wireless radio signals. We can walk all over the pressroom,
even out in the hallway, and never lose our connection.
The technical name for the wireless technology we're using is IEEE
802.11b, but everyone just calls it Wi-Fi, for Wireless Fidelity.
Businesses have been using Wi-Fi for about a year. Now home
networks are all the rage. For $350 or less, a home network can be set
up in minutes. More than 240 devices are certified for Wi-Fi, and if you
don't have one, the consumer electronics industry is betting you soon
will.
Wi-Fi networks have been set up in 1,100 airports, shopping centers,
Starbucks coffee shops and other public areas. By 2005, the industry
projects 25,000 such so-called hot zones will exist.
Wireless signals cover a radius of 150 feet from the base station, more
than enough to cover the typical residence. They easily penetrate walls
and floors.
Manufacturers are dreaming up all sorts of uses.
Siemens (http://www.icm.siemens.com), for example, has introduced
the Voice Data Gateway wireless system using a standard similar to
Wi-Fi that connects computers, laptops and cordless phones to one
wireless gateway. The system runs up to four cordless extension
phones from one base set and users can access their voice and PC
data services with no wires from anywhere in the house. The price is
expected to be around $400.
On the higher end, there's the Pioneer Electronics A/V Client (http://
www.pioneerelectronics.com). Think of it as an entertainment server
for the home. This unit sells for $1,800 but it runs a bunch of home
entertainment devices and wirelessly distributes audio, video and still
pictures to multiple TVs and audio systems in a house.
Although dozens of companies are on the wireless bandwagon, Gates
remains the biggest cheerleader. He announced eHome partnerships
with Intel and Hewlett-Packard to help bring his new Freestyle and
Mira technologies into homes by year's end.
http://www.freep.com/money/tech/1ces9_20020109.htm (2 of 3)7/28/2005 12:01:05 AM
HEATHER NEWMAN & MIKE WENDLAND: Gates' vision gains clarity
But, of course, as with all things Microsoft, it all comes back to the
Windows platform.
And Windows XP, with 17 million copies sold in a little over two
months, has built-in Wi-Fi networking. A new operating system Gates
announced Monday -- called Windows CE.net -- will bring cell phones
and PocketPC handheld computers into wirelessly connected homes.
For once, the buzzword fits: Ecosystem does seem like the appropriate
description for a very connected world.
Contact MIKE WENDLANDat 313-222-8861 or mwendland@freepress.
com. Contact HEATHER NEWMAN at 313-223-3336 or
newman@freepress.com.
MORE TECHNOLOGY COVERAGE
HEATHER NEWMAN | MIKE WENDLAND
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All content © copyright 2001 Detroit Free Press and may not be republished without permission.
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