Microsoft Notebook: Microsoft has plans to take on ... Apple
Seattle PI | at | by Mike
The hand-held devices, called Portable Media Centers, will store and play back video, music and photos. Microsoft unveiled a prototype at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, under the code name Media2Go. The company had originally hoped to see at least one of the devices on the market during the recent holiday season, but the first release is now expected in the second half of this year.
Companies including Samsung Electronics, ViewSonic Corp., iRiver International and Creative Technology are working on versions of the devices. Each will run a specialized version of Windows CE, the Microsoft operating system for smaller machines. The model is similar to the way Microsoft has worked with Tablet PCs, creating a specialized version of Windows XP and encouraging manufacturers to build for it.