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Spotlight On Windows-Powered Gadgets And Gizmos

An anonymous reader writes "WindowsForDevices has published a big article showcasing seventy-three consumer devices that were on display in Microsoft's device expo at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Each device runs Windows CE, Windows Mobile (Pocket PC, Smartphone, etc.), or Windows XP Embedded. A photo and brief description are provided for each. Some cool stuff!"

12 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Has anyone used this by $exyNerdie · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Has anyone used the Poma Wearable PC ??

    Description: The Personal Optical Mobile Assistant (POMA) Wearable PC is a small wearable PC in a headset form factor for browsing the Internet. There is no boot time and gives the wearer the ability to privately view websites and access information...

    I would like to see a review of this and any similar device posted on /.

  2. xbox? by a.koepke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The X-Box is not in the list, doesn't it run a version of windows too?

    --


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  3. I'm not suprised... by Spike+Spiengel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While everyone (here at least) would rather see *nix running on these devices, I'm none too suprised that Microsoft is pushing embeded Windows.

    Their basic strategy from their inception has been to throw money at a problem untill someone finds a fix. Look at the X-Box (the lack of a Japanese market) or any number of their other projects.

    Since Microsoft already has strong ties with most of the vendors, and plenty of money to throw at promoting embeded Windows, it only follows that they will continue to grow in that market.

    --
    "See you, space cowboy." -Spike
    1. Re:I'm not suprised... by bonch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, Embedded Windows spawned from the technology of the NT kernel, which was componentized in 2000, and continued even further in XP. Microsoft is now able to push stripped-down versions of Windows, and in Longhorn, you will even be able to write XML-based installation scripts that will let you determine what exactly you want installed with Longhorn and how--great for OEMs and power users.

  4. Re:Probably? by stubear · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you had read the link you posted you would have discovered that the BMW which trapped the minister in his car was a 520. Windows is in the BW 7 series so how was it possible for Windows to have trapped a person in a car without being the OS which controls these systems? Even on the BMW 7, Windows only controls the entertainment, climate, and security controls. If BMW crashes because of an OS problem, you won't be able to finger Windows. Nice try though.

  5. Re:what about... by AnonymousNoMore · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am about as big a Linux bigot as anyone, but give me a break. Can't you appreciate innovative devices or new ideas for their own sake? There are some cool devices there and for whatever reason windows CE got the design win.

    BTW, I'm pretty much pissed at MS for the fact that I'm 3 hours into a cleaning of my employer dictated development platform right now because of MSIE vulnerabilities. But at least I can look at another engineers work and appreciate the appeal of their product without belittling it just because they didn't use my preferred OS.

  6. How about the right tool for the job? by xswl0931 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The difference between a PocketPC Phone Edition and Smartphone is the later is phone first, pda second, the former is pda first, phone second. So do your research and buy the righ tool for the job.

  7. Re:Some help anyone? by m00nun1t · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it just me or are these predictable blue screen comments getting boring? I've been using NT4 > Windows 2000 > Windows XP > Windows 2003 for 6 or 7 years now, and I can recollect 4 or 5 blue screens, most of them on NT4 and in all cases running dodgy software. I don't know anyone who does get regular bluescreens on the NT kernel based windows.

    I dual booted and installed Redhat 7.1 a few years back and got 2 kernel dumps in 2 days... sure, I probably did something wrong, but the machine was running windows fine.

  8. J-O-K-E by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    That's right J, O, K, E spells JOKE! It's a joke man! Chill out! It's just like all the jokes about linux, unix, mac, bsd.... you name it. We can joke about windows too right? Right????

    I think we're entitled to anyway, after the hell microsoft put us through with their (initially) unstable products.

  9. Re:Some help anyone? by DarkSarin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This thread is loaded with flames and trolls, but I have to say that my recent experience has been interesting. When I upgraded mobos, ram and cpu, all my windows crashes dissappeared completely. I still prefer linux for a variety of reasons, but generally speaking, windows has ben much more stable.

    I am beginning to think that some of the trouble is not just windows, but also tied to poor hardware. All said, I am glad that my machine is more stable.

    --
    "We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
  10. Re:Some help anyone? by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Windows is stable for people who know what they're doing. For the majority of comptuer users, Windows is still very unstable. Yes, the core OS has gotten more stable, but the amount of crap that is running on a typical Windows system has increased tenfold. Once you have Comet Cursor, SaveNow, Gator, New.net, Yahoo toolbar, Alexa toolbar, Realplayer/Quicktime/Winamp system tray applets, and 10 different auto-updater programs all sticking their tentacles into the bowels of Windows Explorer, Windows becomes just as unstable as it ever was in the days of 98, if not more. Plus you get flashing advertisements popping up out of nowhere every five minutes and whenever you start a program. I'm not exaggerating about the number of programs either; there are an incredible number of crapware programs out there preying on innocent users who don't know any better. Even when you buy a new PC now it usually comes with at least 5-10 unnecessary programs that start automatically and run all the time. The core OS doesn't crash hard very much any more, but the Explorer shell is still full of holes and you can knock IE over with a feather once all that crap is installed.

    MS is eventually going to have to do something, because it's not getting any better. The line between virus and legitimate program is getting blurred. Maybe this trend will push people to Linux. If companies tried to make spyware for KDE/GNOME, the open-source community would come out with a spyware remover program within three days, and it would be installed in the next release of every major distro.

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    main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  11. Honestly by bonch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Slashdot is the only place I know of where the BSOD is still a prevalent meme. It's one of those things everybody talks about happening constantly without ever really seeing. Sure, now and then someone gets one due to a driver, but let's get real.

    It's the same with Clippy jokes, even though I haven't seen Clippy in close to six years in ANY Office installation, and he never installs by default anyway. Never mind that telling him to "Hide" always got rid of him anyway.