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Microsoft and mobile Internet access

"The car has been pretty much disconnected," Bob McKenzie, General Manager of the Automotive Business Unit of Microsoft, said during a Convergence 2000 press conference to introduce Car.NET - a computing and communications framework that brings telematics and the Internet into a vehicle via any service delivered to any device.

The framework for Car.NET includes the infrastructure and tools for building and operating services as well as in-vehicle computing and communicating devices powered by Windows CE for Automotive and wireless delivery of services to mobile devices via the Microsoft Mobile Information Server for Automotive.

Working with industry partners, Microsoft will provide an array of services such as support for synchronized e-mail, e-mail browsing, and remote software update. Car.NET's open standards framework allows Microsoft partners to provide embedded and portable in-vehicle devices, server solutions, business services, and consumer services.

A key cog of the just-announced Car.NET framework is the Windows CE for Automotive Version 3 operating system. McKenzie noted that Bosch and Denso officials intend to build and ship in-vehicle devices based on Microsoft's newest automotive software platform, while Aisin AW Co. Ltd., Clarion Co. Ltd., Xanavi Informatics Corp., and Mitsui & Co. Ltd. have announced plans to develop systems and software applications on Windows CE for Automotive.

Industry watchers predict that 50% of all new cars in 2006 will have telematics capabilities.

Kami Buchholz

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Ford's Wingcast offers a "handle to the Internet"

Featured at Ford's Convergence booth was the iButton Key, which looks like a key fob but is, in function, "a handle to the Internet."

Ford's Lincoln Navigator demo featured a rear-seat entertainment system that employs an IEEE 1394 digital network interface.

That is how Wingcast CEO and President Horel Kodesh referred to the device during remarks about Ford's philosophy of making the car "a node on the Internet." The iButton, he said, "stores the personal preferences of users, allowing them to connect home, work, and car." What's unique about the iButton is that "people will be able to move their preferences with them" and ensure that, when they interact with various online services, they need not restate those preferences, Kodesh said. "It will allow them to seamlessly, quickly get to where they need to go."

A chip in the iButton enables it to open doors (home and car), plug into computers (it has a USB port), and activate vehicle information systems.

"We want to make sure that, basically, all the portal information that we offer from whatever angle or point of view is going to be shared irrespective of where people are, what they do, and what kind of device they use to access this information," Kodesh said.

Telephone numbers, addresses, and MP3 song play lists are examples of the type of information the iButton can access. Kodesh emphasized that the preference information is not housed in the device; like the services it can access, the iButton derives its usefulness from the Internet. He also pointed out that the idea behind the iButton may, in final form, take a different credit-card-like shape.

Also on display at the Ford booth was a Lincoln Navigator demo vehicle featuring a rear-seat multimedia system that employs the IEEE 1394 digital network interface. It includes two independent video displays, Sony Playstation II, DVD player, Sony digital video camera, and 1394 customer convenience ports.

The system enables three channels of audio and video transmitted simultaneously over the 100-Mbps network. Video displays may be added or removed without hardware or software modifications.

Patrick Ponticel

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