Technolog - Microsoft TV may challenge Apple, Google
With a big push on for "connected TVs" — those that can hitch you up to the Internet via your home TV for streaming movies, TV shows, music and photos — Microsoft is likely to jump into that arena with its own product to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas.
Google and Apple already have a footprint in this effort, and hungry TV makers are pushing for it, too (with 3-D TVs, the failed wunderkind of last year's CES, not yet ready for prime time with consumers).
Microsoft plans to use a "stripped-down version of Windows tailored for set-top boxes and connected TVs," reports Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times. "The software is a version of its embedded device software, overlaid with the Windows Media Center interface, with media streaming and remote-control capabilities." (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Microsoft's connected TV boxes are expected to go for around $200 and be available later this year, according to the report, and "pose a serious challenge to the new Apple and Google TV devices, largely because the Windows boxes have a polished and familiar TV-program guide that makes it easy to blend and navigate both online and broadcast content."
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