Stepping through the foyer and into the Microsoft Home in New York, a visitor
is confronted with the wide open spaces of an 8,000-square-foot loft.
Tastefully decorated in greens and browns with plenty of bright, airy white
as well, the loft itself, situated in the posh Tribeca neighborhood, is
probably out of the reach of most consumers. But the idea behind the
luxurious apartment — a home with a network that takes advantage of current
Microsoft technology — is not.
The home, utilizing hardware from companies like Compaq, Cisco and Rio, is
networked with home networking features native to the recently released
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) operating system. Windows
Me includes a Home Networking Wizard which helps users quickly and easily
find shared resources and connect them, simply by plugging devices into a
phone jack. With one computer, which acts as the residential gateway, hooked
up to an ADSL line, computers in each room of the home have broadband access
to the Internet — and the network can also control lighting, security and
heating in the home as well. Because it utilizes ADSL, users will only need
a single phone line to get the network off the ground.
The network does not yet support Powerline technologies — which would allow
it to control network-enabled appliances through a home’s electrical wiring
— but Microsoft indicated that was probably 18 months to two years away,
depending on how long it takes the industry to agree on a standard.
However, the Microsoft home is equipped with an 80211B Wireless Network,
attached to the phoneline network, allowing wireless devices like Pocket PCs
to access the network and the Internet at broadband speeds.
After stepping inside the home, a visitor’s eye is inevitably drawn to the
living room, where “Uncle Dave” is watching a big screen television on the
far wall. The television utilizes Microsoft Ultimate TV service — in
conjunction with DIRECTV satellite service — making it the first direct
broadcast satellite television platform to integrate DIRECTV programming,
digital video recording, Interactive TV and Internet access in one package.
Viewers can search for programs by title, subject or category; specify
favorite channels for easy access; watch and/or record two shows at once;
pause for up to 30 minutes; and record up to 35 hours of digital video.
Unlike most of the technology in the home, the television is not part of the
home network. It is built on the Microsoft WebTV platform and still uses a
dial-up service.
The same is true of the MSN Companion in the kitchen, where “grandma” is
looking up the recipe for “doodledongs.” The MSN Companion is a small
Internet appliance — also utilizing dial-up service — that takes up only a
little more space than a toaster oven. Microsoft said the Companion is
primarily targeted at households that don’t have PCs, but many people are
also interested in putting them in kitchens where they can be used to
quickly look up recipes, search the Web or chat with friends.
In her bedroom, “Jen,” the teenager, is downloading the latest U2 single and
video to her Windows Media Player. After listening to music for a while she
gets out the Microsoft SideWinder Game Voice, a gaming headset and control
unit that enables her to use voice commands and chat with her friends while
playing a computer game over the Internet. Tiring of the game, Jen pushes a
button on her monitor and watches TV instead.
Next door, in the home office, “Mom” listens to a little music from her
digital playlist while putting together a digital photo album using
Microsoft PictureIt! Then, using Windows Me’s digital media capabilities,
she edits a home movie and e-mails it to her mother.
In the master bedroom, “Dad” is reading an e-book downloaded to his Pocket
PC. Sliding a wireless card into the Pocket P
C, he surfs the Web with a
fully functional browser. The bedroom isn’t outfitted with a PC, but there
are speakers embedded in the wall, and a network control panel as well.
Moving over to the control panel, Dad presses a button to select one of his
music playlists. Satisfied with the music he adjusts the lights from the
control panel before moving to the kids’ bedroom to use the computer there
to research Thanksgiving meals.
“A lot of this is now moving from thhe research mode to being practical,”
said Steve Guggenheimer of the Microsoft Consumer Division. He added that
the technologies in the home were simple to use. “People don’t care about
technology, per se,” he said. “They care about what makes their lives
better.”
Home networking is an area that has been receiving quite a bit of attention
lately. Two separate home networking alliances have formed in the past few
months. Cisco Systems — which plans to put out its own Internet home
gateway sometime next year — has formed the Internet Home Alliance with
Best Buy, General Motors, Panasonic, Sun Microsystems and others like 3Com,
CompUSA, Honeywell, Invensys, Motorola, New Power, Reliant Energy, Texas
Instruments and Sears Roebuck.
Meanwhile, the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (PNA), founded by 3Com,
AMD, AT&T Wireless Services, Broadcom, Compaq, Conextant, Hewlett-Packard,
IBM, Intel, Lucent Technologies and Tut Systems, is working to create a
phoneline networking standard. PNA also includes many members of the
Internet Home Alliance. Even Sony is looking to turn its PlayStation2 game
console into a home networking device.
As for Microsoft, it says it will work with any hardware vendor. “We write
software,” one Microsoft employee said. “It doesn’t matter who’s producing
the pipe.”
