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MSN Companion
The MSN Companion was a small-scale personal computer terminal that was designed for easy access to MSN services on the Internet, such as Hotmail, while still being cheap and easy to use. They were intended for use by people with little knowledge of computers or technology, and many included several features aimed at the elderly or disabled, such as easier-to-read monitors. The device was designed by Microsoft. History The device was first unveiled at the COMDEX conference in November 1999, where it was first described as a 'MSN-based Web companion'. In June 2000, Vestel USA Inc, Compaq and eMachines began working with Microsoft to create the first MSN Companions. Mock-ups of RCA, Acer and Inventec Companions were also seen. While the MSN Companion was initially received with praise, it did not perform successfully in the market and Microsoft and MSN stopped providing support for Companions in October 2003. Early Companion models All MSN Companions ran an early version of Mic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The early 1980s and home computers, rise of personal computers through software like Windows, and the company has since expanded to Internet services, cloud computing, video gaming and other fields. Microsoft is the List of the largest software companies, largest software maker, one of the Trillion-dollar company, most valuable public U.S. companies, and one of the List of most valuable brands, most valuable brands globally. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Windows. During the 41 years from 1980 to 2021 Microsoft released 9 versions of MS-DOS with a median frequen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Internet Explorer 4
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (IE4) is the fourth version of the Internet Explorer graphical web browser that Microsoft unveiled in Spring of 1997, and released on September 22, 1997, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for the classic Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It". It was one of the main participants of the first browser war. Its distribution methods and Windows integration were involved in the '' United States v. Microsoft Corp.'' case. It was superseded by Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 in March 1999. In addition the Internet Explorer layout engine MSHTML (Trident) was introduced. It attained just over 60% market share by March 1999 when IE5 was released. In August 2001 when Internet Explorer 6 was released, IE4.x had dropped to 7% market share and IE5 had increased to 80%. IE4 market share dropped under 1% by 2004. Internet Explorer 4 is no longer available for download from Microsoft. However, arch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windows CE Devices
Windows is a product line of proprietary graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sectors of the computing industry – Windows (unqualified) for a consumer or corporate workstation, Windows Server for a server and Windows IoT for an embedded system. Windows is sold as either a consumer retail product or licensed to third-party hardware manufacturers who sell products bundled with Windows. The first version of Windows, Windows 1.0, was released on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The name "Windows" is a reference to the windowing system in GUIs. The 1990 release of Windows 3.0 catapulted its market success and led to various other product families, including the now-defunct Windows 9x, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and Windows CE/Embedded Compact. Windows is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microsoft Hardware
Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation has been selling branded hardware since 1980, and developing devices in-house since 1982, when the Microsoft Hardware division was formed to design a computer mouse for use with History of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word for DOS. Since then, Microsoft has developed computer hardware, gaming hardware and mobile hardware. It also produced device driver, drivers and other List of Microsoft software, software for integrating the hardware with Microsoft Windows. In April 2023, Microsoft announced that it would discontinue the production of most branded PC accessories, electing to focus solely on Microsoft Surface-branded products (which are aimed at a high-end market). In January 2024, Microsoft announced an agreement with Incase, under which it would license designs for a number of its existing hardware products (including its mice, keyboard, and webcam designs), and provide it with access to its existing supply chains. These products will be marketed un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox network and Xbox Game Pass. The brand is produced by Microsoft Gaming, a division of Microsoft. The brand was 2001 in video gaming#Video game consoles, first introduced in the United States in November 2001, with the launch of the original Xbox console. The Xbox branding was formerly, from 2012 to 2015, used as Microsoft's digital media entertainment brand replacing Zune. In 2022, Microsoft expanded its gaming business and reorganized Xbox to become part of its newly formed Microsoft Gaming division. Under Microsoft Gaming, Xbox's first-party publishers are Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media (Bethesda Softworks), and Activision Blizzard (Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and King (company), King), who own numerous studios and successful franchis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portable Media Center
Portable Media Center (PMC) is a portable media player (PMP) platform developed by Microsoft. Announced at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and released in early 2004, it was originally positioned as a competitor to Apple's iPod. All its hard drive-based players use a graphical user interface (GUI) modeled after Media Center, a software portal bundled with Windows XP Media Center Edition. Manufacturers of PMC devices included Creative, Philips, iriver, Samsung, and Toshiba. History The platform was conceived in line with Microsoft's Windows Media Center strategy, where the idea was to have a single media management interface that would be used on both PCs and in consumer devices, including televisions and handhelds. The strategy was developed by Microsoft's Windows Embedded group in partnership with the eHome Division, which formed in February 2001 and started partnerships with companies like Samsung with the goal to "develop new technologies so consumers can enjoy w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethernet
Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1983 as IEEE 802.3. Ethernet has since been refined to support higher bit rates, a greater number of nodes, and longer link distances, but retains much backward compatibility. Over time, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies such as Token Ring, FDDI and ARCNET. The original 10BASE5 Ethernet uses a thick coaxial cable as a shared medium. This was largely superseded by 10BASE2, which used a thinner and more flexible cable that was both less expensive and easier to use. More modern Ethernet variants use Ethernet over twisted pair, twisted pair and fiber optic links in conjunction with Network switch, switches. Over the course of its history, Ethernet data transfer rates have been increased from the original to the lates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallel Port
In computing, a parallel port is a type of interface found on early computers ( personal and otherwise) for connecting peripherals. The name refers to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once (parallel communication), as opposed to serial communication, in which bits are sent one at a time. To do this, parallel ports require multiple data lines in their cables and port connectors and tend to be larger than contemporary serial ports, which only require one data line. There are many types of parallel ports, but the term has become most closely associated with the printer port or Centronics port found on most personal computers from the 1970s through the 2000s. It was an industry ''de facto'' standard for many years, and was finally standardized as IEEE 1284 in the late 1990s, which defined the Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) and Extended Capability Port (ECP) bi-directional versions. Today, the parallel port interface is virtually non ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geode (processor)
Geode is a series of x86-compatible system-on-a-chip (SoC) microprocessors and I/O companions produced by AMD that was targeted at the Embedded system, embedded computing market. The series was originally launched by National Semiconductor as the Geode family in 1999. The original Geode processor core itself is derived from the Cyrix MediaGX platform, which was acquired in National's merger with Cyrix in 1997. AMD bought the Geode business from National in August 2003 to augment its existing line of embedded x86 processor products. Before acquiring Geode, AMD marketed the AMD Élan, a family of 32-Bit embedded SoCs based on their own Am386, Am486 and Am586 microprocessors. All of these products have been backed with a long-term supply guarantee to meet the needs of embedded processors. However, after acquiring Geode, the product was suddenly discontinued. AMD expanded the Geode series to two classes of processor: the MediaGX-derived Geode GX and LX, and the modern Athlon-derived ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PS/2 Connector
The PS/2 port is a 6-pin mini-DIN connector used for connecting keyboards and mice to a PC compatible computer system. Its name comes from the IBM Personal System/2 series of personal computers, with which it was introduced in 1987. The PS/2 mouse connector generally replaced the older DE-9 RS-232 "serial mouse" connector, while the PS/2 keyboard connector replaced the larger 5-pin/180° DIN connector used in the IBM PC/AT design. The PS/2 keyboard port is electrically and logically identical to the IBM AT keyboard port, differing only in the type of electrical connector used. The PS/2 platform introduced a second port with the same design as the keyboard port for use to connect a mouse; thus the PS/2-style keyboard and mouse interfaces are electrically similar and employ the same communication protocol. However, unlike the otherwise similar Apple Desktop Bus connector used by Apple, a given system's keyboard and mouse port may not be interchangeable since the two devices use d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liquid Crystal Display
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other Electro-optic modulator, electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but instead use a backlight or Reflector (photography), reflector to produce images in color or Monochrome monitor, monochrome. LCDs are available to display arbitrary images (as in a general-purpose computer display) or fixed images with low information content, which can be displayed or hidden: preset words, digits, and seven-segment displays (as in a digital clock) are all examples of devices with these displays. They use the same basic technology, except that arbitrary images are made from a matrix of small pixels, while other displays have larger elements. LCDs are used in a wide range of applications, including LCD televisions, computer monitors, Dashboard, instrument panels, flight instrument ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inventec
Inventec Corporation (; ) is a Taiwan-based Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) making notebook computers, servers and mobile devices. Originally established in 1975 to develop and manufacture electronic calculators, major customers include Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Acer, and Fujitsu-Siemens. Inventec Corporation has major development and manufacturing facilities in China and is one of their largest exporters. The company opened its first development center in China in 1991 and its first manufacturing facility in Shanghai in 1995. In addition, the company has configuration, and service centers in the United States, Europe, and Mexico. The company has a workforce of over 23,000 employees, including over 3,000 engineers. It partially owns a Japan-based mini notebook brand vendor, Kohjinsha (KJS), which was established in Yokohama. Group information Inventec Group comprises five companies: Inventec Corporation Noted above Inventec BESTA BESTA is an independen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
