Windows Embedded Blog

Behind the scenes at the birth of Microsoft’s intelligent car program

WindowsEmbedded — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Posted By Walter Sullivan

Ten years ago, in April of 2003, a small team from Fiat and Microsoft got together in Redmond, in Microsoft’s Building 32, to talk about a potential collaboration. I was lucky enough to be in this meeting, unsure of whether there was any real opportunity. Through the course of the discussion, we started to realize that Fiat and Microsoft had a very common vision for how mobile devices would be integrated into the driving environment; both companies recognized the growth in personal mobile devices we were about to see. In fact, as we were prototyping our concept, the engineers at Fiat and their Research Center (CRF) were working on a very similar concept, which we saw for the first time later in 2003 as we continued our discussions. We at Microsoft called ours T-Box; Fiat called theirs Convergence. The similarities were uncanny.

Development actually began in early 2004, and we handed off the final production device to Fiat in June of 2005. We developed the hardware and the software from scratch (very little of either prototype was actually used in the production system) in about 16 months. Over the next few months, we continued to build the second version, which added an embedded cellular module, vehicle diagnostics and navigation. The products, of course, were Fiat’s Blue&Me and Blue&Me Nav, which began production in the fall of 2005.

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Does my bum look big in this? The shifting consumer experience, part 2

WindowsEmbedded — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT

Posted By Simon Francis
Solutions Specialist

Our two-part blog series on “smart” shopping trends continues with this analysis from Simon Francis on dressing-room innovation.

Delay mirrors, like this one from Comqi, record and plays back the last few seconds of your life, so you can check your look from behind

Now and then you come across an idea that really makes you take your hat off to the instigators’ ingenuity. This happened to me on a recent shopping expedition whilst looking for a new pair of jeans.

After locating the pair I wanted, I headed off to the changing-room area. The rooms were great, in a cool industrial theme, very stylish, lots of space…altogether nice. After putting on the jeans, I ventured out of the changing room and headed towards a large mirror nearby.

They say you can depend on two things in life: death and taxes. I believe there is a third thing that comes into play for all the non-vampires among us: You should be able to see your reflection in a mirror. So it is very disconcerting when you don’t.

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Signs of the times: the shifting consumer experience, part 1

WindowsEmbedded — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:30:00 GMT

Posted By Guillaume Estegassy
Windows Embedded Business Group Lead for Japan

From attracting customers through digital signage to creating in-store dressing-room intelligent systems, technology is no doubt transforming the consumer experience. Today, Guillaume Estegassy brings you part one of our two-part blog series exploring these ‘smart’ shopping trends.

As a daily user of the remarkable Tokyo metro and train systems, alongside 40 million people (yes, that is daily), I started to notice something peculiar: empty conventional signage spaces.

Empty signage space in the Tokyo subway

Where you have an opportunity to reach tens of thousands of people a day in one given station, why isn’t every signage space occupied? Simply because they are evolving, from a past where static, “disconnected,” mono-directional communication tools are no longer relevant. Indeed, if I owned a business and wanted to increase my reach, what would compel me to rent this empty space? I’d want to know how many people look at it; whether they are men, women, adults, kids; how long they looked at it; and if they were happy, or making a face. I’d want to see the data to support the claims, too. Am I asking for too much? Not anymore. As the technology is becoming available today, these questions are also part of the thinking process when considering digital signage.

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The “secret sauce” of the retail experience

WindowsEmbedded — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:41:00 GMT

Posted By Steve Dunbar
Windows Embedded Lead, Northern Europe

Hello, blog readers! My name is Steve Dunbar, and as you can see from my bio, I am the business group lead for Northern Europe. The London newspaper The Times recently published a feature examining The Future of Retail, particularly how High Street brick-and-mortar operations are leveraging data to compete with online retailers to offer more personalization and lower prices. This conundrum was a core topic of discussion at a partner event I recently attended in Majorca, Spain, as it has a lot of relevancy to our own intelligent systems vision.

Toshiba Connect Europe 2013 (formerly IBM Business Partner University) is an educational business briefing and networking opportunity by Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions business (TGCS). The event provided insight into current issues facing retailers, and creative ways sales teams can craft and install intelligent business solutions to meet customer needs. Throughout the event, speakers and sessions reinforced the continued drive to work with partners to create solutions that integrate the various consumer touch points.

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Introducing the Windows Embedded Automotive Team!

WindowsEmbedded — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:00:00 GMT

Posted By Pranish Kumar
Group Program Manager, Windows Embedded Automotive

Today, Microsoft launched the “Designing the Future of the Intelligent Car” digital series to showcase the team we have working on Microsoft’s automotive solutions and our vision for the intelligent car of the future. To kick-off the series I’ve asked the leader of the Windows Embedded Automotive team, Pranish Kumar, to provide some perspective on the team and the work they are doing.

Hi – I’m Pranish Kumar and as Group Program Manager for the Windows Embedded Automotive team, I lead the group of developers and designers responsible for building, designing, and maintaining our automotive technology. We released this video series today to introduce some of the team working on the technology that will bring about our vision for the intelligent vehicle. I’m proud of this team. Whether at work or at home, this team is so passionate about cars and the opportunity to use technology to improve the car experience. They bring their work and play together, with many members spending their free time on things like re-building hot rods and participating in car clubs. I invite you to watch the videos to meet the team behind our product and learn about what makes us tick.

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Windows Embedded readies “Blue” update

WindowsEmbedded — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Posted By David Wurster
Windows Embedded Senior Product Manager

Last night Tami Reller discussed some of the milestones we’ve reached as a company over the past six months since Windows 8 GA, including 100 million licenses sold. Tami also shared her thoughts on the evolution of the PC and a broader device market driven by mobility – asserting Microsoft’s commitment to “deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes…while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem.” An update to Windows 8 codenamed Windows Blue – available later this year – is indicative of this company-wide devices and services commitment.

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New, integrated suite of digital properties features Microsoft’s vision for the Internet of Things

WindowsEmbedded — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:15:00 GMT

Posted By Barb Edson
General Manager, Marketing and Business Development

If you’re reading this, you’ve no doubt noticed: The Windows Embedded team blog has a new look. In fact, as of a few minutes ago, all of our digital properties—from this blog, to our website, Twitter, Flickr, SlideShare and YouTube channel—have been refreshed with an integrated look and feel, and copious new features, content and resources.

On this blog, you’ll see cleaner navigation and simplified access to information from the Windows Embedded team—as well as other contributors from Microsoft and our partner community. Expect to see a continued range of technical information on our products and commentary around the growing emergence of the “Internet of Things,” the opportunity presented by intelligent systems and “big data,” and other topics tied to the evolving embedded market.

Our new Windows Embedded website launched today, too, and it’s brimming with brand-new features—from dozens of new videos and rich content detail, to a deep dive into Microsoft’s vision for intelligent systems and the Internet of Things, links to many free white papers, reports and technical reference materials, a burgeoning Windows Embedded community and more.

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Recognizing excellence among Windows Embedded partners

WindowsEmbedded — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:45:00 GMT

Posted By Karen Roberts
Senior Partner Marketing Manager

The Windows Embedded Partner Program team congratulates our ecosystem partners who recently received a Partner Excellence Award. The Windows Embedded Partner Excellence Awards recognize members of the Windows Embedded Partner Program that excel at driving the Windows Embedded business. Their contributions help bring solutions to market that support the development of intelligent systems worldwide.

Thanks to all the partners who submitted nominations. Below is a summary, by category, of the winning partners.

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Windows Embedded 8 is Great for Healthcare

WindowsEmbedded — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Posted By Werner Reuss
Windows Embedded Business Lead for Germany and Eastern Europe

We successfully launched Windows Embedded 8 to healthcare sector and saw great interest from customers on leading-edge technology for patient-entertainment systems. This is a growing trend in healthcare in Europe; you may recall my colleague Myriam Semery wrote about French partner Scotler’s bedside terminal earlier this year.

Last week was really super busy. I posted earlier about Synopsis; simultaneously, my colleague Thomas Frahler was leading our efforts at the Connecting Healthcare IT (conhIT) conference. The event was held from April 9-11 in Berlin. and is one of the leading conferences for health sector. We saw this year around 6,000 visitors--which is an increase of around 18 percent from last year--using the opportunity to engage with 320 exhibitors.

We joined our partner Clinicall at their booth. Right in the center of their presence was their newly launched bedside terminal based on Windows 8 technology. The product integrates patient communication and entertainment with applications used by the medical staff. The feedback about the new product, and particularly about the recently launched Windows Embedded 8, was just great. We heard a lot of positive feedback highlighting the quick adoption of leading-edge technology into a newly introduced product. Many hospitals are currently looking into renewing the communication/entertainment experience of their patients, and the way documents and information can be accessed by doctors and nurses right at the bedside. The Windows Embedded 8-based solution seems to hit exactly their needs.

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March 2013 Optional Updates are up on MyOEM for Standard 8

WindowsEmbedded — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:23:00 GMT

The March 2013 Optional Updates are now available on MyOEM for Windows Embedded Standard 8.

The list below applies to Windows Embedded Standard 8:

KB 2832450 - This KB resolves an issue with Unified Write Filter (UWF) where:

File commit in Unified Write Filter fails when the file owner does not match the file caller.
File commit in Unified Write Filter fails when HORM is disabled after being enabled on the system.
Unified Write Filter does not work with portable devices.

If you have questions on accessing MyOEM, please email the OEM Customer Communications Care Team at OEM@microsoft.com.

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