Microsoft: Extensive VoIP Features in Windows CE 5.0

Microsoft are including better VoIP support in their next version of their popular embedded version of Windows – CE 5.0. CE is used in many devices such as touch screen phones and PDAs and so enhanced VoIP support makes a lot of sense and will lead to a lot of exciting applications.

CE 4.2 has some limited support for VoIP, but is mainly focussed on call control features like call forwarding. Amongst other new features, 5.0 will integrate with Microsoft Exchange Server contacts, so users will be able to see when another client is online. Importantly, the new OS will provide conference facilities and native WiFi support – ideal for enterprise use.

Also new is support for Direct3D Mobile, enabling developers to make greater use of graphical and media-intensive content.

Version 5.0 is due out in the summer, and we’ll be bringing you reviews of the OS when it appears.

Microsoft’s Windows CE 5.0 technology preview centre

Chris De Herrera’s Windows CE Website

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people. Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon. At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC. After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video. These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?