Microsoft Working On Jet TV Systems

When Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said he envisioned a computer in every home and on every desktop, he should have added “and at every airplane seat.”

Microsoft is joining key players in an emerging technology: computerized TV systems that let jet passengers watch what they want when they want on monitors embedded in the seat backs in front of them.

Microsoft’s role in creating the new system grew out of its work developing interactive television, the technology that lets viewers call up TV programs and movies whenever they want, or conduct shopping and other computerlike functions on their TV sets.