Any Colour You Like

In another move to cope with open source competition, Microsoft has raised the bar with a partly open high-powered RTOS for the small but fast-growing mobile and embedded market.

At their annual Mobile and Embedded DevCon in Sin City, the company gave attendees a beta version of Windows CE 6, which again gives access to miles of source code. This will allow developers to customize user interfaces while retaining IP rights over their innovations.

A lot of tech gadgets you probably use daily, from PDAs to GPS devices, use the current Windows CE 5.0. With a September release date likely, CE 6 will power the next generation of devices starting in 2007.