The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Faster, smaller PCs touted at Microsoft conference

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Faster, smaller PCs touted at Microsoft conference: "Microsoft's first goal was to see a computer on every desk, in every home. Now the company is pushing for a PC on every person.
It's comical if you think of a PC as being a big, beige box with a video monitor on top.
But Microsoft expects the average PC to dramatically shrink in size and grow in performance over the next three years.
Yesterday, the company showed computer makers how to build a device that's smaller than a paperback book, runs all day on a single battery charge, is always connected to the Internet and costs $500 to $800.
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So far, Microsoft only has designs and a nonworking prototype. Gates, in an interview Monday, joked about the current hardware, but said his team expects fully functioning machines to go on sale in a few years.
"Obviously, what I held up was a block of wood," he said of the prototype he showed during his keynote speech. "They said to me when they were briefing me, 'Hey, this is better than what anybody else has.' I said you mean nobody else can shave their block of wood smaller than we can? Just joking.""