Years ago, Apple was the first computer launched for the education market. Not too long ago, Apple tried to regain its dominance over that market with an idea called the Pippin. The Pippin was a set-top box - designed to be an easy computing, Internet, and alternative gaming platform for all. After Bandai purchased Pippen (renamed the Pippin Atmark) from Apple and sold only 30,000 in Japan and 12,000 in the US, it killed the project completely. Since then, no one has really attempted to gain a foothold in the gaming and education market. Enter Microsoft.

　　Bill Gates, on location in Shenzhen, China, previewed a new Windows CE-based device code-named "Venus" for the Chinese market. It offers e-mail, Internet access, document creation, multimedia, television, video CD (VCD) capabilities, and - best of all - games. If you're out of the loop, VCD is like DVD lite - it's an Asian standard of movie playback that comes on a special form of CD-ROM called a multidisk VCD. Companies attempted to popularize the format here here in the US in several forms, but with DVD moving closer, consumers were skittish about embracing the VCD format.

　　The "Venus" connects to a standard TV set and uses PC-like keyboards, mice, and joysticks for input. Gates is focused on demonstrating Microsoft's commitment to the Chinese market. His goal is to give Chinese consumers more access to the Internet. Venus units come equipped with WebTV for Internet access and pocket versions of its Word, Excel, Outlook, and Internet Explorer products.

　　Units from big names like Acer and Philips are expected to release sometime during the second half of 1999 for an undetermined price.

　　While there has been no announcement yet, many insiders speculate that the "Venus" form factor could reach US shores as a high-end option for the next version of WebTV (which is to be been built on the Windows CE operating system). With companies like Hasbro and GT Interactive building games for Microsoft's pint-sized platform, other game developers are sure to start producing games that could turn up in the Chinese market (in legal form, we hope).

　　You might be asking why Microsoft didn't just marry all this functionality with the Dreamcast and market the Dreamcast in China? We're asking the same thing. The Dreamcast has a powerful processor, great graphics, Internet capability, and a custom version of CE built-in (although all the graphical elements of CE for the Dreamcast were taken out). Maybe Sega of Japan will figure this out and push to make a Dreamcast Plus of some kind.