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Hitachi will enter the intensely competitive personal digital assistant market later this year with a product based on Microsoft's new Windows CE .Net operating system, the company announced on Tuesday. The prototype PDA was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show here.

Hitachi formed a special unit, Net-PDA Venture, to develop PDAs in November 2000, and the recently unveiled prototype is one of the first fruits of that development. Windows CE .Net, which was also unveiled at CES, is the successor to Windows CE 3.0 and supports Bluetooth and 802.11x wireless connectivity technologies.

"Unlike Pocket PC, this OS is an embedded system," says Nobutoshi Yoshida, a spokesperson at Hitachi's Net-PDA Venture unit. "We decided to adopt the system because it will allow for various applications to be carried and for real time streaming video, which is becoming popular in this broadband era."

Windows CE .Net will be compatible with Microsoft's future .Net initiatives, and devices based on the OS will be able to access many of the .Net services that will appear on the Web, he says.

Hitachi plans to commercialize the prototype PDA by mid-year for corporate users, first in Japan and then abroad, Yoshida says.

In Japan, many major electronic device makers, such as Toshiba, NEC, and Fujitsu, have entered the PDA business, intensifying competition in the market. Hitachi hopes to differentiate itself from the others with Windows CE .Net, Yoshida says.

Among other Japanese PDA makers, Casio Computer has also announced that it will adopt Windows CE .Net for its PDA products.

News source: PCWorld - Hitachi Unveils Plans for PDA

Auditing the Auditor

Grassley, who requested the TIGTA report on IRS inventory, called the findings "shocking."

"In just the last three years alone, the IRS is missing approximately 2,300 computers," he wrote.

The TIGTA report, which also found that the IRS lost one firearm and had five stolen in the same three-year-period, said "although the IRS has established procedures to control its inventory of computers, firearms and other sensitive items, it has experienced longstanding difficulties in maintaining reliable and accurate inventory information."

Data Dangers?

Grassley criticized the agency for poor inventory controls going back as far as 1983, and says the loss of computers and their data may put sensitive information at risk.

"Because of the lack of information it is unknown to what extent, if any, taxpayer information may be inappropriately released," Grassley wrote.

Issued in late November, the TIGTA report states "the IRS reported that, to its knowledge, no missing computers contained classified data or had an internal secure modem installed."

Mathis told NewsFactor that none of the computers in question have compromised taxpayer information.

Finders Keepers

Mathis told NewsFactor that of the 2,300 missing computers mentioned in the report, 1,597 had been accounted for and reported back to TIGTA.

She said the IRS is implementing TIGTA recommendations and that they should be in place by the end of the month, adding that the agency is confident it will eventually be able to account for nearly all of the computers.

"We think most are just accounting issues," she said of the lost computers. "We think we'll eventually account for almost all of them."

Holding Up Funding

Still, Grassley harshly criticizes the IRS, pointing out that a taxpayer would be held accountable for missing receipts.

"Sadly, all this from the IRS -- an agency that requires taxpayers to show every receipt -- [which] can't find 2,300 computers," the Senator wrote. "The IRS wouldn't accept from a taxpayer the non-answer it has given regarding the missing 2,300 computers."

"It is my view that serious consideration should be given to placing a limitation on the IRS budget until there is real improvement -- not real promises -- in inventory management," Grassley wrote.