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It’s no secret that I have been converted into a full-blown Pocket PC geek. So it was with great interest that I read, in an interview with Ya-Qin Zhang, head of Pocket PC research, who says that Microsoft is finding a need for a GNU Radio-style software radio:

It’s a fact of life that we’re moving from a single radio environment to a multiradio environment. In the future you’re going to have 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Bluetooth, GPS (Global Positioning System), all that really coexist. So we need technology that can help us roam, detect changes in radio frequency, and handle them seamlessly. A lot of this can be done through software.

Let’s think about this: a small, handheld device with a good display, and a chip inside it that’s capable of receiving and processing any radio signal being transmitted. Suddenly, all that separates this device from being your mobile phone or HDTV or police scanner or GPS or shortwave radio is the software needed to handle those signals. I honestly believe this is the Next Big Thing in technology.