Recent Cisco efforts in home networking could make the personal computer little more than a dumb terminal, undercutting Microsoft.

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But in most cases the device is nothing more than a dumb terminal.

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In effect, this could reduce the home gaming hardware layer to a dumb terminal, with limited processing and power requirements.

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In fact, the solution to unlocking the true potential of infotainment may end up looking a lot like this: a dumb terminal paired to an LCD in the dash, a built-in USB port, integrated Bluetooth and a small-but-passionate team of developers that work to safely port applications into driver-friendly wrappers.

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