Here’s evidence of just how diversified an outfit Microsoft is: Today, it announced InstaLoad, a technology that allows devices to be built that can accept batteries in either orientation, so you don’t need to worry about whether you’ve stuck a battery into the compartment with the positive end touching the positive contact. The basic idea looks both clever and pretty simple: It’s a contact unit that incorporates both a positive contact and a negative one.
Microsoft has signed up a bunch of third parties to endorse the technology, and intends to license it for use by other manufacturers. (It’ll license it for free for use in products for disabled people who might have particular difficulty with standard battery compartments.) Oddly enough, it’s not making any announcements regarding using InstaLoad in its own products which could benefit from it, such as mice and keyboards.