Microsoft founder Bill Gates is once again counting on developers to make what the company calls "seamless connections" between Windows software and people's lives.

The Redmond, Wash.-based empire is currently engrossed in its .NET strategy as it prepares for the next major waves of development, database and operating system platforms (codenamed Whidbey, Yukon and Longhorn, respectively). All three projects have been delayed from their original target launch dates.

To help push things along, Gates unveiled at at the Microsoft developer's conference in San FranciscoVisual Studio 2005 Community Technology Preview program along with the company's Microsoft Speech Server 2004 and Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software. Gates said Microsoft is using the software platforms to address mobility, Web services (define), speech, and location services (through its MapPoint Location Server) to build applications for the Web, Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs, smartphones and speech technologies.

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