Is that a Media Center PC--or an end table?

Wood paneling and chrome made your dad's station wagon look like a million bucks, and they might also be just the ticket for Microsoft's fledgling effort to put a Media Center PC in every living room.

Those materials dominate one of two sample designs for a new style of Media Center PC, commissioned by Microsoft's eHome division from One & Co., a San Francisco engineering and design company. One & Co. partner Jonah Becker explained that Microsoft wanted a PC design that an enlightened homeowner might want to have sitting in the middle of a living room, as opposed to stuffed into the back of entertainment center. That's important if consumers are to be comfortable using the PC for the "2-foot experience"--typical PC activities such as downloading and organizing photos and music clips--as well as the more laid-back "10-foot experience" of watching TV or running a slideshow.

View: One of One & Co.'s concepts for a Media Center PC