Here's Microsoft's oddly prescient 'smart home,' from 1999

Here&#039;s Microsoft&#039;s oddly prescient &#039;smart home,&#039; from 1999

(Image credit: Microsoft/YouTube)

Back in 1999, the future belonged to Microsoft. It was so dominant in the computer/IT market — Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player — that a few years later the European Union would slap it with a hefty antitrust judgment and fine. Now, Microsoft is merely a tech giant competing against everyone from Apple and Google to Nintendo and Facebook. Those companies, it turns out, have helped make a reality out of much of this 1999 Microsoft concept video of the "smart home" of the future. The Jetsons, today, if you will. One quibble: Rosie is the Jetsons' robotic housekeeper — isn't Astro their dog? --Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.