He recently teamed with troubled Sirius XM Radio and Garmin, maker of global-positioning displays, to beamweather data to automobiles--a potentially large but still nascent market.
His track record, of course, has been mixed: In 2002, for instance, Gates premiered the Mira, the portable touch screen, which never launched, and SPOT, an ambitious plan to beamweather and stock quotes to wristwatches.