Microsoft demos Auxiliary Display

It won't start showing up in laptops until Longhorn debuts sometime around the end of next year (yup, yup), but Microsoft has been showing off that new Auxiliary Display technology they were hinting at earlier this year. We got check out a prototype for an ASUS laptop with Auxiliary Display, and we were definitely digging it. Even though the laptop was off you can use the Auxiliary Display to check your calendar, view emails, control Windows Media Player, stuff like that. Obviously programs have to be written to interface with the display, but the Microsofties we spoke with said that the API will be open to software developers, it just wasn't clear yet whether it would work with user-installable software apps or whether it'd have to be integrated by the manufacturer (we're gunning for them to make this totally hackable, natch). Apparently the display doesn't have to always be a 2-inch by 2-inch LCD, it's also possible to use different-sized LCDs or single line displays.

[Apoc @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

Is that a signal status icon on the lower left?

[Pabloc @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

So, you wanna turn off your notebook, and Microsoft latest gadget keep it on..
thanks again Microsoft :)
Also, that "prototype" seems to be a Corona XT poratble from the eighties...

[Harry Lime @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

I wonder if they borrowed this idea from the FlipStart:

http://www.flipstart.com/aboutproduct_features_lidmodule.asp

[Peter Rojas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

I actually specifically asked MSFT about the form factor issue, and they said that Aux Display doesn't have to add any significant weight or heft to the laptop. The ASUS is like that for other reasons, the display itself is pretty thin and doesn't require as much space as is implied by that prototype.

[carl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

#2 B-Sabre, I was thinking the same thing. But why tether it? How about wireless? It could dock and charge on the laptop's lid or in a compartment on the side of the laptop.

Now, how does one avoid scratching it up when it's in a bag?

[Thaddeus @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

It will also be interesting to see how painful this will be for the open source community to adopt. Having an open API in Windows is one thing, but actually making it easy to interface with outside of Windows is another.

[Jon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

Not so keen on using the tech for an external display, after all most people have small dedicated devices for their audio and calander stuff ("tomorrow? hmm, let me heft out my laptop and... aha, I dont need to turn it on, I just poke at these tiny buttons for tenminutes and.. yes, there! no i cant make it")

BUT... I would love to see a touchscreen inplace of the touchpad in my laptop! If it could be configured to show, time, calander, emails, music etc - perhaps it could be a dedicated area of draggable screen-space? just drag a window 'downwards' from the main screen and a specialised version appears on the touchscreen!

Definitely an interesting technology

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

Jon, I'll take a wild guess and say that maybe you are a fan of the DS. Because you seem to just be ripping off their idea and acting like you came up with it. And let me say... I didn't think it was that great an idea for the DS, and I don't think it makes much sense for this either.

[Jacob @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

I've wanted something like this for my desktop for YEARS. Great for stuff like displaying the time, temperature, what music is playing...

As for laptops, think of this like those secondary displays on cellphones.

[Sheniferous @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

This thing would be EXTREMELY cool if it were in the form factor of say a PCMCIA card... and used bluetooth to communicate with the lappy and had a touch screen. That way, although you can't see the aux display in normal lappy operations, you could undock it from the inside of the lappy and use it for the same features microsoft is talking about.

[Server @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

>>Even though the laptop was off you can use >>the Auxiliary >>Display to check your >>calendar, view emails, control Windows >>Media >>Player

For this to function without turning the
main unit on, the laptop would have to be
equiped with not only an auxiliary display
but auxiliary CPU, something like a PPC?
which would explain the hump on the lid.
A little while back, Intel produced a prototype
laptop CodeName "Florence" which already
included the external display for email/cal functions.

http://snipurl.com/ea8t

[Yet another matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

this is a fantastic idea, i love it alot, good bye secondary LCD modules, or VFDs. This is basically a mobile/cell phones screen on the outside of a laptop, doesnt have to nessecarily be huge.
Long over due, i love the icon based interface too. Shame it looks so ugly on that laptop

[Pedro @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

neat but kinda awkward where its sitting on that laptop... looks like it might be easier to pop it open rather then use it where its at.

[Ryan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

This totally looks like a rip-off of the Low-Power Interactive Display (LID) module found on the flipstartPC. I'm all for it though.

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

I think it would be great to start using cellphones to control things like this. I carry my cellphone with me everywhere, even in my house, and using it to control... basically everything, would be very convienient.

[Architect Zero @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

In regards to the mention of the flipstart by Harry Lime (currently #4, above).

I'm guessing that they did indeed borrow the idea from the FlipStart.

Paul Allen is one of the major investors in the FlipStart, and we all know that there are much less than 6 degrees of seperation between Mr. Allen and Mr. Gates. This is probably done with the knowledge, if not the blessing, from FlipStart.

[Phil @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

hi matt!

here are a couple URLs:
http://www.apple.com
http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/indigo/clicker_info.html

this will get you on your way to controlling everything via your cell phone. take it from me, it's awesome.

[Cullen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

eh. i think itd be awkward. i realize this is an early implentation...but it looks awkward.why not use somethig like cellphones do - i dont know shit about the technology but they seem to use OLED quite a bit - is it thinner/doesnt require backlight? a quick google led me to this http://www.onestopdisplays.net/oled.php they come as big as 1.53" from them, so i assume you can get them larger. id be in favor of having a sort of shutter over the whole thing, itd be obnoxious when you didnt need it. a sliding bit could be done awfully classy, especially if it had a bump like that thing does :x
placement will be an issue, i dont think id like it where it is on that picture - i agree itd be kinda neat on a tether; bluetooth wouldnt give you the feeling of connection that a tether gives; it would feel like a seperate instrument rather than a piece of a whole.
its ass ugly how it is. change it.
maybe if it was a thing like apple had - two modules on eitrher side of the lappy, could put batteries or cd drives or hard drives or whatever in them..could put a 2 line display in it that would have a retractable (into the computer) cord or something
i donno.
something. not this.

[Jon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

Matt #9: you might notice that nowhere in my post do I 'claim' to have come up with the idea, touchscreens are hardly new and if the idea of using one as a laptop touchpad hasnt been realised before I would be very surprised!

I was simply stating my interest in using the secondary display in this way, no need to get arsey

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

You're right Jon. Sorry bout that. I think I've just been gettin in too many debates with Nintendo fans lately about the DS. It's given me a few itchy trigger fingers.

[jfb3 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

If the phrase "the API will be open to software developers" is a quote it may not mean that it will be an open API. It might mean that it will be open to users of one of Microsofts tools via a patented .dll with some encryption along the way to pull in DMCA protection.

This is MS after all...

And even then it may be open only to "software developers" that Microsoft approves and grants a licenses. (You have to pay a yearly license fee.)

[Camron @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

people may not like microsoft but you have to admit they make very good stuff for the common user.

[Mac, Su-Cheong @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

"Even though the laptop was off you can use the Auxiliary Display to check your calendar, view emails..."
But I think the only thing off is the LCD, all other modules (CPU, harddisk, network, ...) have to be on in order to do these stuffs.
Hmmm, isn't this technology simply a redirection and transformation of GUI from a bigger screen to a small one?

[huh? @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

seems like you'd be better off using a tablet pc with a software dashboard system of your most used applications. how about a docking port on the outside of your notebook pc for a pocket pc that you can pull out and carry where you need.

[Chen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

No, the laptop can be completely in S3/S4 or even S5 mode. Data is cached on the display as it has its own CPU (ARM7/9) and ram.

[B-Sabre @ Dec 19th 2005 12:13AM]

Could be, or it could be a volume indicator.

This is a neat idea, but looking at the shot of the whole laptop it looks like it does terrible things to the form factor - goodbye slim-books!

What might work is using a plug-in display/remote sort of like the ones on Sony MD players. You have the laptop in your case or backpack, and have the "aux display" on its tether either in your pocket or strap. That way you can pull it out and see what's up without pulling out the whole laptop.