Microsoft SideShow: not just for laptops anymore
by Ryan Block 
posted Mar 30th 2006 at 9:41AM
As stoked as we are about getting SideShow for our laptops -- even
despite the fact that it'll add a little extra girth to our lappies' bodies -- when we found out from CE Pro that at
the Media Center Boot Camp at EHX this week, Microsoft showed off a SideShow dev kit for Media Center remotes (and any
other small device you might want to have a screen), well, that about did us in. Microsoft expects SideShow-enabled
Media Center remotes, which have user-installable "gadgets" (small XML-driven widgets for different
purposes), should be available for about $150-$200. That ain't too bad, but unfortunately they're not bundling
touchscreen support, so you're gonna have to find another smart remote solution if that's what you're looking for in
your next media controller.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Peripherals
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phelipe @ Mar 30th 2006 9:55AM
hope this work better than vista...
Crunk @ Mar 30th 2006 10:02AM
Phelipe - ""hope this work better than vista...""
Hahahahaa how original!
Idiot.
Mark @ Mar 30th 2006 10:15AM
That's pretty cool. I wouldn't mind buying a few more extenders for my place, but I fear that none of this stuff is going to work with Vista.
Patrick @ Mar 30th 2006 10:16AM
Awesome! Hopefully this will give us something like Sonos' wonderful remote. It would be perfect for controlling MCE boxes' music with your TV/Monitor turned off.
David @ Mar 30th 2006 10:22AM
The real product is called "DinnerOut," can't wait for that one.... anyone?
Trojan @ Mar 30th 2006 11:34AM
Sideshow is a feature of Vista. From the loks of it, it's fairly trivial to write sideshow widgets, so writing something for MCE Alternatives should be fairly trivial.
rscott @ Mar 30th 2006 1:17PM
No touchscreen? No thanks...
atriphy @ Mar 30th 2006 2:43PM
yeah well hafto see what Tom Bishop says about this one.
3rdsun @ Mar 30th 2006 7:38PM
this was a feature of OS X Lion for years now... how unoriginal . 8?
AppleFunatic @ Mar 30th 2006 10:47PM
Good one M$. It's silver and has buttons, you've gone and ripped Apple off yet again!
JJ @ Mar 31st 2006 6:49AM
I think this remote bears a somewhat generic image and feeling of the iPod look, and perhaps that is where we are headed, towards a new family of devices that we may carry around with us and which we may place in our pockets and roam or perhaps control a media hub as well.
Many perhaps tend to see remotes as limited devices, limited control flickers, rather than mobile hubs or roamable wireless devices in their own right and may be even appliances at the same time. Think of the way the mobile phone has developed with convergent technologies and multi functional options. JJ Mini Ture_MacJournal
Defchaz @ Jul 12th 2006 5:00AM
I don't know you you kids all remembered the walkman and all the gadgets that spawned from that. Its not just iPods that are silver and have buttons. Pretty much every portable device in the world works by that concept, remember the PDA? lol.
Touchscreen for something that lives in your pocket isn't so bad after all. How many times has your mobile phone called emergency services without your knowledge?