Hands-on: Video of Asus' SideShow laptop

We got our grubby lil' mitts on Asus' first Sideshow laptop at Saturday's CES Unveiled event. Granted, we didn't have a whole load of time to give it a thorough run through, but peep the video for an idea of how a widgetized auxiliary display works while the computer is off.

[Venitronics @ Jan 7th 2007 1:37AM]

Nice video presentation!

[Jeff @ Jan 7th 2007 1:53AM]

Looks like a PDA stuck to the top of a laptop

[Baldwin @ Jan 7th 2007 2:13AM]

well, I would punch you for mis-pronouncing 'auxiliary', but I when I first saw the word 'tycoon', I went around saying "ty-coon" like raccoon, but with a "ty" like the the bennie babies...

HAHAH
-Baldwin

[Andrew @ Jan 7th 2007 2:48AM]

I'm still not too sure what the point of this extra LCD is. If you want to show media, you open the laptop...

[clement @ Jan 7th 2007 6:42AM]

ya, still couldn't figure out what's the point of that 2nd display, i went to Asus's website and saw this:

'This comes as a very handy tool when, for instance, one needs to take a quick look at the meeting agenda in a crowded elevator'

Why would I bother with a heavy brick when I could just look at my 100g PDA?

[Alex @ Jan 7th 2007 7:17AM]

Meh... that lump on the display is quite unsightly, and the inability to access the HDD cripples it.
This thing will go for a nice premium, with the flash memory and the display and processor and such, which combined with the uselessness of it, will make people go for separate PMPs whose price would probably be close to the premium paid for this feature.
Oh, and nice presentation!

[Intrepid @ Jan 7th 2007 7:23AM]

Slideshow will have many uses people! Maybe this use isn't for you, but you'll soon see devices that make slideshow appealing to you.

[Adam @ Jan 7th 2007 8:22AM]

Looks pretty cool.

[MikeTLive @ Jan 7th 2007 9:57AM]

sideshow -- like the bearded lady, or fattest man, or wolf boy, or rubber man, and so on.

side show -- a way to get people to stand around while the pick-pockets do their work.

[Zadillo @ Jan 7th 2007 10:02AM]

Yeah, I don't know, in theory this seems like a cool idea, but I'm having trouble figuring out when I would actually use it. Would I really want to take my laptop out of its carrying case just to check whatever info is capable of being shown on the Sideshow display, rather than having a PDA?

I also do really wonder about the bulge in the top of the case as well. That seems like a pretty big tradeoff to me to get an auxiliary display on the top if you have to have that extra space used.

[XSportSeeker @ Jan 7th 2007 3:52PM]

I was thinking that MAYBE this was usefull if you had HD access.
Like viewing some videos, photos, or even a directory listing of your files on your HDD without having to turn the laptop on. Something like a quick view of HDD contents.
Or even to run some simple apps. Could be nice for power saving.
But like he said, it uses 1Gb memory, and seems to have no access to the HDD.

So, it's just like a PMP glued on top of the Notebook? Wow, useless. Not only it makes the notebook with a awkward ugly bump on top of it but also makes the notebooks heavier, and less portable, which it one of the main purposes of having a notebook btw.

With that size they could at least made the damn thing removable or something...

[Joe P @ Jan 8th 2007 3:55PM]

Okay, say it with me: Aux-ill-er-ee.
Sideshow looks neat though.

[mike @ Feb 19th 2007 12:41AM]

", still couldn't figure out what's the point of that 2nd display"

I think the point is that Apple hasn't done it yet.

Other than that, yea, it's useless.