Firm brings SideShow to Windows Mobile, iPhone

Devices supporting Vista's SideShow functionality aren't exactly flowing like water yet (seriously, when's the last time you saw someone sporting a W5Fe?), though that's not necessarily for a lack of interest. The functionality's plenty cool, it's just not really an overnight job getting enough manufacturers on board to support the concept and transform the consumer electronics landscape into a Vista-interfacing armada of small screens. If you had to boil it all down to exactly two things Microsoft could do to take SideShow from an ultra-niche market to ubiquity, though, let's be honest: they'd have to be to add Windows Mobile and iPhone support. Indeed, official WinMo support is a standing rumor, but in the meantime you can grab Ikanos Consulting's Go Gadgets beta, which supports installation and control of SideShow gadgets over pretty much any form of mobile connectivity you can throw at it. Turns out these guys have been hard at work making a general HTML renderer for gadgets, too, and have specialized it to look snappy on mobile Safari -- hence the iPhone and iPod touch support. This one isn't quite ready for public consumption yet, but if WinMo's how you roll, you can sign up for the beta now.

Read - SideShow on the iPhone
Read - Go Gadgets for Windows Mobile

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 21st 2007 3:09PM]

yay sideshow bob! where's krusty?

[melloncollie @ Dec 21st 2007 3:24PM]

That wasn't funny at all.

[Reader @ Dec 21st 2007 3:48PM]

Zing.

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Dec 21st 2007 3:23PM]

hooray! hooray for sideshows! everybody loves sideshows!



This is one of those pointless apps right?

[Argot @ Dec 21st 2007 4:12PM]

Yeah, kind of like having a small display on the outside of your cellphone so that you can see who's calling, what time it is etc.... Totally pointless.

[Dragon of the Pants @ Dec 21st 2007 3:28PM]

Anybody else notice that it says iPod in the corner?

[brad @ Dec 21st 2007 3:46PM]

probably is on an ipod touch

[austin @ Dec 21st 2007 4:21PM]

OMG could this be a leaked photo of the touchscreen ipod?

idiot.

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 22nd 2007 6:47AM]

And it says Windows Media Player Paused... WMP on an iPod?

[Neeko @ Dec 21st 2007 3:42PM]

ill give it a try.

[Mark @ Dec 21st 2007 4:14PM]

MS is completely idiotic. They leave everything to their "partners" their "ISVs" and their "vendors" and nothing gets done properly.

They need to grab hold of the reins and do some damn developing themselves.

[Jon Doe @ Dec 21st 2007 5:11PM]

MS isn't, by and large, a hardware manufacturer. Sure you have the zune, the 360, and some really nice mice and keyboard. But beyond that.... What you are talking about is moving into making actual PC hardware. They don't want to go anywhere near that for fear of competing with people they are selling licenses to which could easily backfire on them and push others towards the dark side of the OS....namely Li....Linnnnnnn...sorry I can't say the OS who's name must not be spoken.

[Distractedfocus @ Dec 21st 2007 4:47PM]

i think this would be nice but what does the communist apple monopoly have to say about this

[huh @ Dec 21st 2007 4:52PM]

If this were a J2ME app it would work on many more phones, and it could be turned into some kind of useful standard.

[Chris @ Dec 22nd 2007 3:53AM]

If this was a J2ME application, it'd look far more ugly and be slow and unresponsive.

Pretty much everyone who needs this app will have a smartphone, or an iPod touch.If they don't, just add it to the list of reasons to upgrade.

[huh @ Dec 22nd 2007 8:31AM]

@Chris, surprise surprise, j2me is slow on a slow device. If it were a smart phone it would be fast too. There are lots of apps (opera mini, google maps, many games, etc) that are j2me and look fine.

[chaosrain @ Dec 21st 2007 5:06PM]

I can't wait to give this a try on my Axim!

[Christian @ Dec 21st 2007 5:09PM]

I've always been interested as to how the whole sideshow will start and get our attention. right now I'm still confuse as to what it can do

I do wish in the future they'd release one for symbian and UIQ 3 not just WinMo and iPhone.

[Adam Daniel Benesh @ Dec 21st 2007 9:08PM]

is pretty cool, is there any app like that for jailbreakd ppl? I have vnsea but it only works with Macs and a lil slow, i mean isnt it cool to control stuff on ur pc on a way smaller device?

[Simon Richards @ Dec 22nd 2007 12:05AM]

vnsea also works fine with ubuntu, in case anyone cares.

[Adam Daniel Benesh @ Dec 22nd 2007 8:41AM]

nah I don't have ubuntu vnsea doesn't work with windows does it?