USB Gadget Display does status updates slide show-style

It may not boast fancy OLED displays, let alone three of 'em, but if you just want to get some basic status updates in convenient slide show form, it looks like this so-called "Gadget Display" should do the trick, and presumably on the relative cheap. While complete details are pretty light, the device apparently boasts a 2-inch LCD, which you can configure to display a range of information from a clock to CPU and RAM usage, although there doesn't appear to be support for Vista Sidebar gadgets (at least officially). No word on pricing or availability, unfortunately, though we're guessing it should be cheap enough to let you buy 'em buy the bundle if you have some ideas of your own for them.

[Via Crave]

[mercuryinabottle @ Mar 20th 2008 12:05PM]

What's the one in the lower right hand corner...pr0n updates?

[NHAnimator @ Mar 20th 2008 12:10PM]

I really don't need THAT many views of a clock.

[Joe @ Mar 20th 2008 1:01PM]

"presumably on the relative cheap" and "No word on pricing or availability"

[tom @ Mar 20th 2008 12:17PM]

It is a very smart design, the part i hate the most with usb gadget is, it only turns on when the computer is on.

It totally defeats the convenience factor!

[Gav @ Mar 20th 2008 12:45PM]

This isn't always the case. Most PSUs/Mobos still power the USB ports, even when the computer is switched off.

If the product was designed right, it could still function with the computer off.

[Genome @ Mar 20th 2008 12:23PM]

I think this would work better at various points around the house, like for example a bedside display, that scrolls through your various information like time->temp->stock->cpu_usage.

Cant see myself looking offscreen just to to see a widget.

[bjrcboy @ Mar 20th 2008 12:31PM]

Here you go! www.chumby.com

[aoi tsuki @ Mar 20th 2008 8:03PM]

A hacked WiFi-enabled digital picture frame would be perfect for this purpose.

[jmd @ Mar 20th 2008 12:47PM]

I think this would be pretty sweet in games. Beable to put displays on it like people do with the logitech keyboard now.

[EGS @ Mar 20th 2008 12:59PM]

if you had a CarPuter, you could string a bunch of these to act as gauges.

[SoundWave360 @ Mar 20th 2008 1:55PM]

This is a very cool little 2.0 device. I'd love to have one of these, and be able to use them for some marketing too. Bill @ SW360

[BEETROOT @ Mar 20th 2008 1:15PM]

Would be cool if it could display album art from iTunes.

[They @ Mar 20th 2008 1:32PM]

This reminds me of that thing that came with Vista that's supposed to be used to access your device without powering it on; The thing that could look at emails, play slide shows, that sort of thing. SideShow. What ever happened to that? It had such potential.

[martin @ Mar 20th 2008 2:01PM]

yeh like laptops with an outside screen, that looked so cool in the original specs too, asus showed prototypes with that but never seemed to make them :-(

[Kev50273 @ Mar 20th 2008 1:34PM]

I agree with bjrcboy, just get a Chumby and be happy. This is a waste.

[Impressive. @ Mar 21st 2008 9:33AM]

This article is rather lacking. Unless it's a photo of the product alone, I shouldn't have to stare at the image (that I automatically skipped over because it was so cluttered) to figure out what the hell you're on about. Perhaps the standards are different for the company I write for, but even if it was a nice shot of the product and even if I had to keep it under 100 words, I'd still explain the basics before jumping into the features. And while I do know what a gadget is, as an XP user it's not the first thing I think of when I read the title "USB Gadget Display." Wonder of wonders, I think of my USB gadgets, like my camera and my wireless mouse. In other words, it wouldn't have hurt to thrown in a link or just call them "desktop gadgets."

If I had figured it out before I got to "Vista Sidebar gadgets," I would have moved on. Until someone figures out a better application, it's a next-to-useless "USB gadget" (though not quite as bad as those fake light-up Lava lamps).

[robert @ Mar 21st 2008 12:57AM]

"it's not the first thing I think of when I read the title "USB Gadget Display." Wonder of wonders, I think of my USB gadgets"

It isn't a USB gadget, its a gadget display...as in...it displays gadgets that are on your computer...that connects to your computer via USB.

[Impressive. @ Mar 21st 2008 10:07AM]

No robert, you see, it literally is a USB gadget if you use the correct definition of gadget, as in a mechanical device (broadly speaking anyway...usually the term refers to a device that's clever and useful, which the Display is not). A desktop gadget is NOT actually a gadget; it's an intangible piece of software.

The title is an "ambiguous sentence," like the sentence "Students hate annoying professors." Are the professors annoying or do students simply hate to annoy them?

Understand? I suppose I shouldn't have been snarky in a post about the quality of writing here, as it obviously caused confusion.

[KC @ Mar 21st 2008 5:06AM]

I like the idea. I don't like it that you have to pay for it. I have 2 old ipaqs, palm pilots, etc, that I wish they can be converted into a useful display like this for email notification, stock tickers, etc, when you have another application in full screen mode.