Microsoft announces Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Development Beta

We've heard rumors about it and even seen some third party apps that bring Vista's SideShow tech to Windows Mobile devices, but Microsoft has finally made the obvious crossover an official reality with the release of the Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Development Beta. It's still in early, early stages (the version number is 0.01), but if you're feeling particularly courageous you can install the beta on WinMo 5 and 6 devices that use the Microsoft Bluetooth stack and have the .NET Compact Framework installed and have them function as SideShow devices when in range of your machine, and access previously-sent data when you're away. Let us know how things go in comments, won't you?

[Via the::unwired]

[Ben @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:33PM]

I heading over to install right now!

[Jagster @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:53PM]

WOW!.. This is one of the coolest gadgets I could ever ask for. Media Player control is awesome! Picture Viewer is amazing.

[Chris Craft @ Jun 4th 2008 8:56PM]

I have created a Screenshot Tour of Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Beta here:
http://www.cjcraft.com/blog/2008/06/04/WindowsSideShowForWindowsMobileBetaSeeTheScreenshotTourFirst.aspx

[sinai @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:34PM]

i was just gonna report this story too.

[grull27 @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:36PM]

I can't wait to see how many times this will crash on the unstable Windows Mobile.

[retro77 @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:38PM]

how's your iPhone treating you?

[sinai @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:51PM]

he doesn't have either one. he just lacks self esteen.

[Fitz @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:01PM]

No crashed for me and I've been using similar technology for almost 6 months.

[Fitz @ Jun 4th 2008 12:04AM]

Obviously meant 'crashes', but seriously, no one is going to argue WinMo UI is as slick as the iPhone's, but it WORKS just fine.

[roach @ Jun 4th 2008 11:12AM]

I just returned an itouch because it kept crashing when playing a particular movie. Funny thing is, other than a few pixel on the screen, the movie played flawless on my desktop home PC.

[Ellianth @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:42PM]

Cool, but i really don't see the point in this. I imagine my phone would be able to do everything that sideshow can offer without me needing to have bluetooth on and eating batteries. Plus the laptop will need bluetooth on also which would require it be powered on. If it's on and within bluetooth range, why not just go on the laptop?

Have i missed something?

[Shagin099 @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:48PM]

It can be used as a remote control for powerpoint, which is kind of cool (at least I've seen that demo'ed before)

[sinai @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:50PM]

the point of windows sideshow is to conserve power and still have the functionality and processing power of the PC for small tasks like checking mail, music playback, or presentations. the advantage is that the power draw on the bluetooth radio is far less than the LCD.

[Scott @ Jun 4th 2008 9:26AM]

So you're going to be somewhere that requires 4 hours straight on battery power, but aren't going to plug in your laptop?

Where will you be doing this? The desert?

[Chris Craft @ Jun 4th 2008 8:55PM]

Hi,

Well one example is a PowerPoint Remote gadget. Another is the Windows Media Player. In both case a Windows Mobile remote is much more powerful and capable than any other device you could buy for the same purpose. And if you already have the right hardware it's free.

[sepirioth @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:42PM]

trying it as we speak!

[sepirioth @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:06PM]

Works as advertised, simple to install. However.... not that many gadgets available from what I can tell, kinda boring. The windows media player remote is awesome though, woudl kill for a comparable feature for itunes/iphone (yes, i am a double agent! haha!)

[sinai @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:11PM]

that is sweet as hell. i just installed windows media center and was shopping for remotes about 15 minutes ago. not anymore!

[bondsbw @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:13PM]

Agreed... remote for iPhone would be great. I think this is actually something pretty darn useful coming from Microsoft.

[Scott @ Jun 4th 2008 9:29AM]

iPhone already has several iTunes remotes, just none that are "official" until the App Store arrives on Monday.

These apps also have full-screen cover art and ability to rate songs from your phone.

[Joe @ Jun 5th 2008 12:07PM]

If you want the same thing for iTunes control try Salling Clicker. It's not free, but has been around for years. There is a large community behind it. It will even set away messages on IM, start your screensaver, and lock your screen when you walk away.

[Shagin099 @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:48PM]

I was starting to wonder if we would ever see this - I saw it demonstrated literally a year ago at MEDC2007 (when we were told the release would be any day).

[Phil Gilder @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:55PM]

finally! this (obvious) release has taken long enough - a year and a half!
too bad i no longer use windows mobile (or windows for that matter)

@Ellianth:
there are a few apps that could be useful, such as a tv guide, and the ability to get info on whats on now and schedule recordings on it
but virtually no sideshow apps have been developed

[Fernando @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:12PM]

Salling Clicker y'all, cross platform, scriptable, works with iTunes, the whole thing.

http://www.salling.com/Clicker/

[sinai @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:30PM]

free application natively supported by windows, or shareware app that costs money?

HMMMMMMMMMMMMM

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:02PM]

Sailing Clicker is awesome, and it's better for me cuz it can use WiFi, so i can control my desktop PC without Bluetooth.

[Jack Storm @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:06PM]

alternative:

www.logmein.com

pretty cool and they have a basic free version thats very useful

[Alex @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:20PM]

It's not just devices with the MS bluetooth stack - works with my HP iPaq (Broadcom stack).

[DustoMan @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:38PM]

I think what they should have said was that it doesn't work with Toshiba's Bluetooth Stack.

[Adam @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:33PM]

I wish it worked over an internet connection instead.

[James @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:41PM]

Adam,
This renderer will now encourage more device makers to create renderers that work on multiple connections. The driver that supports it is freely available and supports more transports (USB/WiFi). The documentation will help make a renderer for these transports but at the same time, making a SideShow driver isn't really that tricky (i've written 4 now and they're quite straight forward) so making it "internet connection" compatible isn't tricky.
Hopefully more developers will pick this up and think "i can do it better" and whats great is the tools are freely available to do just that. The success of this renderer isn't important, what is important is if this gets into enough hands for more people to expand on it. At the end of the day, SideShow isn't about speciifc content or functionality, its about establishing a connection between a PC and a device so that 3rd party application NNN can interact with any device without worrying about how the data actually gets there.

[Da_Glu @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:38PM]

Works like a dream!

Thats to say i've not had any problems YET. ;)

[DustoMan @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:40PM]

This app works great! Just wish there were more gadgets.

[Birbigs @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:40PM]

The coolest uses of it are for the remote control stuff, I think, and you can get RSS and stuff without burning through your data plan. It also could be neat to be able to see data from your computer while you play games.

[sYn0ptik @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:44PM]

Are there any vista media center sideshow gadgets available?

[James @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:51PM]

The Media Center gadgets were in Beta last year and were demonstrated at a few conferences. I'm sure that if Microsoft don't release them then a 3rd party will bring them to the table (the new .NET API for SideShow is out now to make gsdget creation easier).

[telepheedian @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:48PM]

Zune should be coming soon, it's also based on Windows CE.

[SimbaDogg @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:22PM]

app works great for me...a lot better than me keeping my mouse next to my bed while i'm in bed. since i always am snuggled up w/ my phone. just wish there was something for winamp and i'd be set, plus the ability to work over wifi...

[William @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:40PM]

If you want basic remote type functionality on your Windows Mobile device, and you don't have Vista installed I've used the following free product.

http://www.jaylee.org/remotecontrol/

The app itself requires an install on both your bluetooth enabled PC and your Windows Mobile device.

[McFly @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:45PM]

Just installed it with the Microsoft Desktop 8000 Bluetooth stack / software. Works perfectly. I can really see this being useful for new remotes.

I do like the option to control my PC home sound system now via my phone :-) I can now switch through my media collection via bluetooth, and it plays.

[michael.emery @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:56PM]

Wake me up when I can get Windows Live mail on my soon to be released 3G iPhone.

And if you want to see *any* degree of enthusiasm, then let me know when Windows Live will store my Outlook calender, tasks, and notepad online along with the mail and contacts that are already there.

I mean seriously, why create half a service? And why make that half a service incompatible with the coolest information appliances on the market?

Folk everywhere are screaming out for this, and so many would happily part with good cash to get it. Why is it so hard for Microsfot to achieve when Google and others seem to manage with total ease?

[James @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:14PM]

Michael,
I think you're a bit confused as to what this is. SideShow is an enabling technology that allows 'any' device with connectivity to render the same content across any transport. Microsoft yesterday release 1 renderer that enables this for Windows Mobile on Bluetooth. Already there are USB devices out there, the Ricavision remote control is coming soon, the Momento Digital Photo Frame (which came out last February). All of these devices (plus the devices that are coming in the future) will run the existing gadgets with ease. They will also run all the future gadgets without requiring any change to the driver or device firmware. If you want to make your own device, download the components (and they're freely available and you don't need to be in the US to register - iPhone SDK anybody?).

Neither Google nor Apple have achieved this. They may have desktop gadget engines but what SideShow achieves is allowing these gadgets to run on external devices (although technically they're not executing on the device but thats another discussion all together). Yes you can use any web browser to check your email, but SideShow isn't about this. What this is about is using any device to control a PowerPoint presentation or control the music playing on the pc (purely as example) with the PC software not needing to understand how the data actually gets sent to the device.

Also, any Windows Sidebar gadget with a few tweaks can send its content to a Windows SideShow device. Gadgets can also be created in .NET or C++.

Surely every platform falls under your definition of "half a service" since without the device you won't have gadgets and without the gadgets you won't have devices. Perhaps the iPhone is "half a service" since 3rd party apps aren't exactly blooming yet (the SDK is still in beta!) and no existing pre-iPhone applications are compatible with the iPhone. Dashboard, Google Desktop, OSX, Vista, Sidebar (i could go on) are all "half a service" without their gadgets/applications.

[Nohone @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:55PM]

As James wrote, you seem to be confused as to what this article is about, but...

Since when is it Microsoft's fault that Apple does not write the software to allow access to Hotmail/Live Mail? Remember, iPhone is still oficially a locked down device (there is an SDK, but it is still in beta and you cannot buy apps for it). I can use my Blackjack to access Hotmail, but not with my iPhone. Apple worked with Microsoft to get access to Exchange on an iPhone, and Microsoft has said that they are looking at writing software for the iPhone, but why is Apple not being proactive and doing this? But an application which does not have an extensibile archetecture, on a device that is locked down, is Microsoft's fault that the iPhone does not support Hotmail/Live Mail? Why does Apple not support Hotmail/Live Mail, MSN maps, MSN Weather, Live Translator, MSN spaces, MSN Alerts, MSN Favorites, and the many other Microsoft services, rather than the Google/Yahoo! ones?

Is it because it is Microsoft, and Apple tries to do whatever they can to makie sure to cut down the interop with Microsoft? Which brings up an important point - what will happen when Google releases Android? Will Apple take their ball and go home because Google is competing with them? And what happens if Microsoft does buy parts of Yahoo!? I assume that Apple probably has a contract to use these services, but will they continue to use them?

[Mr 170 @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:02PM]

I'm trying to install it. But I keep getting this message when I try to install indowsSideShowForWindowsMobile.CAB: "Installation was unsuccessful. The program or setting cannot be installed because it does not have suffcient system permissions".

please help me!!

[GabbaHey @ Jun 3rd 2008 10:25PM]

Help/install instructions/development resources are at

http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=1296&SiteID=1

[Fitz @ Jun 4th 2008 12:47AM]

I've been using a beta version of GoGadgets by Ikanos consulting (maybe they were bought out) for maybe 6 months and I can control Vista Media Center with my WinMo6 phone.

http://www.smartdevicecentral.com/article/Go+Gadgets+for+Windows+Mobile+Beta/221175_1.aspx

What advantage does this have? For me its not huge, but still convenient. I can play my music through my home theater sound system without turning on my projector. Since projector bulbs cost $300-$400 a pop, it at least saves some hours of bulb life. And during parties I can ensure nobody is messing with my playlist!

For those with an iphone, I'm pretty sure the version they developed works inside a browser, so if you have an HTPC or use VMC, you can enjoy as well.

Pretty slick IMO.

[Thomas @ Jun 4th 2008 3:46AM]

simply amazing!! I love this!! A little buggy but the cabilities are incredible. Trust me people you have to try this to get the true experience.

[James @ Jun 4th 2008 9:40AM]

I always thought SideShow was one of the better things Vista had going for it but was disappointed that nothing was being done with it. I can't wait to give this a try.