Throw out your Harmony, kick your Pronto to the curb, and say goodbye to the old One4All: SideShow-powered remotes are about to take the home theater by storm. Much more than hunks of plastic and silicon used to control your gear, these remotes offer all sorts of widgety-goodness, delivering stock quotes, RSS feeds, and even an electronic program guide right to the palm of your hand (because, you know, using the guide on your TV is so 2006). We got to peep several upcoming models from Microsoft, Interlink, Sixik, and some unnamed manufacturer (the branding was taped over, but we suspect LG is the culprit here), and have been converted to true, unwavering SideShow disciples. Most of these bad boys will be released around the same time as Vista, so start saving your pennies and preparing your current remote for its inevitable disposal. Hands-on pictures are in the gallery below, and if we do say so ourselves, we make a mighty fine hand model (as do the cheerful booth reps who helped us out with some of the more challenging shots).

While SideShow, that snazzy forthcoming feature that lets you fire up slideshows, widgets, and other random goodies with actually booting up, has been garnering a good bit of attention lately, it's not much good without a equally flashy remote to control the action from afar. While there's been several devices parading around as Vista MCE remotes, CEPro is now reporting that Interlink Electronics -- the folks who sued Nintendo for jacking their motion-sensing technology and implanting it in the Wiimote -- is the "first company to officially announce a SideShow remote control." The firm asserts that the SlideLink will let customers "select songs, schedule recordings, navigate video clips and photographs, display TV program guides, and even browse recorded TV shows" right from the worn down cushion of your sofa. Still, we're not yet sure if this thing will utilize RF, Bluetooth, or some other short-range wireless format, and since this doesn't seem to be the company's "first priority" (see lawsuit mentioned above), who knows when we'll see this thing in the flesh.

C'mon, was there really any doubt about this one? We've seen everything from TVs to PDAs to windows to humans (and their scams) get jacked up thanks to Nintendo's Wiimote downright neglect, and without further ado, we present the first associated lawsuit. California-based Interlink, a company that manufacturers remote controls and other devices for business presentations, is hitting Nintendo up with a lawsuit claiming that the Wiimote violates its own "Trigger Operated Electronic Device" patent filed back in 2005. While the patent doesn't appear to focus on any kind of snazzy "full motion sensitivity" features like those enjoyed on the big N's controller, it does point out its uses as a pressure-sensitive mouse replacement, which really only relates to the Wiimote via a sweet hack job (or two). Nevertheless, the zany sounding suit may actually have more ground to stand on than we onlookers give it credit for, as we've already seen Sony's battle with Immersion head south. Sure, these filings are a dime a dozen these days, but if the signature piece of Nintendo's latest console gets tagged for royalties, who knows how much those classic title downloads could end up costing.

[Via ArsTechnica, thanks Connor]