Yet another unique feature of Windows Vista is the Vista sideshow. SideShow helps Vista drive small, auxiliary displays which can be used to show useful information like Emails, weather updates, contact information etc., without opening the laptop or booting a computer. SideShow is different from the traditional secondary display - which is enabled through an external monitor - in that it does not display information from your existing screen, but supplements it by providing additional information. ASUS and LG demonstrated a laptop equipped with a small LCD display on top of the device. The one shown above is the LG Z1 laptop with Sideshow.
There are many gadgets with SideShow capability which are being made available now. A very interesting device is the Vista Media Center remote from Philips. The remote has a small LCD screen which displays media information like artist, album info etc., from the Vista media center pc to which it is paired. Since this is an RF remote, the user need not be in the line of sight of the media center, but can be anywhere in the house and can still chose what song to play using the tiny display.
A remarkable feature of Vista SideShow is the ability to display widgets (gadgets) created for the Sidebar. SideShow capable devices are classified into many types. A basic sideshow device may display a couple of lines of text while an enhanced one can display pictures and video. Once Vista becomes mainstream, we can expect a gamut of SideShow compatible devices in the market. The bag shown above is a very interesting 'device' - It is a regular handbag with a Vista sideshow display! The data on the screen gets updated through bluetooth from the laptop. The bag is manufactured by a company called Eleksen.
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