Microsoft's Sideshow No Longer On the Side

January 10, 2007, 12:05 AM by Nate Mook

Nate Mook, Editor in Chief, BetaNews: Microsoft has been talking about "Sideshow" for years, showing off prototypes of auxiliary displays in a wide range of peripheral devices, but the technology has finally come to fruition here at CES 2007. The Redmond company was showcasing a number of a Sideshow-based devices, from remote controls to a new "Companion," which offers a number of different services including viewing PowerPoint slides and making VoIP phone calls.

We also got a chance to sit down and look at the .NET Micro Framework, currently in beta testing. Taking up a memory footprint of only a few hundred KB, the Micro Framework will enable a new class of mobile embedded devices that can be far smaller than those that run the 12.8 MB .NET Compact Framework. The .NET Micro Framework was borne out of Microsoft's Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) group.

Tim Conneally, BetaNews: The general idea behind the technology is to make everyday objects smarter, such that it changes the way we use them. I can't wait for the day when the litter box lets me know it's time to clean it out, and when the toaster can provide optimum toastiness.

Nate Mook: The final SDK of the .NET Micro Framework is due out in a few weeks via MSDN. Microsoft is hoping to entice a wide range of developers, although company officials acknowledged that the embedded space is quite niche. Major areas of focus will initial be industrial automation, energy conservation and medical implementations.