Vista Sideshow products start to trickle out

SIDESHOW BASED designs have started to appear at various venues and conferences, but actual product is much harder to find.

But now a company called Ricavision has released pictures and details of its lovely new Sideshow based products, each of which should fill a gap within your gadget needs.

First-up are the Windows Vista media-player remotes, which come with an embedded Sideshow screen. Ricavision has two up-coming devices, pictured below.

 

Of greater interest, considering many vendors have announced remote control devices, are the other more unique Sideshow products from the company.

First-up is the MK140 FM Magnet/Scribbler, a portable device that is meant to function like an 'electronic note pad' with Sideshow capability.

The 'Scribbler' an be easily attached to a refrigerator via its back-mounted magnet, and wirelessly connects to a Windows Vista PC. It's powered by an internal battery with a 16-hour minimum lifetime in 'normal use' and can be connected to an external AC adapter and charger.

Secondly Ricavision's E-Reader is again dubbed as a small handheld portable Windows Sideshow device that connects wirelessly to a Windows Vista PC.

It has a reflective e-ink type display that is optimized for reading documents which allegedly makes the Home E-Reader as comfortable as reading from paper. It can cache a large number of pages on the device so that it can also be used offline. It also includes stylus capability.

The Home E-Reader uses Sideshow as the primary GUI and Windows Vista as the means by which pages are actually rendered for display on the device.

Lastly, not looking too dissimilar to the Scribbler, The MK140 E-Chatter is also a wireless Sideshow device, built for messaging friends and family.

With the MK140, a user can compose emails and instant messages on the 5.0" WQVGA LCD display with a QWERTY-layout thumb keyboard. The device can also be used as an audio headset for voice communication.

It comes with an internal battery with a 16-hour minimum lifetime in normal use as well as an external AC adapter/charger through a mini-USB.

All interesting products, and it's nice to see further Sideshow product tip-up, considering Asus is one of the few providers of current Sideshow support with its W5FE laptop. µ

L'Inq
Ricavision