Running Vista on your handbag

DO YOU REALLY need to read your e-mail from your computer bag, backpack, or coat? Can you escape Microsoft Vista when you put your shirt on?

Eleksen, inventor and manufacturer of ElekTex smart fabric touchpads, thinks you do. The company has announced a "wearable display module" (WDM, not to be confused with WMD) for Windows SideShow - basically, a tiny colour LCD display - for integration into soft things like computer bags, backpacks, and clothes.

The WDM is made up of a 2.46-inch active TFT LCD screen, 1GB of storage, and the soft fabric touchpad to control applications and data display. The touchpad supports seven buttons, including dedicated MENU and BACK buttons, plus four navigation buttons and a GO button. Details weren't clear on how the thing will be powered or the interface between it and a laptop, but presumable the bag might need its own power supply.

According to a company spokesperson, a "major bag manufacturer" will announce computer bags for the totally-hip trendy consumer in the second quarter with a retail list price of $250. The bag will have the display on the outside, so you shove your Vista/Sideshow-enabled laptop into it and it will communicate with the WDM. On your way to and from work, with someone else driving the taxi/bus/limo/train, you can use WDM to pull out basic information from the laptop without pulling it out of the bag, so you could, for instance, read e-mail, look up a phone number or check a calendar listing on the go.

Of course, this approach also suggests that you'd give up your Windows-enabled PDA or phone or other remote device for reading e-mail, looking up a phone number, or checking a calendar listing on the guy. If you don't have to worry about or don't want to worry about syncing devices and e-mail, I suppose this would work.

Using a tote bag is likely the first form factor. Since the screen is small enough, you could in theory just put it on the sleeve of a jacket and not even have to stare at the side of your bag.

Why wouldn't you just pull out your laptop, flip it open, and start reading e-mail? Well, you have the twin posers of boot time and battery life. Since Vista take a while to boot and you burn up juice booting and displaying, SideShow is supposed to allow you the ability to pluck out bits of data without costing you either. It does beg the question why they didn't just make Vista leaner and faster rather than creating a separate subsystem to do the little things. µ