It seems the world all but forgot about SideShow, the Vista component that acts as a kind of mini operating system to integrate compatible devices with your existing PC setup, but the recent release of an upgraded SDK (Software Development Kit) supporting Bluetooth and QVGA may see SideShow powering more devices like remote controls, pocket PCs, and smartphones in the very near future.The advantage of SideShow is that it's an OS designed to operate in a very low-power state; it's minimal required resources make it not only useful for quick access to your powered-off laptop via a secondary screen, say, but also for devices like universal remotes and digital photo frames that don't carry the powerful chipsets of PCs and smartphones.
As more and more home consumer electronics go wireless and start "talking" to each other to form a kind of ecosystem in your living room, a standard platform like SideShow could bridge the gaps between normally unrelated electronics and "close the loop", so to speak. There's not much to show for all this yet, but it'll be worth keeping an eye on in the coming year; at the very least, we can probably expect to see a Windows Mobile-flavored version of SideShow soon.
