Windows SideShow Team Blog

Logitech G19 and G15 keyboards support Windows SideShow!

We are very excited about Logitech's latest 3.02 software release for GamePanel-enabled devices! The new G19 keyboard has a color display that is now fully SideShow-enabled. Now you can enjoy using all of your favorite SideShow Gadgets without interrupting your gaming experience.

For details visit Logitech's Blog: "This software supports both monochrome and color GamePanel devices, including the G13 gameboard, G15 and G19 keyboards, as well as the Logitech Z-10 speakers and the new SpacePilot PRO from 3DConnexion."

Thank you

-Darryl

How to Make Sure Your Windows Mobile Device Stays Connected With Windows 7 RC

Bluetooth SideShow devices that are paired with a Computer running Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), may become disabled after rebooting the Computer. In particular, this affects the Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview. This is due to an issue with the way the Windows SideShow Universal Driver communicates with the Microsoft Bluetooth stack on Windows 7 RC. Users may see the device disabled in the SideShow Control Panel, and in device manager (the device cannot start - Code 10). This issue is resolved by deleting the existing Bluetooth paring, and re-pairing the device to the Computer.

We greatly appreciate you working around this issue to give feedback on SideShow while testing the Windows 7 RC. We will be addressing this issue with an updated version of the SideShow Universal Driver. The driver will be available on Windows Update with the final release of Windows 7.

Affected Operating Systems and Devices:

• Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC)
•  Windows Vista, and Windows 7 Beta are not affected by this issue
• Bluetooth connected SideShow devices
• Any SideShow device that uses the SideShow Universal Driver and is connected via Bluetooth to a Computer running Windows 7 RC
• USB connected devices are not affected by this issue
• Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview is affected by this issue

How to resolve the issue:

• Delete existing Bluetooth pairing and re-pair the device to the Windows 7 Computer

When will this be fixed?

• We will have a fixed version of the Universal Driver available on Windows Update when Windows 7 releases

Thank you,

- Darryl

New SideShow-compatible devices from Mini-Box!

The folks over at Mini-Box have just released a new SideShow-compatible picoLCD module, designed for use in one of your many spare drive bays.  For those who are interested, the device has full support for SCF-based (Simple Content Format) gadgets (as compared to the 'glance only' text data on the Logitech G-15).  Check out these pictures of it in action:

If you keep your PC hidden away under your desk, but still love the display and want to put it elsewhere (or build your own case for it), they've got the OEM version available as well.

- Dan

Windows SideShow Device SDK for .NET Micro Framework 3.0 Released!

This is a firmware release which is flexible enough to be used on many devices – devices integrated into the computer, remote controls, and wireless “fridge magnet” displays.  It’s a turnkey solution that provides all the top-level code you need to create a full-featured SideShow device based on the .NET Micro Framework.

Download the Windows SideShow Device SDK for .NET Micro Framework 3.0

Download the Device Simulator 3.0 for Windows SideShow

Let’s skip to the good stuff and look at some screenshots:

On remote controls, you can control music playback from your computer.  On embedded displays, you can control your music at the same time you do other things (for example, play a computer game).

See a variety of information relevant to you at a glance, in a format optimized for small screens.

The UI scales to different form factors, and can be fully “skinned”.

Integrated displays help you work more smoothly.  Keep a record of what you have copied to the clipboard to spend less time window managing.

This release contains 17 samples showing how to customize your device and is localized into 16 different languages.  Also included are the newest, redistributable version of the Universal Driver for Windows SideShow and the latest Device Simulator for Windows SideShow – also available independently here as a standalone Simulator: Download the Device Simulator 3.0 for Windows SideShow.

It’s great to have this out – enjoy and let us know what you think, or head to the SideShow Development forums to discuss it with the SideShow development community.

Thank you,

-Darryl

Release Candiates for the Windows SideShow Device SDK for .NET Micro Framework 3.0 and Device Simulator 3.0 for Windows SideShow posted!

The Windows SideShow team is proud to announce the release candidates of these exciting software products.

This SDK makes it possible to build Windows SideShow-compatible interactive touchpads, Wi-Fi based SideShow remote controls, and wireless “fridge magnets” using the .NET Micro Framework 3.0!

The Device Simulator, a standalone release of the simulator available in the SDK, lets gadget developers to see what their gadgets look like on these implementations with one simple download!

Response to the beta was awesome, and we’re looking forward to seeing what you’re able to come up with with the RC.  A number of key improvements have been made to the Device SDK since the beta release:

1.       UI has been customized to allow SideShow devices that are integrated into laptop touchpads, by providing an innovative mechanism to maintain distinct SideShow and Touchpad areas at the same time.

2.       DPWS has been incorporated, allowing the development of Wi-Fi based devices.

3.       A variety of new samples are included, including a device firmware updater sample – a wizard which end-users can use to flash their .NET Micro Framework-based device with software updates.

4.       Numerous performance improvements are included, as well as debug output to monitor the delay between touch and response for use in hardware optimization.

And (of course) many more!  To get started, head to http://connect.microsoft.com/sideshow .  To share your ideas or get help with the SDK, head down to the Windows SideShow Development forum.

If you missed the beta, the following device classes are targetted by this SDK:

Interactive touchpads, displays embedded into laptops or keyboards, and dedicated USB displays.

These types of SideShow displays, which the user can see while they operate their PC, open doors to the user.  They allow you to change music while playing full-screen games, to control PowerPoint presentations while seeing speaker notes and upcoming slides.  When you are working with large amounts of data, they can allow you to view a record of data they have copied to the clipboard and paste it back in any order.  While using the computer, they allow you to keep tabs on their most important information (Calendar, inbox, etc) at a glance - without having to window manage, without the expense (and weight) of a second monitor, and through an interface optimized for small screens that provides information quickly and efficiently.

Wireless remote controls, companion devices, and fridge magnets.

SideShow-compatible “fridge magnets” in the kitchen provide an easy way to access the news, email, control music, see your family calendar, or recipes and notes from your computer.  SideShow-compatible Bluetooth or Wi-Fi remote controls allow Media Center users to play music from their library without needing to turn on their TV or projector, and to view their email, instant messages, and more from their couch.

It’s great to have this out – enjoy and let us know what you think!

-Toby

Localized Media Center Gadgets for SideShow Released! – Available in 16 more Languages!

The Windows SideShow team is very excited to announce availability of the Windows Media Center Gadgets for Windows SideShow in 16 more languages on the Windows Live Gallery!

 Download locations:

• Japanese
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Korean
• German
• French
• Italian
• Dutch
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Turkish
• Danish
• Finnish
• Norwegian

4 gadgets are included:

·         TV:  Browse the program guide, schedule recordings, and browse and play back recorded TV shows

·         Music:  Browse and play music

·         Pictures + Videos:  Browse pictures on your device and play slideshows and video

·         Now Playing:  Provides information on what is playing in Media Center and provides playback controls like those on your Media Center remote

Thank you!

Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview Fix Available

The Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview, which was prematurely showing a notification that the beta had expired, has been fixed and is now available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=79f19684-f862-4e02-a2b0-0003b4565f34&displaylang=en .  As with the previous release, this version may not work when paired with systems running the Windows 7 beta.  Thank you for your patience and hope you enjoy the release!

 -Toby

Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Beta Expired

A bug has surfaced in the Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview that causes the software to prematurely report that the beta period has expired and to go online to download the RTM version.  The download has been temporarily pulled, and a fixed version will be posted as soon as possible; as soon as it does, an announcement will be made here.  Apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you very much for your patience.

 Toby

Our MSDN forum has moved!

Those who regularly frequent our MSDN forum might have noticed a big change in recent days: we've been migrated over to the new "Forums 3.0" platform!  This new platform contains a number of exciting improvements which should make your overall experience much better--and yes, it still lets you post questions and answers to get help on anything and everything related to Windows SideShow.  If you haven't noticed the change, we encourage you to head on over and poke around for a bit; we think you'll like the difference. So, fire up your browsers and update your bookmarks, here's the new URL:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/windowssideshow/threads/

See you there!

- Dan

Windows SideShow Bitmap Driver released on CodePlex!

The SideShow team is excited to announce the Windows SideShow Bitmap Driver!

This is an open source project that we are hosting on CodePlex:

http://www.codeplex.com/SideShowBitmap

We have provided source code for a Driver and a Simulator. This solution renders pages on a computer and sends bitmap images to the SideShow-compatible device, so the device can be lower cost. This solution allows SideShow functionality to be easily adapted to existing, in-market hardware, in many cases without any hardware modifications. This solution differs from other SideShow solutions. Typically, the SideShow device would parse and render the SCF content. In contrast, the Windows SideShow Bitmap Driver is doing the parsing and rendering.

There are 2 major wins that this project brings to our partners and platform:

1. To tailor the driver for your device, you may download the source, alter the look and feel of the user interface as you see fit, and add different transports to the driver. In this sample Windows Rally technologies have been implemented including Plug and Play Extensions for Windows (PnP-x) and Device Profile Web Services (DPWS) as the transport. Because the heavy lifting (parsing and rendering of SCF XML) is handled by the driver, this project is very well suited for devices that have low CPU power or for devices that are always connected.
2. The Windows SideShow Bitmap Driver serves as the first published Simple Content Format (SCF) implementation! It allows you to port the code to your device so that it parses and renders SCF. Combine this with our recently published protocol for the Universal Driver for Windows SideShow, and you can quickly build a complete SideShow solution for your device.

We want the community involved! We want to hear your ideas for this driver, and we want your feedback. Check out our CodePlex site and get involved today!

Thank you!

Darryl

Windows SideShow Device SDK for .NET Micro Framework 3.0 Beta now available

The SideShow team is proud to announce the beta release of the Windows SideShow Device SDK For .NET Micro Framework 3.0!

This SDK provides a new, touch-based SideShow interface for devices running the .NET Micro Framework 3.0, plus libraries and samples for creating your own applications, themes, gadget types and more.  The touch UI scales to screen resolutions of 240x320 to 640x480, and the previously released QVGA button-driven interfaces have been updated to run on top of the .NET Micro Framework 3.0.

This release makes a number of interesting devices possible:

·         Displays in keyboards, embedded in laptops, and USB Gaming displays:

These types of devices offer great possibilities both for PC Gaming and productivity applications.  Since they can be interacted with at the same time as a full-screen computer game, it’s possible to change music, check instant messages, etc. without having to alt-tab out of the game.  In addition, the door is open to display supplementary information about the game – walkthroughs, statistics, maps, etc.—while the user is playing the game.

In the office, the ability to see information from multiple sources at a glance on the home page helps avoid the need to constantly window manage.  You can also use gadgets to do things like view and control multiple clipboards, control a Powerpoint presentation from your laptop while viewing your speaker notes and upcoming slides, keep your inbox or calendar available at a glance at all times, and more.  With embedded laptop displays, when your battery is low you could also use the SideShow display to listen to MP3s, browse email, etc. for much longer than you would be able to were the system awake.

·         Companion Devices, Remote Controls, or “Fridge Magnet” devices. 

It’s also possible to bring information from your PC throughout the home.  With Wi-Fi support in the .NET Micro Framework 3.0, you can have a SideShow display in your kitchen where you can control music as well as see your calendar, weather, and news feeds.  On a remote control, you can use touch to interact with your media library, TV Guide, and schedule TV recordings through Windows Media Center.  On a wireless device, you can easily control PowerPoint presentations as you would with an embedded display—seeing upcoming slides, speaker notes, etc—while having the flexibility of a wireless device and potentially the ability to use it as a portable media player as well.

There’s a lot of interesting possibilities – we’re looking forward to seeing what people come up with!  To download the beta, head to http://connect.microsoft.com/sideshow .

Thanks,

Toby

Media Center Gadgets for SideShow Released! – Available on the Windows Live Gallery

Today the RTM release of the Windows Media Center Gadgets for Windows SideShow is available on the Windows Live Gallery!

Download locations:

Install the 32-bit version

Install the 64-bit version

4 gadgets are included:

·         TV:  Browse the program guide, schedule recordings, and browse and play back recorded TV shows

·         Music:  Browse and play music

·         Pictures + Videos:  Browse pictures on your device and play slideshows and video

·         Now Playing:  Provides information on what is playing in Media Center and provides playback controls like those on your Media Center remote

Thank you so much to the community of folks that have contributed testing and valuable input through our Microsoft Connect Beta program. This has greatly increased the quality of this release, and we look forward to implementing feature changes based on your feedback in future releases.

Our team is very excited about this release. Using the SideShow platform we're able to extend and enhance the Media Center Experience. We look forward to hearing your feedback.

Thank you!

Come visit us at WinHEC 2008 in Los Angeles, CA

After our busy burst of software releases earlier this year, don't take the recent relative quiet as a sign that things are slowing down.  In fact, we've been extremely busy getting a few surprises ready to unveil at WinHEC, which is coming up in just a few short weeks!  If you're already planning to attend WinHEC 2008 in Los Angeles, make sure to add the Windows SideShow session to your calendar:

Windows SideShow: Building Better Devices and PCs - CON-T569

 

Learn how we're making it easier than ever to incorporate Windows SideShow technology into devices and PCs. In addition to learning about some of the new product solutions we've put together, you'll see exciting demonstrations from partners who have taken advantage of SideShow to increase the value of their devices. This session also covers new platform enhancements for the Windows 7 operating system, and we'll look at some of the many ways in which SideShow can improve devices in the digital home.

Thursday, November 06, 2008 4:30 PM

Without giving away all of our secrets, I will say that we've been working on something that will make those folks involved in recent discussions on our MSDN forum about supporting Windows SideShow on microcontrollers very happy...but you'll have to show up to find out exactly what it is :)

If you haven't made your arrangements to go to WinHEC yet, what are you waiting for?  As if this session wasn't incentive enough, attendees will also be one of the first people to see what's new in Windows 7--and get to take home the pre-beta build!

We hope to see you in Los Angeles! (And if not in LA, then hopefully Beijing, Taipei, or Tokyo for the regional WinHEC events instead!)

- Dan

Learn how to build SideShow-compatible devices and drivers at Driver DevCon (DDC) 2008

Interested in learning more about how to use the new Universal Driver for Windows SideShow, or how to build a device driver to SideShow-enable your existing devices?  If so, you may want to attend Microsoft Windows Driver Developer Conference 2008 (September 29 - October 1, 2008 in Seattle, WA).  Come and meet the experts, and learn how you can more easily and cost-effectively build drivers for and implement SideShow-compatible devices.  This conference is intended for advanced driver developers and testers, and will focus on 300 to 400-level technical sessions.  Registration is limited and by invitation only; please contact us at sshowext _at_ microsoft.com for instructions on how to sign-up.  We hope to see you there!

- Dan

Announcing Media Center Gadgets for SideShow Release Candidate!

Greetings!
Download the Release Candidate build of the Windows Media Center Gadgets for Windows SideShow here:
Download

If you have not joined this program you can join with this link:

http://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=2380&SiteID=312&InvitationID=GPB-79MM-RFJ2

Please install this build and provide feedback. The final release will be posted to the Windows Live Gallery in the near future.
While you are there, check out some of the great new gadgets that have been uploaded including Remotebook (for Facebook), AccuWeather, Twitter, System Health and Windows Live Messenger (all available in 9 languages)!

Support for Media Center Extenders:
Extenders are now supported if you are using a SideShow device that can pre-enable the gadgets. The Ricavision Vave100 remote control is an example of a device that pre-enables the Media Center gadgets.
Try this with your Xbox 360 or other extender device and provide us with any feedback. Additional instructions have been added to the Installation Instructions page about using the gadgets with an extender.

Connect Site Links:
Download
Installation Instructions
Gadget general information and known issues
Send Feedback

Have a Windows Mobile 5 or 6 phone?
Download and install Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview

Your feedback has greatly increased the quality of this release! Thank you so very much from our entire team for taking part in the Windows Media Center Gadgets for Windows SideShow Beta.

Thank you!
The Windows SideShow team