Windows SideShow is a new technology in Windows Vista that supports a secondary screen on your mobile PC. With this additional remote display you can view important information whether your laptop is on, off, or in sleep mode.

Windows SideShow uses gadgets to extend information from your computer to other devices. Gadgets can run on a Windows SideShow–compatible device and update that device with information from your computer. Using a gadget, you can view information from your computer regardless of whether it is on, off, or in the sleep power state saving you both time and battery life.

Ikanos Consulting, a UK based company, has released a beta version of their new framework called Go Gadgets that extends the SideShow feature to Windows Mobile and Apple iPhone mobile devices. This software supports transfer of data to any Windows Mobile, iPhone or web-browser based device over Bluetooth, USB, WiFi and GPRS. The advantage of this content framework is the ability to connect to a content provider (ie: Windows SideShow) using any transport and then dynamically swap transport mechanisms without affecting the connection to the content provider. You can also read about Windows Sideshow for Apple iPhone here. This new web-based renderer will turn any device with a web-browser into a Windows SideShow device.

To sign up for the beta, send an email to beta _at_ ikanosconsulting.com