Little outboard screen update

When I reviewed the Pertelian X2040 external display doohickey, I mentioned that cheap Windows SideShow devices from big manufacturers would completely eat the lunch of little manufacturers like Pertelian.

It would appear (via) that SideShow devices with full colour 320-by-240-ish screens...

Ricavision SideShow electronics module

...based on electronics modules like this will indeed be available for as little as $US80.

Well, at least according to the Winbond propaganda that led me to the Ricavision site, where you can see their only-renders-as-yet examples of wireless Bluetooth external displays with and without keyboards, not to mention an e-book reader thing that'd presumably be less excitingly priced, since the display is most of the expense for e-books.

If these devices aren't pie in the sky, then Pertelian, and even Logitech, are definitely going to have to get with that program or be run over.

There's still some attraction to low-tech LCDs like the Pertelian, and not just because they don't make you upgrade to Vista in order to use the artificially-limited-to-Vista SideShow technology. I like that I can have the X2040's simple four-line display sitting there announcing what MP3's playing at the moment without its backlight on, so the glow doesn't distract me. You could probably do much the same thing with a colour Sideshow display, though - use a greenscreen colour scheme and wind the brightness down.

One Response to “Little outboard screen update”

  1. Mohonri Says:

    A touchscreen version of this would be awesome for a home theater setup. You must admit that as an input device, a typical remote is far from ideal for anything more complex than your basic power/channel/volume/play controls. Throw a MCE or MediaPortal or MythTV interface and leave the main TV for the actual video feed.


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