WinHEC Day 3 (the last day)
Talked to a Microsoft guy who said he'd "X10'd" his whole house. Had lots of modules.
Talked to a guy who uses XCams in remote controlled cars. Also put together a system with XCams to catch pumpkin thieves!
Talked to a guy who used to talk to one of our sales guys re: a Residential Gateway. They were going to put X10 in it but the company went belly up when their financing fell through. They were set to fly in to see a VC and pick up a check - on 911. Suffice it to say that the deal fell through.
Introduction to Media Center Extender (MCX) Functionality for Consumer Electronics Devices:
PlaysForSure (PFS) devices work with Media Center Extender (MCX), and Xbox360.
DLNA - Digital Living Network Alliance.
Demo'd Xbox360 acting as a Media Center Extender, pretty cool.
PlaysForSure enables content flow from Windows to CE devices.
Said there are 100 applications available for MCE. Will X10 do an MCE version of ActiveHome Pro, you might ask?
MCE selling 1 million per month. Huge growth projected with Vista.
MCX is platform agnostic.
MCX only supports a remote control (no keyboard support) - good opportunity for X10 since we make MCE remotes.
Building Remote and Integrated Auxiliary Display Devices with Windows SideShow:
Lets you view Windows "Gadgets" on external devices. Gadgets run on the PC not on the device. Content is pushed to the device. Small backchannel for control. Content is cashed in the device and can be accessed when the PC is off. Displays application specific data such as meeting time, IM sign in, photos on remote picture frame, etc.
Enhanced version of display has Vista look and feel (Glassy).
Everything needed to implement Gadgets and SideShow is in Vista beta 2.
A Gadget for RSS feeds is built into Vista.
They demo'd various Gadgets (Mail, photos, Windows Media Player) running on a QVGA display on the closed lid of a laptop - cool. Showed a detachable version of Gadget display that can become your MP3 player. Showed a Logitech keyboard with integral display. Showed a PowerPoint presentation running on an iPAQ, being displayed on a laptop (via Bluetooth). Showed a universal remote by Portaplayer with an LCD, running SideShow (wasn't real though, "slideware"). Demo'd a remote photo frame with SideShow overlaying weather updates on top of photos.
Touch Interface for Tablet PC:
Touch is fully supported in Vista. Touch pointer for small items - really cool (when it worked). It was the first demo I saw that had problems - it hung the PC. But when it worked it put a small picture of a mouse on the screen when you touched the screen, and the mouse had a traditional arrow pointer at the top left, you move the mouse with your finger via touch control and position the arrow pointer over small objects, like close and minimize boxes, that would be difficult to "touch" with your finger - pretty neat.
Hardware Implementation of Media Center Upgrade Scenarios:
Microsoft claim you can upgrade to Vista even from Windows 2000 - not sure I'd like to try it. They say this link should tell you if your system is upgradeable:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/
A Case Study on Designing and Implementing IR and Remote Solutions for Windows Vista Media Center Systems:
Talk given by Standard Microsystems Corp (SMSC). They make keyboard I/O. Talked for 15 minutes on their IR chip.