Is the iPhone a potential Vista SideShow competitor?

IphoneflickrfanSitting here in the home office this morning in front of the Mac, I had a revelation this morning. Well, it could just be a brain fart too… time will tell. As I’m reading feeds, I also have a slideshow of AP photos playing on the iPhone sitting in the dock: the photos are pulled down with FlickrFan and then synched over via iTunes. I have the slide-show displaying a random photo for 20 seconds and then it’s on the next one.Glancing over at the pics every now and again made me take a step back at this setup. I’ve got a computer pulling information and an external device display showing bits of that information for a specific purpose. Sound familiar? Sounds to me just like a Windows Vista SideShow device running a gadget.

If you look at the SideShow concept from Microsoft, most of the parts are already there on the Mac side. And I’ll duck as I say this, but: there have definitely been Microsoft-developed concepts that later appear on the Mac in some form or fashion.What would it take for a SideShow-like implementation with a Mac and iPhone? Not much more other than light, specific-purpose applications on the iPhone to display information from the Mac. iTunes would need some additional synching options, but it’s not hard to imagine a “widgets” tab in between “ringtones” and “info”, is it? As far as the apps themselves, there’s an iPhone SDK right around the corner for third-party developers and wasn’t there just a firmware update for the iPhone? Close inspection by Nate True indicates the potential for widget support. Perhaps the whole point is moot since the iPhone has connectivity and can obviously display information pulled via WiFi or EDGE. iPhone widgets wouldn’t need a Mac to get their data, unless it’s specific to that Mac.Anyway, we can wait to see if my hunch is right, but it’s more productive to hear your thoughts on my thoughts. You tell me: revelation or brain fart?

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