Check laptop email without booting-up
Microsoft wants PC makers to mount mobile-phone-like displays on the lids of laptop computers so users can check the time, battery status, appointments or see if new e-mail has arrived without having to open and start up their PC. The software giant is including support for such displays in the next version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, due out in 2006. Microsoft is developing software and reference designs for the displays, which it says will give users instant access to select data and save time and battery life because there is no need to open and boot up the PC.
The display on the lid of a laptop would be similar to a color cell phone display and powered by the notebook battery. Data pulled out of applications would be stored in a special memory cache so it is also accessible when the PC is turned off or in standby mode, said Sriram Viji, a program manager working on the “auxiliary displays” at Microsoft. Besides the actual display, RAM and flash memory, the needed hardware for the auxiliary display would include a lightweight ARM processor and USB and system bus connections, Viji said. The display will run on the Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) software, which is also used Microsoft’s smart watches, he said.