Toshiba Satellite U205, Portege R400, Satellite P105, Satellite A135

Although we think the idea of Microsoft's SideShow technology is revolutionary, we don't see Toshiba's implementation of it in the Portégé as being nearly as revolutionary. The main idea behind SideShow is to be able to access certain applications like your email and calendar without having (a)to take the notebook out of its sleep-state and (b) to open the notebook at all. With a display on the edge or side of a notebook computer, certain information like an e-mail or calendar item can be displayed there.

Toshiba sees big value-add between the presence of this feature in combination with the EVDO radio which means that your email and calendar can stay in synch without opening the notebook (using a Microsoft technology known as Active Notifications).

Unfortuately, this support for SideShow and Active Notifications is hampered by such a tiny display and the very few things that can be done in one line of LCD text. A slicker implementation (from a display point of view) can be seen in on of the new notebooks from Asus (see our video or check out the still image by moving two slides ahead). Shown here is simply the time, remaining battery Life, radio signal strength, and an indicator as to whether new mail has arrived.

This image is courtesy of NotebookReview.com which graciously gave us permission to republish it here. You can also see NotebookReview's discussion of the SideShow feature here.

For David Berlind's write-up on the Portégé, see his post in ZDNet's TestBed blog.