Hello, 여보세요, Hallo, こんにちは

As some of you may already know, multi-language support is deeply embedded into our gadgets.

We read the settings of the local PC and display the most appropriate language out of a choice of 9 (English, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Simplified and Traditional Chinese).

For most users, this works really well! However, this poses a conundrum; what if you have an English SKU but want to read your Facebook profile in German?

Well, Ikanos Consulting to the rescue!

Internally we've been changing the language of our gadgets like it's going out of fashion, and today we extend that functionality to all of our users!

Our new Gadget Localiser tool is available for download and supports all of our SideShow gadgets (old, new and upcoming).

Just simply:

• Run the software
  
• Select your gadget
  
• Change the language
  
• Restart the gadget (un-tick/re-tick in the SideShow Control Panel)
  

To install, go here.

Enjoy,

-james

Photos and more…

Closely following our Remotebook gadget comes the sixth in the Ikanos Consulting line-up; SideFlick!

With SideFlick you can connect to your Flickr account and:

• Browse your photos
  
• Browse your friends photos
  
• Browse your group photos
  
• View public photos for your favourite tags
  

To ensure that everyone can use this gadget we're adding the favourite tag functionality even if you don't have a Flickr account.

Of course, no release would be complete without supporting our usual 9 languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese).

To download, visit the Windows Live Gallery (Windows SideShow Managed Components 1.0 required).

Figure 1 - View public photos (favourite tags) without signing in

Figure 2 - Contacts, Groups, My photos and Public photos when signed in

Figure 3 - Photo viewing (public)

Figure 4 – Settings

Stay tuned, much more is on the way from Ikanos Consulting!

Enjoy,

-james

Facebook, meet SideShow!

Hello again SideShow enthusiasts,

Our fifth gadget in the list brings the wonder of Facebook to your Windows SideShow device.

This gadget has been out for a few weeks and has already notched up some good download numbers!

So, what can you do with this gadget?

• Change your status
  
• View your friends' status timeline
  
• View friend profiles
  
• View your events
  
• See overviews of your notifications
  

As with all of our gadgets we're available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese!

Do download; go to the Live Gallery (Windows SideShow Managed Components 1.0 required).

Stay tuned for more information on upcoming gadgets from Ikanos Consulting.

Have fun people!

-james

Tweeting to our hearts' content

Hello again SideShow enthusiasts!

It has been a while since we posted our last gadget and I'm pleased to announce that I'm breaking the silence to announce our 4^th gadget!

Twitter is a service that many of us use. It helps us keep up to date with what our friends are doing and allows us to broadcast our thoughts to the world. By bringing Twitter to the Windows SideShow platform we can extend the Twitter experience onto many more devices.

With this gadget you can:

• View the list of recently updated statuses
  
• Download the status history for up to 5 friends
  
• Set your status from a list of presets
  
  • Edit your preset list on your computer
    

As with all of our gadgets, the Twitter gadget is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional).

Click here
to download the gadget (Windows SideShow Managed Components 1.0 required).

Stay tuned for news of our upcoming gadgets from Ikanos Consulting
J

Have fun,

-james

System Health now available in Spanish

After sorting out a few minor issues the System Health gadget is now available in Spanish!

Click here to download it from the Windows Live Gallery.

Enjoy,

-james

MCE SideShow

Congratulations to the SideShow team for launching the new Windows Media Center gadgets (BETA)!

These gadgets have been in the making for quite a while and appeared as far back as CES 2007.

To sign up to the Beta you need to visit Microsoft Connect here to activate your copy. However (as Darryl informs me) this link can only be used once per person, to re-download you must go directly to Microsoft Connect and find the Beta through there.

It is great to be able to control my Media Center from my SideShow devices. So long Windows Media Player gadget!

So, what do you get?

• Browse the TV Guide and schedule recordings
  
• Browse movies + pictures library
  
• Control what is currently playing and view information
  
• Browse your music library
  

More information can be found on the SideShow blog!

Enjoy,

-james

Gadgets Galore! (Part 2)

Hello again,

Following up with the release of our AccuWeather gadget yesterday, today we're also announcing the System Health gadget!

This gadget definitely falls under the "geeky tools" umbrella and is a great way to check on your PCs health while not actually at the PC.

You can view:

• CPU/Memory usage
  
• Process list
  
• System uptime
  
• Disk space for local drives
  
• Windows Vista Experience Index
  

Also you can lock, log off, restart, sleep and shut down the PC remotely!

The gadget is on the gallery now and as with all our gadgets it is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese and Korean!

As I mentioned in the previous post, the gadget will default to your current locale but I will follow up with a future post on how you can switch your gadget to a different locale!

Have fun!

-james

Update: Spanish translation now available