Triple XP Play

Smart Displays: Smart Enough?

Take an LCD monitor. Add pen input, a wireless connection, and a dash of Windows CE. That's the recipe for a Windows Powered Smart Display, an untethered screen usable anywhere within Wi-Fi range of a desktop PC (that's 150 feet maximum, 125 feet or less in the real world).

Based on technology formerly code-named Mira, the first Smart Displays are due in early 2003 from ViewSonic, Philips, and others. Judging from our brief experience with prototypes, Smart Displays are intriguing, but peppered with technological gotchas. Here's what they aren't: stand-alone computers. Running a Windows CE.netâ??based OS, they provide roaming access to programs, files, and the Net connection on a Windows XP Pro PC. Microsoft envisions their use for such domestic tasks as sofa surfing or recipe-viewing in a kitchen.

But limited hardware muscle and the relatively slow real-world speed of Wi-Fi (about 4 megabits per second) limit Smart Displays' smarts. Microsoft says they will play digital audio but not full-motion video clips. Their pen-based input uses Windows CE's Transcriber, not more powerful Tablet PC technology. And when you're using a Smart Display remotely, the PC it talks to will otherwise be unavailable.

At $500 to $1000, Smart Displays will cost much more than standard LCDs of equivalent size; add another $200 if you need to upgrade Windows XP Home Edition to XP Pro. Stay tuned for our take on shipping products.