Sure we've seen tons of announcements and pictures of SideShow enabled devices, but has anybody actually explained how it works sans the marketing lingo? I got the chance to play with the Asus W5fe SideShow laptop, which debuted last year when Bill Gate's hoisted it up as part of his Vista walkthrough. In fact, it's probably the same exact machine given that it came directly from the Asus booth at CES 2007.

Several interesting facts: The hard drive and flash component are two separate entities but draw from the same battery. The hard drive has to wake if you want to sync with Windows Media player, Outlook 2007 Calendar, Windows Mail, and the Stock ticker. Basically, things that require internet connectivity will have to summon the hard drive. Using the flash component, however, will be much faster. You get 1GB worth of storage space to drag and drop media files like music and photos. You get crappy battery life with the 3-cell battery, but the unit does come with a 6-cell. I didn't have access to a lot of the accessories because it came directly from CES 2007. You can find out more here.