Orange County Register

The Consumer Electronics Show officially starts Wednesday night, with a keynote message from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. But the gadget announcements have already started coming in. I’ll post them as time permits.

First up: Fountain Valley’s D-Link Systems. The home networking company always manages to find some new twist on routers. And the new Xtreme N DIR-685 is like no other router I’ve seen. It looks — and acts — like a digital picture frame as well. The loaded router has a 3.2-inch LCD monitor and SharePort technology to add a printer or scanner for the whole house to share.

The monitor can be used to show photo slide shows or the network status of the router and home network. Photos are managed on the FrameChannel Web site at internetphotoframe.com. Also, since it’s plugged into the Internet, it can stream Internet video, show weather forecasts and display other Internet information. It’s essentially a mini Internet station complete with viewing portal. 

It also has two USB ports that turns anything plugged in it into a networked device that can be shared with every computer on the home network. This is a great way to share ordinary printers, scanners and external hard drives. 

D-Link also is introducing a small USB monitor called the D-Link SideStage. This is a 7-inch monitor that is intended to be a secondary monitor to display instant messages and other widgets that might get lost behind all the open windows on a desktop or laptop computer. Click images below for a larger look:

The USB 2.0 powered monitor weighs 1.34 pounds and is 4.6 inces tall, 7-inches wide and 3/4-inch thick. Don’t expect great picture quality — resolution is 800 by 480.

This actually reminds of a Windows Vista  SideShow feature that was all the rage at the 2006 CES, but never made it mainstream. SideShow allowed a connected smaller monitor to display widgets, e-mail and other information. Manufacturers had created interesting applications, including this laptop bag by Elekson that put a 2.5-inch monitor on the bag’s exterior so users could quickly look to see if they received new messages. 

No price has been set but D-Link is trying to get it below $130. According to Dan Kelley, D-Link’s senior director of marketing, the monitor is expected to be available in stores during the first quarter of 2009. The “photo” router also has not been priced, but is expected to launch later this year.

For more coverage of CES 2009, check the archive: gagdgetress.freedomblogging.com/tag/ces-2009

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