Dual-headed Laptops 108
Baloo Ursidae writes "ABC News is reporting that some little upstart in PA is making dual headed laptops. Orient it like a book, you have two portrait-oriented touch sensitive monitors. Orient it like a laptop, and one of the monitors becomes a soft keyboard. Not cheap, however, they start at $4,000." That is absolutely nuts. More power to 'em!
Been there, done that... (Score:5, Informative)
Dinivin
Re:Been there, done that... (Score:5, Funny)
For those who actually clicked the ABC News Link.. (Score:1)
Maybe it should be called Olds for Nerds. Stuff that mattered.
Re:Been there, done that... (Score:1)
I see how the cycle goes now:
1) Slashdot posts and article.
2) Reporters surf slashdot for ideas and writes an article on a magazine or paper.
3) Slashdot viewers surf other news sites and submits the story to Slashdot
So now every site can be slashdotted twice.
Re:Linux karma whore! (Score:1, Funny)
So if you're running Windows... (Score:5, Funny)
Easy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So if you're running Windows... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:So if you're running Windows... (Score:1)
Re:So if you're running Windows... (Score:5, Funny)
Tablet PC Alternative? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, despite the negative comments at the head of the Slashdot article, I think that this is actually a good thing. Let more tablet PC alternatives enter the market so we can really test the usability factor of !!!OMG!!! different ways in which we use computers.
I don't think there are many ./'ers who don't agree that market forces are how we weed out what is really good and what really stinks. If the company manufacturing these happens to stumble onto a new idea that changes the way in which we compute, they'll succeed fiscally, and hopefully shift (for the better) the way we use laptops and mobile computers. If, on the other hand, this turns out to be another lead-balloon idea based on the notion that "a fool and his money are soon parted" that will play out as well.
I, for one, am excited to see different form factors for mobile platforms. I admit I'm a compute gadget fan, but that's the only way we can improve the status quo.
Re:Tablet PC Alternative? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think most /.'ers would agree market forces haven't been much good at weeding out what stinks from what what's good when it comes to OSes, actually, among other things (or is Windows really soooo much "better" than Linux, Mac OS, Be, etc.?).
Re:Tablet PC Alternative? (Score:2)
As far as the combination of price, usability, hardware compatability and software compatability goes, Windows is far, far better than any of those.
Re:Tablet PC Alternative? (Score:2, Insightful)
Based on some fairly long-term observation, I conclude however, that any broad marketplace is subject to all sorts of manipulations, and the current marketplace of Desktop Operating Environments is no exception.
For example: Win2k is a relatively stable platform (being neither dramatically inferior nor dramatically superior as a technic
Re:Tablet PC Alternative? (Score:2)
Anyway, in this case, there should be no reason for any company to try to supress anyone else's approach. We'll just buy what works best, and the companies will copy the most succe
Re:Tablet PC Alternative? (Score:1)
He's probably right about those horrible
Most
Re:Tablet PC Alternative? (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is that the open market has a different idea of what's good and what's bad than you do. In the most basic terms, the market's idea of what's good is defined by what people want to buy. If people want to buy it, it's good, and if they don't, it's bad. If m
Does functionality determine what people buy? (Score:2)
Re:Tablet PC Alternative? (Score:1)
I just glanced at the above PDF, and it gives the same idea I was about to give, but in a different way...
'Open Market' assumes marketing does not form purchasing: only end-customer desire, as founded in the product's inherent 'worth' does.
Convenient contrivance, to monatarist religions, but bogus.
Sun Tsu: whom forms the meanings-known, forms destiny.
Moderns can't be incapable of cluing-in to what an utterly brilliant Chinese .. published .. ~2.4 millenia ago...
Marketing, propaganda, brainwashing,
Dirty screen? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dirty screen? (Score:2, Funny)
Semen stains are usually pretty easy to wipe away. Just get them early after ejaculating. A good alcohol based monitor wipe after tidying up with a tissue should keep the keyboard/monitor jizz free for your enjoyment.
Re:Dirty screen? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think this would make that much of a difference?
Or were you going for +1 funny?
Re:Dirty screen? (Score:2)
On a touchscreen, put down one of those peel-away screen protectors like on PDAs. It gets dirty, just peel it off and put down a new one.
estari.com (Score:4, Insightful)
I would have liked to see a lot more info on their site. Not much for documentation of other pictures.
Estari, eh? (Score:1)
gimmick time (Score:2, Interesting)
If you thought you weren't going to use it before, chances are you aren't going to use it now, but better hurry and get one while supplies last!
Hopefully, the trend will continue onward, and it will bring down the cost of realistic laptop gimmicks.
I need onboard GPS!
Re: I need onboard GPS! (Score:1)
Re:gimmick time (Score:1)
Have a look at:
http://www.panasonic.com/toughbook [panasonic.com]
for a super tough laptop that has 802.11b and GPS.
I was looking at them at a show a couple of months ago and they are designed to take a 4 foot drop. Prices range from $3000 to $8000.
Re:gimmick time (Score:3, Insightful)
I need affordable onboard GPS!
Re:gimmick time (Score:1)
No, no, no... (Score:5, Funny)
a) office apps
b) PORN!!!!
Yup, two pornos at once. Make watching porn like reading one of those crappy books on Harry Potter!
Actually, I wish I hadn't just associated Harry Potter with porn, the mental image will make me kill people some day. (runs into forest to plot murders, then comes back after reading this [poleshiftprepare.com] and realising (if the floon is right) planets will do it for him).
I don't know why I just said all that. Neh.
More information... (Score:2, Informative)
In a related story... (Score:3, Funny)
Mobile phones (Score:4, Interesting)
So, instead of adding an extra display on the outside, place it on the inside (hey, maybe we even can have three screens? Scaaary
Re:Mobile phones (Score:2)
this is available in the UK at the moment, about £200 or ~ US$300
see here. [sonyericsson.com]
Re:Mobile phones (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mobile phones (Score:1)
Feedback is problem t
Re:Mobile phones (Score:1)
Re:Mobile phones (Score:3, Insightful)
This is one of the reasons the Sony-ERicsson P800 has a flip keypad that partially covers the touch screen - you get full touch sc
Re:Mobile phones (Score:1)
Re:Mobile phones (Score:1)
Man... (Score:5, Funny)
Cool (Score:1)
soft keyboard (Score:4, Informative)
Wow! A keyboard with all of the feel of the famous Atari 400 [old-computers.com] keyboard!
Re:soft keyboard (Score:2)
Now if someone could make a touchscreen with raised buttons like maybe using a pin grid, that would be cool.
Interesting but... (Score:5, Interesting)
BTM
Battery Power (Score:3, Insightful)
dual head or dual eye (Score:1)
Re:Double standard (Score:1)
First of all, we don't rave at all new technology some of it we find downright stupid.
Secondly, have you read the comments on this article? About half of them seem to be whining about the lack of a keyboard.
Thirdly, a slight majority of slashdot readership is from the U.S.A. where HDTV isn't mainstream yet.
Only two heads? (Score:4, Funny)
"More power to 'em" (Score:1)
Gosh I hope they get that power, they're sure to need it in those laptops
Keyboard feel and sound (Score:2, Insightful)
Incremental not revolutionary (Score:3, Interesting)
Handwriting recognition is still slower and requires more QA editing than keyboard typing.
Touchscreen keyboards are marginal at best.
Not all applications are or can be made "pen aware" just because the PC itself is. If you need an example, try chnging your iPaq or Jornada to Landscape mode and watch how certain functions become lost and irrecoverable off the screen.
This solution certainly provides a different and interesting way of getting information OUT of the laptop, but it does so at a sacrifice to the means and ease of getting it IN.
Until there are new and functional means of accessing the user interface such as effective and accurate speech recognition or 3D gesturing ala "Minority Report", these gizmos just don't offer enough outside of a very few niche applications to qualify as revolutionary.
Re:Incremental not revolutionary (Score:1)
Printingpress > Telegraph > Typewriter > Telephone > Fax > Email > Voice Recognition...
Then back to handwriting? I think the next step will be to free up one's hands (voice). The other day I was in a situation where I had to jot something down and only had some paper and a pen. A few words into my note I realized that I
Why not a mechanical keyboard? (Score:2)
No mechanical Mouse ? (Score:1)
Article mentions LCDs as the cost factor (Score:4, Interesting)
I do think this is a novel concept. Several of the posts/replies to this article are mentioning they would miss the mechanical keyboard. I believe this would be best suited for an external USB keyboard and "onscreen touch keyboard" when necessary or travelling.
I think this would be a boom for audio & photo/video professionals. Toolbars on one screen, preview/waveforms on the other, plus onscreen tracing/editting/erasing. If you are a photo/ad pro then you you haven't had value until have tried a Cintiq [aliaswavefront.com] from Wacom. They are VERY expensive but VERY worth it!
Re:Article mentions LCDs as the cost factor (Score:1)
The answer is, of course, VOLUME! The other's commercials are much louder than Estari's.
Re:Article mentions LCDs as the cost factor (Score:2)
Volume discounts are a factor with startups being able to price competively, but not much. Bang & Ol
Not the same type screen (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not the same type screen (Score:2)
Difficult concepts (Score:2, Funny)
I found myself oddly depressed on behalf of the empire [microsoft.com] that even after almost 20 years [microsoft.com] of Windows releases, mainstream press still can't refer to "a window" without explaining this esoteric concept. Ouch.
Reminds me of something (Score:1)
Anyone remember Penny's computer book?
I wonder if this one can unlock doors, remotely drive cars, and perform facial recognition to reveal MAD agents?
Isn't the screen a tired concept? (Score:1)
3D fun (Score:1)
Keyboard (Score:2, Insightful)
waste screen for keyboard? (Score:1)
Several points for coolness, but minus a few million for stupidity.
If we could get this up in linux (Score:1)
Another Laptop w/2 Monitors (Score:2)
Re:Another Laptop w/2 Monitors (Score:3, Informative)
Already available, I believe:
Flip-Pad Voyager from Xentex [xentex.com]
Re:Another Laptop w/2 Monitors (Score:1)