Multi-head Meets the Laptop

PARENA writes: "Estari comes with a Dual-Screen Laptop! "A what?!" Yes: Dual-Screen. In fact, they are 2 15" TOUCH screens. According to TwoMobile: 'Unlike electronic tablets, the 2-VU(TM) allows users to view two full-page files or documents simultaneously. Users can page through two books at once, or take handwritten notes in a notebook on one screen while paging through a book on the other screen.' Sounds pretty cool!"

Comments

oh puhleaze

[gnudutch]

>The 2-VU operates in the Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP® environments and features the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. This strategy avoids the problems of a propriety, closed environment while maintaining the file integrity offered through these state-of-the-art digital rights management platforms.

Win2k and Acrobat. Could this thing be any MORE proprietary and closed???

Re:oh puhleaze

[lblack]

Nope.

The general public has caught on to all this brouhaha about how proprietary, closed environments are bad for business. They can even see how that might be so. Unfortuately, they still have no idea what it means.

In the last six months, there's been a definite upswing in the inclusion of sentences like the one you quoted in marketing literature. Most of the time, it's a complete misnomer.

"Our new workstation comes pre-loaded with Windows XP, Microsoft Office and the Adobe Suite, allowing you to create documents in industry-standard formats and avoid being locked into a proprietary model." Uh, what?

It's sort of like when "portability" was a big thing, and you saw references to it in the literature for virtually every product, even those that were designed to run on very specific hardware/software setups.

This is what happens when capitalism takes it up the ass from marketing. It stops being a battle of the better products and becomes a battle of the better brands.

And there is so much market-space that nobody can really claim to be an authority on everything they will buy. You and I might know something about computers, but I know virtually nothing about refrigerators (I recently bought one and was amazed at the amount of research I had to do!). Sometimes, people just don't have the time or inclination to research a purpose. The marketers target those people with nebulous claims that fall roughly in line with what they've been reading in the Business and IT sections of their newspapers (always the most whorish sections, of course).

Bleh.

l

How about battery life?

[diatonic]

I would think that since the display is typically the biggest load on the battery of a portable device (laptop/handheld/etc.) that they will have to work really hard to get a decent amount of time with those big bright displays lit up. If you were using it as an e-book reader you would need the battery to last longer than a few hours.

The dark side of the eBook

[groupthink]

This is why eBooks coupled with insane legislation like the DMCA are such a threat. Once a digital book is comfortably readable, the textbook industry will move to eBooks, keeping the students, who are required to purchase them, from exercising the rights we have become used to.

The concept of no longer owning the book, is introduced. For a price, you get access to the text for a period of time. Still want access to it after a year? Gotta pay.

Such concepts as selling the book back to the bookstore when you're finished with the class, or selling it to another student, will become things of the past.

Sure this is a great device, but with the textbook industry drooling over the students as a captive audience, the ramifications of such a device are worth considering.

Re:Remember when....

[carlos_benj]

Did you even look at it? it's not a dual head laptop, it's more like an ebook with a folding screen.. Probably not much bigger then a normal book.

Did you read the article? These are two 15" diag screens. What kind of books do you consider "normal"?

Cute, yes. Practical?

[Clovert Agent]

It looks funky, but I'm not convinced it'll play in the form factors they're planning.

Mainly, it's the notebook (ironically enough) form factor that I'm not sure about. Some vertical markets might love it - those that need real computing and portable computing but struggle with the average handheld. Healthcare, education...that sort of thing.

But for the rest of us? Dunno about you, but I just don't work like that. I'm used to scrolling through long documents. I like being able to have wide windows for some tasks (mainly spreadsheets).

In its handheld/subnotebook model, now that could work. My feeling is that would suit the type of use you'd expect - holding a gadget like a book is pretty natural for some tasks.

I'm particularly dubious of the exec's claim that the book format is "proven to be better" for comprehension. That's because people are used to it. Same way that people who type on a standard keyboard struggle to use a Dvorak layout, but that doesn't mean the former is better. And that, to me, sums up a lot of their arguments in favour of the thing.

But hey. Maybe I'll recant when I've had the chance to play with one at a tradeshow and get hooked :)

Hi! We have no idea what we're talking about!

[crazyeddie]

The 2-VU operates in the Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP® environments and features the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. This strategy avoids the problems of a propriety, closed environment...

Ummmmm.... How much more closed and proprietary do you get? Not to mention that the writer was unable to deduce that even though his spell-checker told him that "propriety" is spelled correctly, it isn't the right word. Sheesh.

Best feature

[GoRK]

The best feature of this puppy nobody is mentioning - screw-in tripod mount! Why in the hell someone didn't do this sooner is beyond me. You can carry a small tripod for your laptop and forego a work surface anywhere you either dont have one or need more room. A lot of these newer machines get so toasty you don't want to *actually* set them on your lap anyway -- sweat up your legs, and re-press your pants (if you are wearing the sort of pants that get pressed anyway)..

As far as I'm concerned, this design sucks with no integrated keyboard, and its requiring the user to hold the screens up to view them at any kind of angle is a total failure -- the thing is going to be HEAVY and HOT. Holding it in your hands for long enough to actually *READ* the eBook you've got on it is going to pain a lot of people.

~GoRK

you know what this would be really useful for?

[vicious_sloth]

I dont know about anyone else, but im sure one of these weighs alot less then 2 or three textbooks. if it is as readable as they say it is, and you can take notes, i would definitly opt to take one of these instead of the 5 textbooks i have to lug around from class to class... prodivded i can get the textbook on the laptop in the first place :) if i could, it would definitly save my spine.