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Flip-Pad Voyager: Dual-screen Laptop
deitrahs writes "I came across this, and wept with joy. It's an Athlon-based, dual-head laptop. Yes, that's right - dual-head LAPTOP. Dual 13.3" displays. And it folds up like an old-school Transformer. Now I just need to find a buyer for this spare kidney so I can afford it - $5 thousand - but the expressions on people's faces at LAN parties will be OH so worth it."
Seems to Be /.ed 4 FTLkC: www.xentex.com/+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Google Cache Link
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:v1jL4n
Not as Impressive as I thought. it still seems to be pretty close to standard monitors
OTOH:
- Total screen resolution is 1536x1024, my Dell Inspiron 8000 is 1600x1200 (albeit probably nicer on a larger canvas I suppose)
- That second screen looks a little fragile to me.
- The whole thing seems *BULKY* to me (my Dell is as big as I would want to get).
- No 3D chipset support at all, 8MB VGA (a little tight there!)
- That price tag.
- All new drivers that Linux won't support for a while
Novel idea, but with some serious drawbacks and a high pricetag, I think I'll be sticking with my current Linux laptop for a while longer...There are a few programs for some RTSs and EQ, that will show you information on a second screen. The EQ one will display maps and statistics on creatures you are fighting, in numerical terms, as opposed to the innacurate color bars in the game interface. The RTS ones that I've seen on the web sound similar. Usually posts things like resource statistics, and running totals of game info. I've also heard rumors of quake hacks that work similarly, like showing a map with blips where people are located, but haven't seen this one firsthand.
I noticed that the mouse touch pad is on the right side. That's gonna be a PITA for south paws unless they have a left-handed version.
/*drunk.. fix later*/
EnkiduEOT
There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself
-Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
Matrox used Quake 3 based games to show off their Parhelia 3 display feature. Something about the POV option, which causes the display to be spread out over multiple screens (increasing you're range of vision, not stretching the image). If I wasn't at work I'd look it up for you... might want to check Google and Matrox's site. :)
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
According to the Tech Specs:
Battery life: 4 hours (Battery Mark V3.0)
Spec page here:
http://www.xentex.com/voyager/techspecs.html
note the resolution specs
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Except it was implemented by having three computers on a network, not three monitors on one computer..
Bitchslapped. Neat.
I just spoke to my good friend who just happened to write all the video software for this laptop (in addition to many other company duties) and he told me that the resolution PER SCREEN is 1024 Vertically x 768 Across.
Other sweet gossip he told me was that they're working on one with a really nice dual head 3D card suitable for gaming and what-not and various other improvements.
You all should send your questions and gripes to him directly. His name is Matthew ... now put an @xentex.com after that. (I wrote his email address out like this to prevent spam bots from picking his address up. He's really a cool guy totally devoted to this awesome computer ... it's really a cool thing to see in person. Plus, ask him whatever you want ... he'd certainly fit in here if he wasn't actually doing stuff for his company all day and night.
our written thoughts are gifts to our future selves
I put up a couple of images from the site here:
Small animated GIF of how it moves
Big pic of the unit unfolded
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Two little screens are really not anywhere near as good as one big one.
Note, however, that after the thing is opened up one of them can be spun around to face the opposite way. Slave the two together and run a powerpoint presentation on it and you don't need a projector to hold a small meeting.
Salesmen will LOVE this.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Er. If you're refering to Alt-Tab under Windows, that's application switching.
Desktop switching means you press a key-combo and it switches you to an entirely different desktop. Yep, that's right. The applications you see, the icons on the desktop, the wallpaper, etc. can all change. (Or not, depending on what your settings are.) Application switching merely allows you to switch between windows, and does not give you any extra screen real estate at all.
KDE, gnome, and others have both application switching and desktop switching. Windows only has application switching, unless you download a utility to do it. (Most of them suck and feel unnatural.) Optionally you could use another window manager... (Of course I prefer to let lilo work her majic.)
What I don't understand is WHY oh WHY hasn't MS stolen the idea for multiple desktops? It's nothing short of pure genius.
-Sara