Dual Screen/Display Laptop

DrFishstik writes "A friend of mine sent me a link to his uncle's startup, featuring dual screen laptops. Literally, two LCDs! It is a really interesting design, and in (as far as I know) the late beta stages. Could be a real boon for video developers or web designers on the go down the road..."

Comments

Cool

[Kajakske]

Now they can actually bring out electronic books which you can read in your bed. You even have the same lay-out (2 pages at once) ...

However, you'd have to hold it. For some uses this is better, but for others, the conventional positioning is much easier.

We'll see what it gives, I guess.

Re:Cool

[ackthpt]

Now they can actually bring out electronic books which you can read in your bed.

I suggest trying to read something on a conventional laptop, in bed, before speculating what a boon this would be. I find laptops to be difficult at best for reading. Try a palm-size computer. Even my ultra-slim Sony VAIO comes in at 2 pounds and generates considerable heat.

I worry about cooking the CPU when resting it on insulative materials, like a comforter. In the summer I occasionally receive a mild burn if I set it on my knees while wearing shorts.

Further, it's unwieldy if you shift position as often as I do, usually I read on my side or back, and a 4 oz. paperback or magazine still works best. Further, it doesn't require batteries. :o)

For dual screens, it's great for development takes place on one and preview uses the other screen. Probably good for demoing where control requires one screen and display on the other.

Ouch. That was fast.

[DavittJPotter]

One comment and it's already unavailable... How about "Dual Web Servers for Load Balancing"?

I want one

[fozzy(pro)]

So like this is the best of the previous dual screen latops mentioned here and a tablet. Imagine having a slide of what you are discussing on one side notes on the other...genuine notebook style. Would help me alot in school and work. Also much better nt lugging many notebooks in snow.

Here's one already available

[edgarde]

The Xentex Voyager is already available as far as I know. I covet the Linux version they claim they're developing drivers for. $5000 tho.

Re:Here's one already available

[SirSlud]

Dude, putting that thing away is origami!

There's an important distinction here. This dual LCD puppy (its very cool, maybe somebody else has made one before) is the closest thing, interface wise, to an electronic book as I've seen.

dang...

[Shymon]

well i had money i left over for christmas. yet another toy i must somehow justify getting.

how can a free news source indirectly end up taking all my free cash?

Creates a better possibiliy for ...

[Gyan]

a virtual menage-a-trois for the sex-starved geeks.

Re:My lap top already does dual screen

[glesga_kiss]

As long as you don't run Win2k, that's fine. For some reason, MS completely broke laptop dual-heading under that OS. Works fine with two discreet graphics cards in a desktop apparently.

Ah well, X2VNC is much better anyway, sure you need two machines, but one can be *nix and you get shared keyboard/mouse between the two displays and even better; cut & paste between them.

And it's free. Highly recommended if you work with several machines and find yourself using the wrong mouse now and again...

Slashdot - where ads are free...

[WIAKywbfatw]

A friend of mine sent me a link to his uncle's startup...

Translation: "Go look there and buy those puppies! Buy two! Buy as many as you can! Cos when my friend's uncle sees the amount of sales I've generated for him he's gonna have to give me a couple of these to play with and put me on the payroll too! Sweet!"

(Or, alternatively, he might just get pissed at you for /.ing his server.)

Seriously, I appreciate that this is /., where editors fall for even the most obvious of hoaxes but would it be asking too much if someone was to tone down the number of free ads/informercials we see disguised as genuine news stories? This isn't even a shipping product yet! It's still in development!

OK, it's the holidays and I've had more than I usually would have to drink in the last couple of days but would it really kill the /. editors to edit?

Re:Slashdot - where ads are free...

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Seriously, I appreciate that this is /., where editors fall for even the most obvious of hoaxes but would it be asking too much if someone was to tone down the number of free ads/informercials we see disguised as genuine news stories? This isn't even a shipping product yet! It's still in development!"

How can it be a free ad if it's still in development? Wouldn't that be called news at that point? heh

I mean seriously, who cares if it's a free ad? If it's cool and it's interesting, let us worry about whether or not we want to buy one.

Keyboards no longer come as standard?

[GC]

It's strange to see that manufacturers now believe that you don't need a keyboard on your notebook PCs.

Does it feature a remote keyboard?
Am I expected to carry around a USB keyboard?
Does this thing have super-standard, alien quality speech recognition?

It's fine to see a blonde sitting at a desk playing with a stylus, but the mojority of work still requires a keyboard these days.

Re:Keyboards no longer come as standard?

[nounderscores]

I guess that if you rotate the device 90 degrees, so one screen is lying flat on the table, you could have the "onscreen" keyboard be where you would expect a normal laptop keyboard to be.

Or if you were an artist, you could have a colour picker where you would expect an oil pallet to be.

Imagine being able to switch from querty to devorak at a software toggle, *and have all the little letters on the keyboard change automatically!* yay

or not. maybe the best use of rotating the thing 90 degrees would be to pop up custom arcade controllers on demand, or startrek style "follow my finger" sliding bar controls.

Spec sheet

[Alien54]

Estari Inc., 1800 PaxtonStreet, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17104-2826
Phone: 717-233-1518Toll Free: 800-430-1518 Fax: 717-233-2774
www.estari.com - www.dualscreen.com- info@estari.com - Estari, Inc. 10/2002

Specifications subject to change without notice.

Dual Touch-Screenswith On-Screen KeyboardUltra Low Voltage Mobile Intel Pentium III Processor 800 MHz or Higher
Windows XP -Windows 2000
30GB Hard Disk DriveLow Profile
40GB Hard Disk DriveLow Profile
Dual XGA Color TFT Active Matrix Display (1024 x 768) 13.3" or 15" both busines and pro models
Audio ControllerAC 97 SoundBlaster Emulation Supported
Memory 256MB Expandable to 1GB
Estari FileScout Professional Document Management Software
Estari FileScout Publisher Document Management Software
(includes 1000 noroyalty publishes)
Mini PCI Type IIISlot for Wireless, Bluetooth and other uses 1 ea.- 2 ea.Pro models
Smart Card Slot -Pro models
IEEE 1394 Port Pro models
Type I or Type II PCMCIA Slots 1 ea.
USB Ports 3 ea.
Quad Multifunction Programmable Input Control Buttons 2 ea
RJ11/45 Port 1 ea.
Stereo Speakers and Headphone Jack / Line-In / Microphone 1 ea
Light Weight Smart Lithium Polymer Battery 2 ea.
Compact Flash 1 ea
Internal CD/CDRW/DVD(Fits into 2nd battery slot) optional, - included with Pro models
External Battery Charger optional
External CD-ROM Drive optional
External Combination DVD/CD-RW Drive optional
Wireless Keyboard optional
Docking Station/Stand optional
Travel Carrying Case optional

Re:Dual screen? Feh. Let's see dual-proc.

[gl4ss]

what you benefit from dual cpu's?
it's not that you buy laptops for heavy duty math.

as far as speed goes laptops are quick enough(when compared to desktop). but user interaction is still a pain sometimes(input/output).

How Cool.

[FuzzyDaddy]

Many uses for computers have not had widespread use because of issues of form factors.

I want to do my AutoCAD drawings at a desk, sitting up, with a cup of coffee. I want to read a book on sitting back in a comfortable chair. I want to watch TV sitting WAY back on my couch. When doing designs, I like to have a full screen of the design software, and a pad of paper for notes and hand sketches.

Whether the input device issues (where's the damn keyboard?) are worked out or not on this thing, I can't tell. But to have two independent desktops on one device seems really useful.

Geeks tend to denigrate "form factor" type issues, because there is often no substantial underlying technical difficulty. Giving someone much credit for making a rounded computer case seems silly given the enormous expertise that many other people put into making the guts. But these things can be important, and can affect usability. Because my computer is not butt-ugly (yes, I have a candy-colored iMac), I (and my wife) don't mind putting it in a very public area. This makes it far more convenient to access casually during the day.

Which isn't to say I would get a crappy but attractive computer (no Mac flames please, that's beside the point) - but even seemingly dumb things can have an important effect on the way people use computers.

Essential for tablets?

[BFaucet]

I think a two screened tablet would be much more successful than single paneled tablets. People like to be able to look at two pages at once. When comparing documents, looking at one page and writing on the other, skimming the two pages. Geeks that are used to computer screens may be just fine with single panels, but the general public tends to like things as they are right now. I think this'll actually be an important step in getting the public to accept tablets.

/.'ed - Google to the rescue

[ziegast]

For those who can't get to the site and are too lazy to lookup Google...

Images

Article

-ez

Karma: Whore (mostly through your posting article begging for positive modding)

this is slashdot

[SHEENmaster]

fine.

Imagine a beowulf cluser of programming puppies.