Dual-headed Laptops

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!

Comments

Tablet PC Alternative?

[path_man]

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?

[Blondie-Wan]

I agree with most of your post, except (ironically) for the part where you specifically say what you think /.'ers might agree with:

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.

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?

[lenski]

As far as market penetration goes, then Windows can be a better choice. Market penetration is a very powerful argument when choosing a platform for development of a product.

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 technical solution to developers' and users' needs). As an example of a dominant platform, it's a reasonable solution. But it's being forced out of the marketplace, supplanted by WinXP: A platform that errs on the side of benefits for its provider than its customer (in my opinion).

There are other platforms that offer much more control to their collective user communities and developer communities, and are arguably technically superior to the dominant platform. But they are "also-rans", largely due to the marketplace manipulations of Microsoft.

On Windows: Usability is OK (though nothing to write home about), hardware compatibility is is good (due largely to its >90% marketplace presence) and software compatibility sucks rotten eggs through a skinny straw (I ***HATE*** having to set up a Windows system, with endless subtle incompatibilities all over the place, unless you're talking about a *pure* Microsoft environment).

Re:Tablet PC Alternative?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

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.?).

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 more people want to buy X rather than Y, then X is better than Y.

If you want to get into the question of why more people want Windows than Linux or whatever, that's a whole other conversation.

Dirty screen?

[Lally Singh]

One of the two screens are going to get very dirty after being used as a keyboard for a while.

Re:Dirty screen?

[RLiegh]

If you smoke, or live in some place dusty (such as arizona) and use your laptop for any extended period of time, that's a problem already.

I don't think this would make that much of a difference?

Or were you going for +1 funny?

estari.com

[emptybody]

Here is the requisite link to the company making these: Estari.

I would have liked to see a lot more info on their site. Not much for documentation of other pictures.

Battery Power

[grasshoppah]

It seems like this would also reduce your batter life by 2x! Two backlights is much more taxing than one. Perhaps this one'll be the first large roll out of OLEDS also:)

Keyboard feel and sound

[TheToasterBoy]

What about tactility? I would definitively miss the tactility of a mechanical keyboard... I've used touchscreen style keboard before (on kiosks, embedded systems, etc.) and found it difficult to adjust to...

Re:gimmick time

[Cylix]

Er, let me rephrase.

I need affordable onboard GPS!

Keyboard

[Haloows]

With this design you could possibly implement a swivel for the dual displays and place a keyboard/mouse combo on the back of one of the LCD monitors...allowing for dual screens, or the more familiar "standard laptop" feel. The problem of screen damage could be easily remeded by a simple cover or raised platform around the displays. To prevent the keyboard from causing unwanted operation, it could be made quite thin so that it would have a low clearance compared with the surronding body (The laptop casing). Or the keyboard could be just disabled when the screen is swiveled, I for one wouldn't really care if the buttons became scratched. This would allow for the most functionality (much faster typing compared to a touchscreen) and perhaps could have solved numerous design problems. As for the potential problem of low battery life with the dual LCDs, solar panels could be embedded into the screens themselves, providing a boosted battery life. Or if technically possible for the manufacturer, a French or even Mexican designed fusion reactor could be...

Re:Mobile phones

[quick_dry_3]

the tactile feedback from a touch screen is awful to non-existant. When you dial a phone with a keypad, you don't really have to pay much attention to what you're pressin because you can locate your finger by feel, touch screens don't do that, you have to actually look at it to know where your finger is in relation to teh keys, and to verify its actually registered the keypress.

This is one of the reasons the Sony-ERicsson P800 has a flip keypad that partially covers the touch screen - you get full touch screen for when you want it, and a keypad for when you'd want that as well. best of both worlds.