Blurring the Line Between Laptops and Desktops

bart_scriv writes "BusinessWeek looks at the latest offerings in ultra-portable PCs, offering up some specs and pictures. Some of the highlinghts: removeable 19-20 inch LCD dispays, dual NVIDIA cards and customizable exteriors. On the downside, some of these machines weigh almost 20 pounds and all of them sport a pretty high price tag — they probably won't be replacing desktops or laptops anytime soon."

Comments

Prior art

[Mensa Babe]

I've heard this guy has just filed a lawsuit. Apparently he holds the patent for method and aparatus for blurring the line between laptops and desktops.

Re:weigh 20 punds?

[Cleon]

Oy, you kids. When I was young, in the heady days of 8088 processors, the laptops weighed ten pounds at LEAST. And we were THANKFUL!

Re:weigh 20 punds?

[ScottLindner]

LOL

I bet that really sucked carrying up a hill both ways too. :-)

Re:weigh 20 punds?

[Cleon]

In the SNOW, too! ;)

(I actually do have an old Zenith 8088 laptop that weighs at least 12 pounds.)

ULTRA portable?

[caudron]

I know what "ultra" means. Do they? I believe the phrase they are looking for is Semi Portable, not Ultra Portable.

That's like saying Windows is Ultra Stable or Linux is Ultra Simple!

Tom "Ultra Brilliant" Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Simple.

[treeves]

If "ultraviolet" means light that is beyond violet "ultra-portable" means beyond portable. i.e. it's too heavy to be considered portable.

Re:weigh 20 punds?

[CYDVicious]

I'd love to be able to carry, or cheaply ship a real computer to sites when I have to travel, or even set it up back at the hotel rooms so I can squash bugs, compile, and do database stuff on a *real* computer.

With a 20lb laptop you should have no troubles squashing any size bugs in your Hotel, granted if you have to squash bugs, maybe you should find a new hotel?

Re:The Market for This?

[Moofie]

I have a full-size courier bag. I could fit at least a dozen MacBooks in it, and still have room for a nice lunch. Come to think of it, I could probably fit one of each computer Apple sells right now in the bag simultaneously, if I had any reason to do something so absurd.

If you define "Portable" as "Fits in your pants pocket", I have a whole lot of books that are not portable. I think that's a fairly silly definition.

Ah, the Nostalgia!

[DoctorPepper]

Reminds me of my TRS-80 Model 4P I used to lug back and forth to work, back in the mid-80's.

Except it's probably a billion times faster, has way more colors (the Model 4P just had green), and boots slower! ;-)