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Insights Into the Future of the Laptop
An anonymous reader writes "ThinkPad founder Arimasa Naitoh sat down for a chat with CNET.com.au about the future of the laptop. The article includes a few concept design images, as well as details on why Lenovo believes that fuel-cell technology is poor and that Origami will never succeed as a primary device." From the article: "Although Lenovo has traditionally targeted the business crowd, it recently released the consumer-targeted Lenovo 3000 series, as 'many people want to have a ThinkPad that is not black'. Naitoh shuns the use of aluminium in laptop manufacturing, calling it 'weak', instead praising titanium (used in the construction of the 3000) for its light-weight and scratch-resistant properties. Naitoh also showed off a number of ThinkPad concept designs with innovations such as raising displays and removable keyboards. He didn't give any word on whether these would be incorporated into official ThinkPad models, but we've snagged some pictures for you anyway."
If somebody made an ARM powered laptop with solid state storage then I'd be very happy. No moving parts, silent, incredible battery life.
What I want is something small that I can plug a keyboard and monitor into for desktop use but also use on the move. Not a laptop - much smaller.
The closest I've seen is this thing:
http://www.dualcor.com/
But it looks like it's not aimed at the general market, and has a corresponding "business class" price tag.
"...praising titanium (used in the construction of the 3000) for its light-weight and scratch-resistant properties..."
So what did Apple get wrong then? My TiBook was looking pretty ragged after two years of use. By contrast, my 15" Aluminum G4 PowerBook doesn't have a scratch on it....
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Lenovo appears to be playing a smart game, looking to expand from the business market to the professional consumer. With companies like Acer and HP looking more a the entertainment machine concept Lenovo is looking to a higher value market. The Origami stuff is interesting too. The whole idea is a loser (sub laptop capability for more money) and he's wise to stay out of it. All this stress on using titanium could also be a nod towards industry fears that Lenovo might compromise quality for price. Maybe they've decided to rely on low manufacturing costs to keep prices at reasonable levels.
... I am having a Seinfeld moment.
Why is it that, in nearly every printed interview, people "sit down for a chat?" Does this actually happen? Does sitting down precede chats that will be put to the printed word? What happens if the interview is almost over and the two realize they were actually standing through it? Does that mean they can't use the material committed in the upright position? Should they sit down and perform the entire interview again?
One day, I am going to conduct an entire interview leaning against a well.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
The more ram you have, the worse the resume from hibernate, and there is too much corporate security junk (firewall, VPN, Symantec) to take up memory and battery life. The extra battery pack is very good for conferences, as I dont need to sit glued to power cords all day long.
The problem with long-life laptops is most people prefer performance over battery life. And with reason -most people don't go that far without a recharge. The most definitive data gathering on this topic was actually an experiment I did in 1999, logging how different people used a laptop for six months, in a paper called "the secret life of laptops"
The conclusion we came to then was that power at home and work was unimportant, compared to the wide variation in network state. Getting consistent networking mattered much more to people.
Now that we have near-universal, WLAN, maybe being unwired matters more. I should rerun the experiment, but first I need to finish the analysis of my ongoing experiment, that of capturing the bluetooth ID of every discoverable mobile phone that goes past my house. Embrace experimental computer science!
These people are on the active promoters list on the official website of the trusted computing initiative.
I can tell you one thing about their future, it won't involve my dollars.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
It would be nice if laptops used displays that could be read in sunlight. I'm working at home at the moment, it's a beautiful day outside, I have a laptop and a wireless network... the only reason I'm not working outside is because I wouldn't be able to see the screen.
The wide aspect screens offer two key benfits. One of course is that movies are now shownin that aspect. The other turns out to be space. A short wide screen opens on an airplane much better than a taller one. The laptop requires significantly less room between you and the guy ahead leaning back so far you could do dental work on him.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
At first I thought your idea was silly and then I realized you are absolutely right. I put the dock on the left side on my iBook with autohide so that i don't trigger it but gain the added space when surfing.
I wish laptop vendors would figure out a few things.
1. vertical space is more important than ever. Digital paper! Let me see a webpage. I still don't feel like going beyond 1024 x 768 when designing a page. I looked at my sites on my new cell phone the other day and realized how bad that is.
2. Not everyone wants a 17 inch display. Yes many of you exist, but there are a few of us that like 12 inch displays! I like a small laptop which is portable over a big bulky thing. I'm a student and I have books to carry too! My wife also prefers 12 inch displays. This means don't just offer a 12 inch, but a fast 12 inch as well. I don't consider a 17 inch MacBook Pro better than a 13 inch MacBook in terms of the screen. I want the faster cpus but a small screen! It may even help with battery life. What happened to the idea that that sale of products would be completely custom? Dell does it to some degree. Apple get with it.
3. Battery life is more important than anything else. If the battery dies, the computer is useless. I need to get through a 2 hour lecture while taking notes! Business people go on site, have meetings all day, etc. IT people might need to haul their laptop around server rooms, meetings, lunch, etc. Don't people at HP, IBM, and apple use laptops at work? Figure it out people!
Finally, I'd like to say that it appears video cards are the largest culpret now. Every review i've read that includes power consumption makes comments about the heat and power requirements of ati/nvidia hardware. I'd like to see ATI (amd) and nvidia go through the intel fast, low power, low heat transition. I mean they want us to run two of these things concurrently now. Could we at least get something energy efficient. The progress intel has made is useless if we put in a new ATI card.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
With a christmas bonus in my pocket, I walked into Sefridges jewellery department, tried on the watch I wanted (still wearing it) as the salesmans pitch started;
Salesman: Now this watch is made from titanium, are you aware of the properties of titanium
Me: Yes, very light and very strong, this its why its used in the aerospace industries
Salesman: Thats correct, and its also a self healing metal
Me: Excuse me?
Salesman: thats correct, if you scratch titanium, it will heal the scratch like your body will with a scar
Me:
Salesman: I know, amazing stuff
Me: sooooo, you wouldnt mind if I took a serrated knife to this breitling then
Salesman:
Me: I think someones been telling lies to you, but I am going to buy this watch anyway.
Not a great story, but some people areally are gullable.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
The main thing missing from the Laptop market is Modularity. He addresses this slightly by showing a model that has a detachable keyboard. What is really needed are inter-operable components that can be mixed and matched to fit both budget and requirements. For example, allowing users to choose screen size from several different screens, and let them all attach to the same connector on the motherboard. Allow different motherboard configurations. Allow for different sized keyboards, some with or without number pads, and some with or withough touch pads.
This is clearly the next step, but Laptop creators aren't getting the hint that desktop creators learned a long time ago. Don't put it all in one machine unless that's the low end model. Let us choose which pieces we want for our laptop and have them work together seamlessly.
Personally I want:
Full sized keyboard
15 inch screen
No touchpad
No battery
Wireless mouse
2-3 GHZ processor
3 gigs RAM
Detachable 10 gig drives
What do you want in your laptop?
I want that, but I also don't want to carry a separate computing device and mobile phone.
So I bought a Nokia E70. I need to upgrade the mini-SD card to a decent capacity, and I need to find/write a decent shell for it, but I can already use Putty over wifi and it's quite fantastic.
The keyboard isn't touch-type, but it is two-finger-touch-type, which is adequate, and I don't even notice the device in my pocket.
Anything larger would need specifically carrying - I'd need a bag or a coat (with large pocket) or spare hand. This doesn't.
There's also the entirely different matter of stiffness (rigidity) and its relationship to mass. Steel, Aluminum, and Titanium are all plenty strong for building a laptop, but because their densities are dramatically different, a given mass of each translates to different thicknesses, which becomes the dominating factor in determining the plate's stiffness.
The stiffness of a plate is approximately proportional to the cube of the plate's thickness multiplied by the material-specific flexural modulus. Most steel alloys have a flexural modulus of 205GPa, while cheap construction-grade Aluminum (alloy 6063, temper grade 6) has a modulus of only 69GPa. So a given thickness of steel is stiffer than the same thickness of aluminum, but steel is three times more dense than aluminum. This means that for the same mass budget, you can get an aluminum plate three times as thick. The cube of this ratio of thickness is 27, which when multiplied by the aluminum's modulus gives you an overall stiffness nine times greater than that of steel. This higher rigidity is highly desirable in products such as laptops, which you do not want to have flexing under the user's hands, or in the owner's backpack. The casing could have plenty of strength (ie, not break), but fail to protect the internal components from damage due to insufficient rigidity.
An annealed high-strength titanium alloy (Titanium Ti-8Al-1Mo-1V) is only 55% as dense as most steels, is as strong and resilient as hardened steel (about 50% stronger than mild steels like the kind your car and laptop are made from), and has a modulus of 121GPa, betwixt that of steel and aluminum 6063-t6. So for a given mass budget, a plate of this titanium alloy would be about 1.8 times thicker, and 3.4 times more rigid, than a steel plate, but only 0.38 times as rigid as the aluminum 6063-t6 plate.
I am thinking the main draw of titanium for laptops is probably scratch resistance (some titanium alloys are much more scratch-resistant than both steel and aluminum), which I guess would be a big draw for some customers. Personally I'd rather want the tougher aluminum laptop. (Better heat dissipation too, and probably somewhat cheaper, though the material costs of a laptop are a small fraction of its actual cost.) It's not like the aluminum laptop would be that much bulkier. 1.5mm steel is more than enough strength for such a product (your car's body is probably made from 1.5mm steel), and a triple thickness of this of aluminum would be only 4.5mm -- about 1/6th of an inch. I could totally live with that.
-- TTK