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SlideN'Joy Extender Adds Up To Two More Screens For a Multi-Monitor Laptop

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-the-better-to-see-it-with dept.

MojoKid writes: Nothing beats the portability of a notebook when it comes to getting work done while on-the-go, but with that portability comes a number of caveats like a smaller keyboard and being forced to use a touchpad if you don't want to lug around a portable mouse. Then there's also the limitation of a single display, for those who need more screen real estate for certain tasks. Enter Sliden'Joy, a Kickstarter project that's set to launch on July 6. There's not a lot of technical detail given about it so far, but the basics are easy to understand. Sliden'Joy effectively hooks onto your notebook to allow you to extend one or two screens out of either side, giving you an effective dual or triple monitor setup. Two models of Sliden'Joy are going to be produced, offering either 1 or 2 displays, and sizes of 13, 15, and 17-inch are all going to be supported. There's no word on pledge levels quite yet, but the ultimate goal is to reach 300,000€ ($~332,000 USD) in 30 days.

80 comments

  1. touchpad by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

    ... being forced to use a touchpad if you don't want to lug around a portable mouse.

    If you used a laptop with a quality touchpad, you might have the opposite view. I will never prefer a mouse over my laptop's touchpad, with the singular exception of games, which I don't play anymore, anyway.

    1. Re:touchpad by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I'm on a Macbook right now and the touchpad sucks. For example, in the text I'm writing, if I want to select a range of it it takes me around five more seconds to pinpoint the location I need with a touchpad as opposed to a mouse. Then to make the selection I must lift my finger off the pad which makes things take even longer. Multiply this by the 100+ times in a day I need to do this and it gets frustrating.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:touchpad by itsdapead · · Score: 1

      For example, in the text I'm writing, if I want to select a range of it it takes me around five more seconds to pinpoint the location I need with a touchpad as opposed to a mouse.

      Have you tried enabling the "three finger drag" operation? I found it made a great difference to the usability of a trackpad.

      I still prefer a mouse when working at a desk - but since Apple introduced the large, glass trackpads I've felt no need to carry around a mouse for use 'on the road'.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    3. Re:touchpad by Megane · · Score: 1

      Turn off all the multi-touch crap except two-finger scroll. "Tap to click" on a touchpad is one of the stupidest things ever invented. And the touchpads on Apple stuff have always been light years ahead of the old Alps touchpads with the "edge scroll". Whenever I have to use an old Dell from the 200x era it drives me nuts. Doubly so if the drivers aren't installed, because PS/2 emulation mode has tap-to-click enabled.

      And if you want a mouse so bad, GET ONE. They're like ten bucks. No laptop has a built in mouse, the closest was the old PowerBooks with trackballs. I still don't see how it's faster to take you hands off the damn keyboard to mouse around, but hey, nobody is stopping you.

      And you do have a thumb, right? The thumb is for clicking, the index finger for pointing. Maybe you're just doing it wrong?

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    4. Re:touchpad by Megol · · Score: 1

      Perhaps you should try Windows? Not that the standard drivers are any better but with some configuration the vendor drivers are pretty damn good. With some training a touchpad is much faster for normal use than having to move one hand to a mouse, it will not be as quick as using a touchstick but those are only available for a very limited number of vendors/models. :(

      As currently setup I use single tap to click, double tap to start selecting text and/or drag an object, two finger tap for right click and two finger drag for scrolling. Except for playing FPS this is much smoother and faster than using a mouse.

    5. Re:touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aren't they ALL synaptics touch pads now?

    6. Re:touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are you using the mouse to select text in a document that you are editing? Why not use the shift and arrow keys? Is your cursor hidden or something?

    7. Re:touchpad by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I don't like 'drag lock' functions because then that makes more steps. You have to three finger click, and then drag, and then three finger click. Too many actions for one operation. With a mouse it is basically one action, hold button and move mouse.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    8. Re:touchpad by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I usually use an external mouse with an external keyboard. When I am using a touchpad there is a reason why I can't use either.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    9. Re:touchpad by macs4all · · Score: 1

      I'm on a Macbook right now and the touchpad sucks.

      Then you just plain don't like touchpads; because Apple is nearly universally-recognized as having the best Trackpad, by a very large margin.

      So, you can do one of two things:

      1. Get an external mouse. Done.

      2. Use the most-excellent Keyboard Shortcuts built into OS X (and then you don't even have to remove your fingers from the keyboard!). Look at this list, and this list. If you can't find sufficient abilities in those two lists, you are truly unique in your text-manipulation requirements.

    10. Re:touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Touchpads suck. However, TFS is wrong: laptops do not force you to use them. If you buy a quality laptop, you'll get a pointing stick ("TrackPoint") which you can use instead of the touchpad.

    11. Re:touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      macs4all wrote:

      Yeah, you're not biased, not at all. :P

    12. Re: touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My old laptop used to have an excellent touchpad; it wasn't excessively large meaning that my fingers didn't have to travel too far; it was slightly recessed meaning that I could easily locate it and feel the bounds by touch and it had tactile physical buttons that could also be located by touch. Then the hipsters for hold of it. My newest laptop has a large touchpad that is disguised as part of the palm rest and you have to press down the corners to click. The trouble is, you can't feel where the corners are. It's a bloody nightmare. The bastards also nicked my HOME and END keys and added a reflective coating to the screen. Progress I suppose.

    13. Re: touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No laptop had a built in mouse you say??

      Look up the old HP omnibook.

      They had these little pop out plastic tethered mouse. It worked by tracking the movement of the plastic arm, so you could use the mouse while it free floated beside the laptop.

      I have NEVER seen anything like it.

      This was a laptop from 1998 or so, when color and active tft was an expensive upgrade.

    14. Re:touchpad by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      The thing with all these extra swipes is, they can never take the place of hot keys on the keyboard. Since my hands are usually on the keyboard and not the touchpad, even if they make a few of the most used ones useful, it is always going to be more convenient to use a hotkey on the keyboard.

      For media consumption browsing, etc I can concede that you can go for a long time without ever touching the keyboard. Then I suppose if there are swipes that would replace what you would otherwise need to go to the keyboard for then it would be a good thing. But almost everything I do on a system involves typing. The hotkeys I use most are alt-Q for a dropdown terminal (after which I will type commands) and alt-space for a dropdown command line (after which I must enter a search string). Now I understand this might not go for all people. For me, I've given it the college try. I've gone through all the swipes in the settings, none really help me make my work more efficient.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    15. Re:touchpad by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I have to use tap to click. The physical click wore out on my macbook touchpad a long time ago. I've read that there is a way to readjust it but I haven't had time to open the laptop up to do that.

      As a person who generally doesn't like macs I can't resist noting that I've never had any other laptop with a touchpad or touchpoint button that wore out but I won't go down that road. At least I didn't pay for the mac.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    16. Re:touchpad by Megol · · Score: 1

      Well I compare using the touchpad to using the mouse and then (for me, for this computer with my configuration) the touchpad is much faster for everything except gaming. A touchstick/eraser mouse is of course much faster as one doesn't have to move a hand from the typing position but have other limitations (right/middle click requires moving a hand, left click does too unless one enables tapping the stick, either positioning speed or accuracy is limited even with a tweaked configuration and good acceleration settings).

    17. Re:touchpad by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      "Tap to click" on a touchpad is one of the stupidest things ever invented.

      I think it's really well designed, and excellent at achieving it's purpose.

      It's purpose is, of course, to really fuck up any users who are not touch typists intent on RSI, and any users who are touch typists by forcing them to take their hands off the keyboard.

      Me? I carry a mouse. For the work's laptop. And a mouse for the client's laptop. And a good, left-handed mouse for my laptop stays in my locker when I'm not on the boat. And there's a spare mouse in the locker too. Beats using a touch pad. Using a clit-stick beats using a touch pad. Using a keyboard accelerator beats using any of the above, but most applications seem to be working hard to make that impossible these days.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    18. Re:touchpad by Ottibus · · Score: 1

      I don't like 'drag lock' functions because then that makes more steps. You have to three finger click, and then drag, and then three finger click. Too many actions for one operation. With a mouse it is basically one action, hold button and move mouse.

      With the Mac trackpad it is one action: Press with three fingers and drag.

      Clicking with three fingers gives the Dictionary and Thesaurus :)

    19. Re:touchpad by Megane · · Score: 1

      I had three different "Aluminum" case PowerBooks/MacBookPros. (That case frame was crap, the DVD slot would go out of alignment, my skin oils made pits in the surface, and the latch didn't work very well.) The last one had the battery go bad at an early age.

      I was calling Apple tech support about my click not working, and "oh by the way, my battery isn't holding a charge". I was asked the number of charge cycles and "Okay, we'll send you a replacement."

      A few days later by the time it arrived, I realized that the battery was bulging. And that's why the trackpad click wasn't working.

      Also, my cousin has a unibody 15" where the trackpad looks shattered, but it still works fine.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  2. Adverts by Dave+Whiteside · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is this just a pre-hype for a kickstarter to get people to rush on day one ?
    come on slashdot this is not news yet ...

    or am I getting old

    --
    who where what when now?
    1. Re: Adverts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you're old, how about contributing to the Shenmue 3 kickstarter...

      https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3

    2. Re:Adverts by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      To be honnest I just use a second monitor at th3e destination I'm using my craptop at. This looks like it will add a lot of bulk and weight. Thanks

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    3. Re:Adverts by houghi · · Score: 1

      or am I getting old

      Depends on whether I can stay on your lawn or not.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    4. Re:Adverts by nmb3000 · · Score: 1

      Is this just a pre-hype for a kickstarter to get people to rush on day one ?
      come on slashdot this is not news yet ...

      or am I getting old

      Well, if it helps, that shitty Hot Hardware ad-farm doesn't even link to the Kickstarter page. The only links in the article are "tags" to more crap on their site. I was mildly curious about how it attaches to the laptop and where power comes from, but oh well.

      It's articles have been posted a few times to Slashdot in the last couple of weeks and every time there's never a link to the real content. The site is useless garbage.

      --
      "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
      /)
  3. USB 3.0? by itamihn · · Score: 2

    No thanks, I prefer to have less latency. Also, no word on resolution, but unless it uses HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort, it's not going to be HiDPI. Who would want a non-HiDPI, 30Hz screen these days?

    1. Re:USB 3.0? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It looks like USB 3, and "Full HD" most places using that use at least 1920x1080, doesn't mean they won't pull a TV and use the 720p resolution.

    2. Re:USB 3.0? by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      No thanks, I prefer to have less latency. Also, no word on resolution, but unless it uses HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort, it's not going to be HiDPI. Who would want a non-HiDPI, 30Hz screen these days?

      You certainly wouldn't use it for gaming or watching videos, but for having a couple of documents open simultaneously? It's just fine. I used to use a 64MB USB GPU that would stutter horribly if there was any video frame within the monitor, but worked perfectly for displaying Excel or Word documents.

    3. Re:USB 3.0? by n7ytd · · Score: 1

      No thanks, I prefer to have less latency. Also, no word on resolution, but unless it uses HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort, it's not going to be HiDPI. Who would want a non-HiDPI, 30Hz screen these days?

      Maybe I'm up in the night about this, but USB seems to be the least-common denominator on a laptop. If this devices requires HDMI or DP, then a portion of the target audience would be cut right out.

  4. For Mac owners with iPads, try one of these by mccalli · · Score: 2

    There are some useful apps to turn an iPad into a second monitor if you have a Mac - try Air Display or Duet Display.

    They don't have hooking on aspect of the system in the article, but are still nice additions.

    1. Re:For Mac owners with iPads, try one of these by Noryungi · · Score: 1

      I have tried Air Display, between a MacBook Air and a Nexus 7, and it works. Kind of.

      Very very laggy display, since everything goes through wifi, Mac OS seems very confused about the resolution of the Nexus 7 (can't blame it) and strange skewing of the display are some of the problems I enconutered.

      Past the novelty aspect of the software, I just gave up as the Nexus 7 display was simply too small to be usable. Air Display went into the trash on both devices, which is too bad, since it was a pretty good idea.

      --
      The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
    2. Re:For Mac owners with iPads, try one of these by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I use Duet display and am very happy with how well it performs. By foregoing wireless connectivity in favor of using the lightning connector they have pretty much eliminated the lag that plagues wireless solutions. It's angreat way to get a second screen when traveling.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  5. Exactly how many by fred911 · · Score: 0

    Blowjobs does it take to get my Kickstarter linked as news?

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    1. Re:Exactly how many by dave420 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Just ask MojoKid - he is apparently the "Editor In Chief At HotHardware.com", according to his profile here. He regularly posts links to his articles, and they're usually lacking in some way or another, hence the need to spam Slashdot with them. A link to the actual company's site would be better, which can be found here.

    2. Re:Exactly how many by TheCarp · · Score: 1

      Well, this is slashdot, so you should take a page from this product's playbook and name it so it sounds like an accessory for a male sex toy.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
  6. Weight and balance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Thinking about the weight of this thing, the second picture in the article is more accurate. The one that looks like the screens are flat on the desk and keyboard in the air. Not quite ergonomic though.

  7. High Priced Meh. by Lumpy · · Score: 1

    Sorry but these are going to be USB 3.0 monitors, so they will not be 1920X1080 or higher and not impressive. They need to be displayport to leverage 2 displays at full high resolution. THEN be a high quality enough panel to not have defects.

    I'll stick with the ASUS usb panel I carry with my laptop for when I actually need an extra screen. It's very low res (1366X768) but it's useful for having a PDF up or other very low framerate app up while I am at a customers site.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:High Priced Meh. by swb · · Score: 1

      That's a tad harsh. I have a 1680x1050 display connected as a third display via a USB-3 adapter and while I didn't expect much, it's worked pretty well for sysadmin tasks. I even occasionally throw full-screen Netflix/HBO/Amazon video on it without any serious problems.

      I think the real benefit here isn't gee-whiz cutting edge display technology as much as it is a set of display(s) that are fairly seamless to carry around and use with a laptop to give you a triple head display.

      It would be nicer, sure, to have displayport chaining and super high resolution display support but even without that you might get a more useful display resolution than 1366x768 and a pretty seamless mounting and portability setup than existing solutions.

      And if they manage to use USB3.1 10 gig, it might lessen any lag effects, although it might be argued that displayport would be the more widely available interface.

    2. Re: High Priced Meh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use a 1920 display at work as my daily driver connected to my laptop.
      usb3,
      Works great on Windows.

      Works really god awfully bad in Mac os.
      there is something about the way display link hooks macos that reduces it to shit.

      In Windows I could play Diablo 3 pretty well on it. Not flawless, but I'd honestly chalk most of that up to the laptop

  8. Eesh, no link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No link to the Kickstarter in the summary, and no link to the Kickstarter in the hothardware link (which has nothing beyond what's in the summary anyway).

    Fuck off and come back when there's something to click on.

  9. iPad by cerberusss · · Score: 1

    If you just need one extra screen, you could use an iPad: http://www.zdnet.com/article/d...
    Of course, it looks to be Windows/Mac only and limited to one iPad, but they say they're actively working on it.

    --
    8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    1. Re:iPad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you just need one extra screen, you could use an iPad: http://www.zdnet.com/article/d...
      Of course, it looks to be Windows/Mac only and limited to one iPad, but they say they're actively working on it.

      I've considered doing something like this. It would be simple in linux to set up a vnc server on a virtual monitor and then just use a vnc client on the ipad to display the screen. It could then be wireless. Might not work great for videos on the "second monitor" but would work great for the type of things that I typically use my second monitor for.

  10. Sliden'Joy? by sycodon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Really? Sliden'Joy?

    Their first action should be hire a marketing guy who will probably have them change the name lest it be automatically banned by various internet filters as a sex toy.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Sliden'Joy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Most computer monitors are sex toys.

    2. Re: Sliden'Joy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you purchase now for the low low price of $9.99, we include free lubricant!

      Act fast we only have limited supplies!!!

    3. Re:Sliden'Joy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well they were going to call it the "Sit and spin" so this is an improvement...

    4. Re:Sliden'Joy? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Really? Sliden'Joy?

      Their first action should be hire a marketing guy who will probably have them change the name lest it be automatically banned by various internet filters as a sex toy.

      That would probably improve sales over the number that I expect this to sell. I will check the kickstarter when it pops but, frankly, I expect to be underwhelmed and not invest in it.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  11. Really? by ledow · · Score: 2

    Every laptop I've ever had died from hinge-strain breaking the hinges.

    To the point that I'm always ultra-careful opening and shutting any laptop, but it still happens.

    I'm quite impressed that the Samsung I use at the moment isn't showing a single crack yet, but I imagine it won't be long.

    This just seems like the worst of bad ideas possible. And it hinges on the side? God, that's going to put tremendous strain on parts of the screen that were never designed to hold weight.

    Even if it's not just a con, there's no way that's a practical product unless the original laptop is designed for that extra weight and strain. And, I'm incredibly suspicious of the price, and also incredibly suspicious of quite how you're going to get that to work with any laptop.

    1. Re:Really? by Noryungi · · Score: 1

      Every laptop I've ever had died from hinge-strain breaking the hinges.

      This just seems like the worst of bad ideas possible. And it hinges on the side? God, that's going to put tremendous strain on parts of the screen that were never designed to hold weight.

      Even if it's not just a con, there's no way that's a practical product unless the original laptop is designed for that extra weight and strain.

      Yup, I am with you on this one. I am a lot more interested in this option, but I haven't got the cash (or desk space at home) to try it right now.

      --
      The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
    2. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Matrox solution works poorly. Do not buy it.

    3. Re:Really? by tehcyder · · Score: 3, Funny
      Frankly, I'm surprised that the whole thing isn't going to be 3D printed. .

      Who wouldn't want to be able to download a spare screen from the internet on demand?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    4. Re:Really? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      When I see comments like this I always wonder who the source is... No mention of how you used it, when you used it, what the failings were, and you are an AC. You may be right but your comment does not carry a lot of weight.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  12. caveats my arse by edittard · · Score: 1

    Caveat means a warning. The word you're looking for is tradeoffs.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  13. Already done... by Pete+(big-pete) · · Score: 4, Informative

    I was a backer of this project that was pretty much the same:
    Packed Pixels

    Nice screen at 2048 x 1536, but not yet delivered. They just about hit their funding goal of £60,000 on 29th November 2014, and they're now taking pre-orders. It would probably be better to just pre-order one of these than back a whole new Kickstarter - at least these are close to production.

    -- Pete.

    --
    Monochrome - Probably the UK's largest internet BBS
    1. Re:Already done... by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      I have to wonder about how many laptop screens were designed to have additional weight hanging from their sides.

  14. Kickstarter link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I saw the project, I may be interested enough to buy but I'm have no interest in your fucking website and reciprocal tag links!

    Only SEO morons want to keep you locked up in their own site.

  15. NEWS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Give me money for thing that may never exist!

    If you use your credit card it's money you don't even have!

  16. Looks clumsy by Paul+Carver · · Score: 1

    I have docking stations at home and work so I get multiple large screens and trackballs for my laptop, but yesterday I received the AOC USB powered monitor that's been available for a while. I actually ordered the $90 older model. It's big and bulky (although not very heavy at all) but I plan to take it with me on the occasions when I'm expecting to be working in a non typical place AND needing extra space. I don't think I'd want to lug this slide enjoy thing all over the place.

    It may have a few specialized use cases, but in general you'd be better off if you have any way to get good quality display port monitors at your normal work places.

  17. You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by damn_registrars · · Score: 2

    Indeed, touchpads suck - tremendously. Even the best of them have unintended problems. But you don't have to live in a touchpad-or-mouse world. ThinkPads still have trackpoint, and there are a few business-class laptops from other vendors (Dell and HP, I believe) that also have them available.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have had several of those Dell Latitude business class notebooks (D630/800/820/83), and an HP 12.5" Elitebook. They have both trackpoint and touchpad, and that is maddening for me as when I reach for the trackpoint, I almost always "touch" the touchpad, and randomize the cursor placement, and have to back up, and recover (if I notice in time, otherwise I start clobbering existing text).
      I recently got a Thinkpad Tablet 2 standalone bluetooth keyboard with only an optical Trackpoint, and love it. The lack of touchpad means more space for bigger keys, and those "missing" keys such as Home/End/PgUp/PgDn, and the right Ctrl key. It makes my keyboarding so much easier, more accurate, and thus it is far less frustrating.

      As for an extra travel monitor, I got a cool "kit" over eBay from a Chinese fabricator that let me turn my Dell D800 15.6" 1920x1200 screen into a VGA/DVI monitor. The kit is a bare circuit board with buttons for power and adjustments, and wiring harness to connect to the internal monitor connectors - cobby as Hell, but a bit of taping and other such Gerry-rigging has made it into a very useful and compact auxiliary travel display. That rigging included gutting the D800 so the exposed circuit board nestles down where the mobo was. To put it in use, I just turn the screen housing around so it has the lower part to the back like those newer notebooks in presentation mode, and I can lift the screen housing out of its hinge sockets to turn it around and close the unit for travel looking much like the original notebook when closed. You have to supply your own 2 amp power supply and video cables, but for just under $40 for the kit, and a free castoff D800 (from my brother-in-law), it is hard to beat for a portable add-on display.

      YMMV

    2. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Touchpoint? You mean the nub thing in the middle of the keyboard? That interface is terrible for a pointing device.

      It does seem to work well enough for other purposes for about half of the earth's population, though.

    3. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Touchpoint? You mean the nub thing in the middle of the keyboard?

      also known colloquially as the "clit stick".

      It does seem to work well enough for other purposes for about half of the earth's population, though.

      now you're getting it :-)

    4. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have had several of those Dell Latitude business class notebooks (D630/800/820/83), and an HP 12.5" Elitebook. They have both trackpoint and touchpad, and that is maddening for me as when I reach for the trackpoint, I almost always "touch" the touchpad, and randomize the cursor placement, and have to back up, and recover (if I notice in time, otherwise I start clobbering existing text).

      That's easy to fix: disable the touchpad. You should be able to do it in the system settings somewhere.

      Personally, I don't have this problem, the problem I have is accidentally "tapping" the touchpad (my palm registers as a tap, which is the same as a mouse click), which causes all kinds of problems. Personally, I think tapping is the stupidest thing about touchpads, especially since there's physical buttons there anyway (on any decent laptop that is). But this is easily fixed by going to the touchpad settings and disabling it. The problem is if I use someone else's laptop.

      The only thing I like about my touchpad is using it for scrolling. It's pretty handy for that.

    5. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Indeed, touchpads suck

      But Keyboard Clits suck much more.

    6. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      I have never had a problem with my trackpoint impeding my productivity. I have frequently found myself cursing that touchpads on other peoples' laptops. The Trackpoint allows me to move my cursor exactly as far as I want, without taking my fingers off the keyboard. No touchpad has ever been able to legitimately make that claim.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    7. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by macs4all · · Score: 1

      without taking my fingers off the keyboard.

      And I haven't been able to fly on any planet with a gravity.

      If you put a caveat like "without taking my fingers off the keyboard", of course you can claim "victory". But, with a Keyboard Clit, you still have to take at least one hand out of the "typing position" to use the Clit; so it is just as "disruptive" to touch-typing as a Trackpad.

    8. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      still have to take at least one hand out of the "typing position" to use the Clit;

      No. I have to take one finger out of typing position. And being as the QWERTY keyboard only puts a few keys within reach of my index fingers - and not all of the most used ones - it is a far lesser drawback than taking my whole hand away to use the touchpad with decent accuracy.

      But go ahead and tell us how awesome your touchpad is. I can't force you to acknowledge reality if you choose otherwise.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    9. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by macs4all · · Score: 1

      I can't force you to acknowledge the undeniable correctness of my opinion if you choose otherwise.

      FTFY.

    10. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      What I stated was factual; it is a fact that a user does not need to remove their entire hand from typing to use the trackpoint. That is part of the reason why it was designed that way. You can hate the trackpoint as much as you want for whatever reasons you chose, but when you lie about it you just look ridiculous. Why would you move your entire hand to use something that is designed to be manipulated with one finger? You couldn't use your entire hand on it even if you wanted to.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    11. Re:You do'n't have to suffer with the touchpad by WuphonsReach · · Score: 1

      I've used a lot of keyboard nubbies over the years. The first one (c1995), the button was like a joystick and down by the spacebar. That one sucked. The next units were Toshiba Tecra series laptops with the nubby between the g/h/b keys. For the last 8 years, I've only used Thinkpad T series laptops. Both the Tecra and Thinkpad nubbies were quite good for the purpose.

      One trick with pointer nubbies is that you really need to turn up the mouse pointer movement sensitivity to maximum. You'll overshoot on movement for the first week, but then your index finger will thank you because you need less effort to hit a target. Again, the purpose of the nubby is not to replace the mouse, but to let you do 90% of point-and-click operations (clicking buttons, positioning the cursor, basic drag-n-drop) without taking your hands off the home row.

      If you're not a touch-typist, you won't see the benefit of a pointer nubby. If you do a *lot* of copy/paste or complex mouse operations, then a regular external mouse is better.

      My current work unit is a Thinkpad T540p -- on that one, I dislike it, not because of the nubby, but because there are no physical left/middle/right mouse buttons. They got subsumed into the touchpad click surface. Fortunately, for the T450 and T550 series, they have brought back the physical button below the spacebar.

      --
      Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
  18. Macbook Pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With HDMI + dual mini display port, you can hook it to 3 external monitors out of the box...

  19. Bulky by GWBasic · · Score: 1

    I fear that something like this is too bulky to be practical. Besides, when I need multiple monitors, I'm at a desk.

    Perhaps a better option would be a 19 or 21-inch laptop; or VR glasses?

    --
    No, I will not work for your startup
  20. Will help in the war against the machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll be able to monitor more of the matrix.

    1. Re:Will help in the war against the machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll be able to monitor more of the matrix.

      All I see now is blonde, brunette, redhead...

  21. History repeats itself... by TheBrez · · Score: 1
    So they're trying to reproduce what IBM did 10 years ago on the first ThinkPad W series laptops?

    http://www-01.ibm.com/common/s...

    I remember looking at these when they first came out and thinking it would be useful for sysadmins/coders who work in odd areas, but the form factor is pretty much useless on a plane/train, inside a rack, or anywhere else you don't have a full desk to set it on. And the fact that it was an 8.5lb laptop in the days of their competition getting down into the 5-6lb class. Coupled with the high (even for IBM) pricetag, it didn't do so well.

    1. Re:History repeats itself... by Megol · · Score: 1

      So they're trying to reproduce what IBM did 10 years ago on the first ThinkPad W series laptops?

      http://www-01.ibm.com/common/s...

      Yes but with several significant differences.

      I remember looking at these when they first came out and thinking it would be useful for sysadmins/coders who work in odd areas, but the form factor is pretty much useless on a plane/train, inside a rack, or anywhere else you don't have a full desk to set it on. And the fact that it was an 8.5lb laptop in the days of their competition getting down into the 5-6lb class. Coupled with the high (even for IBM) pricetag, it didn't do so well.

      Given the configuration it wasn't designed to be either light or affordable: high-end Intel processor, 17" screen + 10" screen, high-end Quadro graphics, color calibrator integrated in the base, Wacom digitizer in the palmrest and a lot more. A obvious desktop replacement machine for people that need to design stuff on the go - a small niche.

  22. No thanks, I'll wait for Prof. Whoopee's version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://youtu.be/D3OSTflMO80?t...

    .

  23. Adding how much weight? by Fencepost · · Score: 1

    "Those are some nice hinges there. Be a shame if something happened to them."

    Portable external monitors have been around for some time, with USB power and connections though some may have HDMI or VGA inputs available. They're not terribly expensive, the cheapest 1920x1080 I saw on a quick look is under $160 for a 15.6" USB-powered one from ASUS but there are other manufacturers. 720P ones are available for under $100.

    If you have an appropriate tablet, there's also some software that will let you use an Android or (I think) iOS device as an added monitor either via WiFi or USB connection. My easiest and cheapest external monitor would be an old Barnes & Noble Nook HD+ with CyanogenMod on it - 1920x1200 on a 9" screen connected via USB, and I suppose I could try to fabricate a mount for my laptop to hold it...

    --
    fencepost
    just a little off
  24. Matrox dual/triplehead? by Dr+Herbert+West · · Score: 1

    No one here has used these? http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/displayport/

    They need power and they're semi bulky (about the size of two decks of cards) but there's a VGA and HDMI version, they have no lag, they're cross platform.Lots of configuration and resolution options as well-- especially helpful if you have differently sized monitors.

    Video techs and staging crews use them for video presentations or video installations. And the price point is better.