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InFocus's New Kangaroo: a Screenless $99 Windows 10 Portable PC (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader writes: InFocus today debuted the Kangaroo, a $99 Windows 10 portable PC that "goes anywhere and works with any screen." The term "mobile desktop" may seem like an oxymoron, but that really is the best description: Picture your typical desktop PC tower shrunk down to the size of a phablet sans screen; just like any desktop, you'll still need to connect a mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
People keep doing this sort of thing. IBM had Metacard, there was Oqo, and wasn't there a Palm device which was viewed as mostly a media storage device?
Why not go ahead and add a touch screen (and a stylus) so that one can use it w/o needing to cable up?
I use a Toshiba Encore 2 Write 10 as my main system in pretty much this way, connecting when I don't wish to use the touch screen / stylus to a full-size keyboard and monitor (fortunately, Toshiba provided an adapter for the single USB port which affords two connections, one for charging, one for devices).
The functionality I'd really like to see is this sort of thing done as an iPhone / iPod Touch sized unit ---- Apple could take their laptop, make the trackpad a removable unit which was exactly the size of an iPhone/iPod Touch, and one could replace the trackpad w/ the portable device which would then function as a customizable trackpad and which would load the user directory and backup the portable device.
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
My parents have a tiny little box like this. Why? Because they are getting old and won't be looking at a 10" screen and fiddle with microscopic virtual buttons or cramped keyboards 2mm deep. Huge monitor, full size keyboard and mouse but in terms of computing power their needs are practically non-existant. Sure it could be a laptop, but the lid would be closed 99.9% of the time so why bother.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Did you notice this is from Infocus? They are in the business of selling projectors, I think this is being viewed as a portable PowerPoint machine.
Ken
Anyone that wants a small computer to tuck in their projector bag for sales presentations.
I can already do this with my phone! The only thing needed in the bag is the adapter.
Anyone that wants to setup a kiosk.
RPi is cheaper and can do more.
Anyone that wants to run Windows apps 'on' their iPad (includes software for iPad to act as keyboard/screen for this wifi/Bluetooth enabled computer).
What windows apps would you want or need to run on your iPad that you couldn't get access to via something like CloudOn? What Windows apps would be needed to view or edit files on an iPad? Makes no sense to anyone that actually owns and uses an iPad. There are apps for that stuff already, way cheaper than a $99 POS.
Anyone that wants to embrace the idea of 'hot desks' in their office without buying scads of laptops.
Yeah, because that has worked out so well for the people that have already embraced that virtual office BS. It works for certain business units in certain circumstances. Besides, if you're doing "hot desks" then you're also likely to be doing a BYOD policy so you wouldn't be buying laptops for people anyway, if you're using the ultra lean model of office space usage.
Anyone that wants to put an inexpensive presentation system in a conference room (just add Bluetooth keyboard/mouse and connect to large flat panel/projector).
Again, RPi can do that, too. For less. Besides, if you're going to have heavy hitters in your conference room, a real machine is going to be needed anyway to support the graphics, memory and storage needs, or the presenter will have their own machine to plug in (which is the most frequent case in reality) so a machine in the room is superfluous.
This thing has no market except for gadget hoarders and really poor people that cannot afford a smartphone. It's doomed.
Or, as I prefer, no OS at all? I don't want (or need) you to put an OS on my box. I can, and will, do that on my own. In fact, it's the first thing I do. If I want BSD then I'll put it on there. If I want Linux, I'll put that on there. If I want Windows, well... Let's not go that far, but you get the idea. I'm happy, capable, and willing to accept any risks and do my own software support, thanks. I don't need an OS installed, I can read the help files if needed. I don't need to have anything pre-configured, thanks, I'd prefer to customize it myself (and probably will) so you're not really saving me any time. I don't want "just works" out of the box. I want what I want to "just work" when I'm done with it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."