The Subnotebook - Page 3

Ceroc Addict · #17 April 1st, 2005, 06:36 AM

I live in Australia - beaches everywhere. Trust me, you're never going to use a PB on the beach, because:

Sand and direct sunlight
Beautiful girls in bikinis will point at you and laugh
Somebody will feel compelled to roll you and steal your PB
You can't go into the water, because the less violent thieves will just be biding their time to steal your PB

Kap

P.S. Also, trying to sit on the ground at all and use a laptop isn't the most comfortable thing in the world. Better to stick to using your PB seated in cafes with wireless hotspots.

**fryke** · #18 April 1st, 2005, 09:08 AM

Okay, okay.

... You _may_ use your BT mouses with my vision of a subnotebook.

... I love to write in Cafés, btw., and there, too, I think a mouse would only get in my way. So I still prefer a smaller trackpad...

TangentIdea · #19 April 11th, 2005, 01:02 PM

My perfect "subnotebook" would be like the PADD's on Star Trek. Make it an all-in-one device; minimal moving parts. No flip-open screen. Just a tablet. Make the screen touch-sensitive, and create a program like Key Caps that allows the user to type directly on the screen, or write notes to text or images using any object, not just a stylus. It would be almost entirely encapsulated in polycarbonate, so to clean it all the user would have to do is wipe it off. It would have no additional ports at all; it would come standard with BlueTooth and Airport. Perhaps it could involve a wireless "dock" (similar to AirPort Express) to interface with Ethernet, USB, FireWire, and video output devices if necessary. A microphone and videocamera would be embedded in the device, for use with speech recognition and iChat. So, if you can't find your iPad, just call for it, and it'll beep so you can find it. Perhaps it could also contain a GPS unit, so it can function as your navigator in the car. Operation would be completely hands-free; it would read directions to you as you asked for them, or as it realized where you were.

Perhaps a built-in emergency transporter and replicator could be included. I'm sure those would come in handy. Need a cup of coffee? Just ask...

**fryke** · #20 April 14th, 2005, 01:42 PM

Hmm... I was talking 2005/2006, not 2020-2250.

chornbe · #21 April 14th, 2005, 02:23 PM

PADD idea with text-to-speech and speech-to-text is a good idea. In short - completely do-able today. All the technology is in place. The target $500 might be hard to do, tho'

Lt Major Burns · #22 April 14th, 2005, 02:45 PM

there's a lovelly little vaio at the moment, i mentioned before - 10" screen - very dinky. reduced size keyboard, but really not by much at all. still very functional. better screen res than a 15"pBook. overall - you could still make it smaller - remove the optical drive, make the screen smaller, but with the same ppi, say 1024x700. my g5 tower isnt very portable

. i could be tampted, if it was about £800

**fryke** · #23 April 15th, 2005, 09:05 AM

The problem with those is that they're running Windows XP Pro. And while you _can_ install linux on them, I hear that drivers for the special hardware are harder to come by... Friend of mine has one, had to actually _buy_ a driver for the WiFi card etc. And: It's just no Mac, even when running linux with a decent Gnome installation.

But they _are_ tempting, aren't they... Makes me wish they could run Mac OS X for Intel. But I'd rather see Apple make a subnotebook. Hence the thread - and hence the VAIOs don't answer my prayers...

Lt Major Burns · #24 April 15th, 2005, 09:28 AM

the fact they are running windows and are made by sony just shows that the hardware is there for apple to utilise, but that they need to exercise their magic on it. imagine the vaio's size, and level of technology, but apple taking it one step further to replce the 12" pb. which at the moment, is shite. the vaio is just a very good example of innovation hampered by wintel domination