New Laptop for Beth?
- Thread starter rpadula
- Start date
I still say there's a touch screen MacBook (Air!) coming by 2009. Prolly not Tuesday.
jmaynard
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Grumble. What is it about tablet PCs and touch screens? Argh! There are some things a touch screen is good for, but there are lots it's not.
woodstock
Final Approach
Hey, pretty nifty. I have two laptops currently though. That would be even easier for traveling though - it could fit in my purse.
ReverendSlappy
Ejection Handle Pulled
Yeah, I used a tablet for a while a couple years ago and frankly, I don't get it. Of course I understand the niche uses. But as a replacement for a laptop? I hardly ever used any of the "tabletness" of it, and when I did it was more because I felt like I should use it because it was there, not because it felt natural. That all might have something to do with the fact that I type much, much faster than I could ever "hand write". Dunno.
An optional touch screen would be the hot setup. Look at the Windows touch laptops. The screen flips and swivels to lay flat.
Apple has to be looking at putting the iPhone touch UI on the laptops.
As it stands Apple pretty much has the touch UI on the touch pad.
My guess is they can't get the LCD touch screens - maybe in a custom size and higher resolution - for a reasonable price.
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ReverendSlappy
Ejection Handle Pulled
Looks promising. I have one of these, and I'm very happy with it; it does well what I want it to (Bluetooth tether to my work-provided cell phone + Remote Desktop = make it look to the boss like I'm at work no matter where I am!
) My only gripe about it is that it's tough to type... the Mini 9 looks like it'd be much, much better in that regard.Not sure what they've got cookin', but if they hit the Eee PC/Vaio micro-pc market, I think they'd likely do well.
ReverendSlappy
Ejection Handle Pulled
Another problem is probably that with touchscreens, you're limited size-wise. I'm pretty sure I heard that with the kind of touchscreen technology that you're used to with the iPod or a tablet PC or anything else has pretty much an absolute upper bound of 14" or so; bigger stuff uses a different methodology that doesn't work in smaller implementations. I could be wrong about that now as maybe it has progressed to the point that that's no longer a limitation, but...
If that's true, to me, it seems like having to limit production to 14" and less just to be able to add the (pretty much entirely non-compelling, to me) touchscreen functionality seems like a non-starter. I wouldn't buy a laptop just because it has a touchscreen -- and presumably pay more to do so. I just don't find them that useful.
rpadula
En-Route
Yeah I thought of you when I saw its size. I remembered you had asked for a small one to upload your pictures to while traveling.
Looks promising. I have one of these, and I'm very happy with it; it does well what I want it to (Bluetooth tether to my work-provided cell phone + Remote Desktop = make it look to the boss like I'm at work no matter where I am!
Wow, that's unique. Great solution to foolin' the boss too! B)
Lotsa consensus on some kind of iPod/iTunes updates (hence the event title: Let's Rock), although it's been noted the MacBook and MacBook Pro designs are a bit long in the tooth...
gprellwitz
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Not sure about the touchscreen part, but I think that the tablet part makes it much easier to use in the cockpit in an electronic flight bag configuration. Not what Beth was looking for, though.
EdFred
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I just got o:ne of these today. I almost want to say it rocks, but am still getting used to the keyboard. the keys aren't offset like a normal keyboard. the top row and home row, are almost perfectly in alignment which makes typing without looking a bit difficult.
The plusses:
Compact.
Zero noise...and I mean zero. There are no moving parts internally, no fan, and the solid state drive does not seem to lag at all.
Will check back later with more updates.
The plusses:
Compact.
Zero noise...and I mean zero. There are no moving parts internally, no fan, and the solid state drive does not seem to lag at all.
Will check back later with more updates.
One of WHICH, Ed?
SCCutler
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I am guessing it's the Mini 9, because that's the only specific product identified in the thread (except the Mac Air, but we know Ed didn't get one of *those*, don't we?).
