12 concept laptops and PC that will strike your imagination
Alexandra | 10:40 pm | February 12, 2010 | Concept Laptops
Concepts… They are amazing, aren’t they? On the one hand, they inspire us, give us ideas for the future, push forward innovations. On the other hand, concepts disappoint, since we cannot have them right now. The only thing we can do is start saving money, and wait until they become a reality.
1. ARM Tablet
This concept from Sébastien Maleville can be used as a usual laptop or as a portable tablet. You can transform it by separating the keyboard from the monitor.
2. Asus Bookshelf PC
This PC from Asus consists of interchangeable modules, which allows to upgrade or downgrade your computer. You can do it by replacing or adding required modules.
3. B-membrane
This UFO-like computer with a projected keyboard uses a projector instead of a monitor.
4. Canvas
This concept was developed for designers and artists by Kyle Cherry. It was equipped with some built-in digital devices for easy drawing.
5. Horizon
Concept desktop from Japanese designer Mac Funamizu has a flexible OLED monitor, which can change its size!
6. HP LiM (by Jeffrey S. Engelhardt)
HP LiM (it means “Less is More”) consists from a 19” transparent touch screen, a wireless keyboard and a virtual touchpad.
7. Nuno Teixeira MAINGEAR
It’s a powerful gaming machine with improved cooling system.
8. Paper Laptop — eco-computer
This concept (designed by Je Sung Park) was made from recycled paper.
9. Philco PC
Although in the majority of cases concept computers show us the future, Dave Schultze’s creation carries us back.
10. Portable PC Theater
Jinwoo Han, a talented designer from the South Korea, created a concept of portable PC with a special bonus, a built-in projector for entertainment.
11. Prime Gaming Laptop
Prime Gaming Concept Laptop was designed by Kyle Cherry. He tries to solve such problem as limited size of laptop screens. Behold a powerful portable gaming computer!
12. Zafiro
Zafiro PC with transparent screen can be controlled by movements of your hands and body!
The near future of high-tech industry (your excursion to CES 2010)
Alexandra | 7:39 pm | January 26, 2010 | New Laptops
The last Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has become the main source of information about new technologies and products from the world’s largest product designer and manufacturers. The show was held in Las Vegas, and this place wasn’t chosen by chance. The U.S. market is traditionally considered as one of the most important for many large companies that design and produce electronics.
Judging by the general show trends, 2010 will be the year of Android smartphones, Tablet PCs, and rapid development of three-dimensional television. And like a year ago, at CES 2009, manufacturers introduced a lot of notebooks and netbooks in a classic form factor. Developers still believe that this market is very promising. For example, MSI management expects 50% growth of notebook shipments in 2010.
Lenovo attracted visitors by the unusual Ideapad U1 laptop. This device, which is actually a hybrid of tablet and netbook, has a 11.6″ display that can be disconnected from the keyboard and work independently as a Tablet PC. Ideapad U1 is expected in shops this summer at a price of about $ 1000.
You could see new netbooks based on Intel Pine Trail hardware platform from all major manufacturers at CES 2010. Most of those devices had similar characteristics and were running Windows 7. The Samsung N127 netbook based on OS Moblin can be mentioned as an exception.
One more piece of news from Intel. The company launched AppUpCenter, a new online store of applications for compact portable computers. All users of netbooks with OS Windows can join this service.
Among the huge number of laptops that were presented at CES 2010 there are some unusual ones. Samsung demonstrated a prototype laptop with a 14″ transparent OLED-display. It’s difficult to imagine who may need such a computer, but this invention of South Korean engineers may find application in other industries. Also Dell showed a workable concept of Studio with a 16″ OLED-display, which response time is 0,004 ms. And Asus amazed visitors by its new NX90 Bang & Olufsen edition laptop.
So CES 2010 gave us a general idea of what devices we should expect this year. Evidently experts expect the increase in sales of portable computers (both netbooks and notebooks). Marketing specialists pin hopes on tablet PCs, but demand for them will depend not only on technical specifications, but also on pricing policies.
Optimus Maximus Style Keyboard for Laptops?
maksim | 6:14 pm | March 2, 2008 | Concept Laptops
Building on the story of Optimus Maximus keyboard, will major computer manufacturers follow the example? The OLED technology that is used in the keyboard is still a very expensive alternative to a standard keyboard, but surely there are people out there who wouldn’t mind paying an extra $1000 for laptops that might look something like this?
Each key image can be fully customised, separately for any of the applications used. Language layout can be easily switched. There is no need to display secondary symbols like !ӣ$% on the keys, they will appear automatically after SHIFT is pressed. And you can get rid of some annoying keys that you never use, like, in my case, the one just below Esc.
Among many different highly attractive yet hardly realistic technologies of the near future, OLED is the one to keep an eye on. The advantages of an OLED-based displays over regular LCD display, similar to the one that you are most likely looking at at the moment, are amazing: OLED screens can be as thin as a human hair, they can be bent and transferred to fabric, they produce light themselves and don’t need backlight, they can display greater range of colours, image quality is equally good when viewed from any angle, and, to top it all, they are theoretically cheaper to produce in the long-run than regular LCD displays.
The only downside is the wearability of OLED elements- the lifetime is very limited and is more than ten times shorter than LCD. This, however, is only a matter of time, according to some industry experts, and fully customisable laptop keyboards will be only one of the many possible revolutionary applications, like multi-use newspapapers or video screens embedded in clothing