Discussions

with touchscreen notebooks i say no i think it would be difficult to use,but what i would love is a seperate screen i would like it very thin and a usb connection to the computer and i would be able to see my desktop from the seperate touch screen and when i want to use a touch screen i can pull that out i think that desktop touch screens are good though but not notebook

For people who want tactile feedback on their inputs, what about a compromise by using some sort of click touchscreen like the blackberry storm?

Hi this is Moshe
Pleas look at my post.
Comments will be appreciated.
http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/dream/7362/William_Gibson_Cyberspace_Machine

ddennisdlmd, I agree your design is a perfect blend of mobility, good input and great expansion. I think it would be simple to put it into production as it is all off the shelf technology and have a product for market this year!

What could be the next evolution would be to use the foldable screen idea to provide a version with a larger screen yet still be jacket pocket in size. That needs to be the key; if it can not fit in a large jacket pocket then it falls into the group of all other devices needing a bag of some sort to carry it.

I agree with Primaz. Even with the dual touchscreen, I still would prefer a tactile keyboard input. That's why a lot of people here proposed the overlay design for the touchscreen notebook. The pocket netbook design is a device for a totally different niche/market that is still vastly untapped. For that design to work, it should have a normal or close to normal sized touch type keyboard while still being able to fit in your regular jacket pocket. I think the size specifications given by Primaz would do nicely. I envision this as a multipurpose do-everything device (including cell phone function) with different attachments and docking capabilities.

I looked at that link zachman and to me feel that touch input is not what I would prefer over a normal keyboard for inputing. I still think the bigger potential is to create a simple, reliable, touch type pocket laptop/netbook to fill the void for highly mobile business users. I do like ddennisdlmd's idea of making such a pocket netbook set up for many ways to connect and expand it's use via docking options. The more they encourage third party people to easily make add on accessories the more it could be like an Ipod where it fills the need of the millions of us business users whom need a computer but would rather have a pocket version yet still able to touch type enough to do work. Having many options to dock or other companies think of creative add on items would make it a great computer that people could customize for their needs.

I really like that pocket netbook idea and hope it gets some serious consideration from ASUS!

zachman, so far there have been many terrible pocket computers and I too hate tiny keys and not functional devices to do basic computing. What I and I think others seem to want is a kind of device never really available so far. I loved devices like the Psion 5mx as it had a good keyboard that was still touch type and able to enable me to input pretty well. The device had a great ergonomic feel but it sucked as far as OS and software. What I think would be great is a modern interpretation of something like that and I think ddennisdlmd has a good rendering.

A pocket computer can provide very usable computing if the keyboard is design to have the largest keys possible yet still be pocket size. Somthing long and narrow that is about 7.5 inches by 4.3" and as thin as possible would provide good input.

What I like about ddennislmd's idea is he made many docking options so that you can use that small pocket laptop for many other functions with just third party accessories like an Iphone does.

To me there is a huge market for a pocket computer but it needs to be designed to be as large as possible to provide good keyboard input yet still fitting in a large pocket and that can be done I believe.

I like the idea of docking, I just don't see any benefit in a pocket computer, that's all.

I just found this cool WePc article called What ASUS has been up to. It's got a lot of cool pics in it, definitely worth a read.

http://www.wepc.com/blog/view/6204/What_Asus_has_been_up_to___

Wow. Just when I thought things were winding down... Anyway, cm2008 thanks for the thumbs up. zachman1094, they posted separate categories here for different personal computing needs. Some people like pocket netbooks and some like gamer laptops... I like both. I agree that both categories cater to very different communities, but in my opinion, some concepts here (like the modular/docking concept) can be applied to both if not all categories of personal computing.