I was looking for information on older laptops with interesting form factors, to
find inspiration for ideas on my own.
One search result led to an image of a laptop where dual screens unfolded after it
opened. I haven't tracked that one down, but it led me to a search which led to
this one:
http://www.mobilemag.com/2002/07/03/xentex-dual-screen-flip-pad-voyager/
By having the screen cut in the middle, and the keyboard folding in the middle,
the laptop can be twice as big for a given size - only having to be thicker, not
wider, when folded up.
I also came across this Kickstarter project:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/
a Linux laptop in a handheld game form factor, intended to replace your smartphone.
Another cute computer was this one:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/yellow-beak-computer/ello-2m
This Kickstarter project was fully funded, and the computer is now available.
They're also working on a modular Linux laptop:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop
I think that a modular laptop is a wonderful thing, but if you can _only_ put an ARM processor in it, and only, therefore, use Linux with it, its usefulness is crippled.
The ELLO, the cute computer that led me to their site, is... interesting.
The idea is for it to be something that makes computing fun again, by returning
to the days of 8-bit computers that you programmed yourself in BASIC.
So this doesn't even have an ARM processor like the Raspberry Pi, but instead a
PIC32 micro-controller.
Ah, that thing to the left of the screen isn't a touchpad, it's a place to
connect things to the computer! And the fact that it's made from stacked printed
circuit boards without the need for a box is interesting.
It can't be as cheap as similarly powered devices for the mass market, they
note. That's understandable, but I had issues with the way they explained the
device on their site: "inspires creativity without distracting with greed".
I didn't like the use of a morally judgmental word in a way that seemed to
suggest people were greedy to want the most powerful computer for the money they
were spending, or the most useful one - one that would let them run, oh, say,
Witcher 3, if that's what they were interested in. Telling people "this is
what's good for you" is, in my view, a sure recipe for failure - among other
things.
John Savard