Dynabook HW getting closer?: MacBook Air

Price is high ($1800) but the hw is getting closer to what I'd like to
see. Squeak  would have no problem running on it:
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/
Check out the guided tour.

Cool notebook, sure. I think the OLPC is closer to the dynabook.
Rugged, low power, screen works well outdoors.

And c'mon, where is the multitouch on the screen?

On Jan 15, 2008 1:24 PM, Brad Fuller <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Price is high ($1800) but the hw is getting closer to what I'd like to
> see. Squeak  would have no problem running on it:
> http://www.apple.com/macbookair/
> Check out the guided tour.
>
>

On 15-Jan-08, at 12:03 PM, David Mitchell wrote:

> Cool notebook, sure. I think the OLPC is closer to the dynabook.
> Rugged, low power, screen works well outdoors.
>
> And c'mon, where is the multitouch on the screen?

Touch interfaces only work well in very specific physical situations.  
A screen that is at arm's length not to mention likely to move around  
if you push on it is not one of those situations.

If you have a laptop handy, try it out. Set it in a typical location  
so that you could type on it. Set the screen angle sensibly. Now try  
holding your hand so that your fingers could do the swipe and scroll  
and pinch actions on the screen. Easy, right? Now do it again. And  
again. Now try holding the fingers steady as if you were reading and  
scrolling steadily. Gets a bit harder, eh? Now by contrast, imagine a  
tablet device that you can rest your hand/fingers on. Much easier. I  
wouldn't be surprised to see apple release a keyboard with a trackpad  
based on the airmac design sometime soon. It could be very useful for  
photo and graphic editing, amongst other uses.

tim
--
tim Rowledge; [hidden email]; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Oxymorons: Government organization

  3.0 pounds?  How come it is so heavy?  A Mac made by Panasonic would
have been a killer...

-- Yoshiki

At Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:24:21 -0800,
Brad Fuller wrote:
>
> Price is high ($1800) but the hw is getting closer to what I'd like to
> see. Squeak  would have no problem running on it:
> http://www.apple.com/macbookair/
> Check out the guided tour.
>

On 15-Jan-08, at 4:34 PM, Yoshiki Ohshima wrote:

>  3.0 pounds?  How come it is so heavy?
95 square inches of lcd and led backlight
190+ square inches of aluminium case (guess at least 1/20 inch thick  
to provide enough stiffness to prevent the display being snapped too  
easily)
keyboard
1.8" HD
battery
oh and a pretty small circuit board with wi-fi/n disc controller,  
bluetooth usb etc, 2Gb ram and 3+gips/gflops of cpu power!

To make it weigh much less would mean a plastic case and I wouldn't  
want to have try to design a strong enough one within those size  
limitations; light but bulky is easy. I can't believe that I'm already  
seeing whining about it being 'a bit pokey'! What next - why doesn't  
it have a 2Tb disc, dual dvds, a UPS and coffee maker?

tim
--
tim Rowledge; [hidden email]; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Useful Latin Phrases:- Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus! =  
Let's all wear mood rings!

tim Rowledge wrote:
> To make it weigh much less would mean a plastic case and I wouldn't want
> to have try to design a strong enough one within those size limitations;
> light but bulky is easy. I can't believe that I'm already seeing whining
> about it being 'a bit pokey'! What next - why doesn't it have a 2Tb
> disc, dual dvds, a UPS and coffee maker?

I'd call that a start. Make it less than 1 pound, too ;-)=)

Cheers,
   - Andreas

On 15-Jan-08, at 5:18 PM, Andreas Raab wrote:

> tim Rowledge wrote:
>> To make it weigh much less would mean a plastic case and I wouldn't  
>> want to have try to design a strong enough one within those size  
>> limitations; light but bulky is easy. I can't believe that I'm  
>> already seeing whining about it being 'a bit pokey'! What next -  
>> why doesn't it have a 2Tb disc, dual dvds, a UPS and coffee maker?
>
> I'd call that a start. Make it less than 1 pound, too ;-)=)
Paypal me a couple of hundred million euros (need hard currency for  
this sort of thing) and I'll get right to it!

tim
--
tim Rowledge; [hidden email]; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Foolproof operation:  All parameters are hard coded.

"tim Rowledge" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> seeing whining about it being 'a bit pokey'! What next - why doesn't  
> it have a 2Tb disc, dual dvds, a UPS and coffee maker?

A coffee maker would make a great heat sink!

frank

> To make it weigh much less would mean a plastic case and I wouldn't  
> want to have try to design a strong enough one within those size  
> limitations; light but bulky is easy. I can't believe that I'm already  
> seeing whining about it being 'a bit pokey'! What next - why doesn't  
> it have a 2Tb disc, dual dvds, a UPS and coffee maker?

  Well, Panasonic has good ones that are stronger (including bigger
one with an optical drive).  I don't know if the thinness has big
practical value (a bit, I think), but lightness has practical value
and it can be co-exist with durability.  (Check the movies on this page:

http://panasonic.biz/pc/tough/check.html

)

-- Yoshiki

Wow, look very impressive. Sad to see that includes damn window$.......

2008/1/16, Yoshiki Ohshima <[hidden email]>:

> Wow, look very impressive. Sad to see that includes damn
> window$.......

  They've been around long time and guess who are using.

  BTW, a friend mine made up a parody ad.  Take a look at:

http://pasopia.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/01/airmacbook.png

Thickness: 0.0 mm
Width:     0.0 mm
Depth:     0.0 mm
Weight:    0.0 pounds
Price:     $0

:-)

-- Yoshiki

:)

2008/1/16, Yoshiki Ohshima <[hidden email]>: