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Portables Hardware

Meet the Laptop You Will (Won't?) Use In 2015 231

Posted by CmdrTaco from the believe-it-when-i-touch-type-on-it dept.
robert2cane writes "The Compenion concept notebook, designed by Felix Schmidberger, eschews the familiar clamshell design in favor of two superbright organic LED panels that slide into place next to each other, making the notebook just three-quarters of an inch thick." Really this page is just some renderings of some concept computers that are pretty far out of practical production reach. Some interesting ideas, but mostly a whole lot of 'Yeah, right.'
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Meet the Laptop You Will (Won't?) Use In 2015 More

Meet the Laptop You Will (Won't?) Use In 2015

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  • The laptop that fits into a steering wheel, great! (Score:5, Funny)

    by damburger ( 981828 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:37AM (#24082291)
    Lets just hope car AI has been perfected by 2015 or we are all going to get mown down by someone who just has to check their facebook profile.

  • Uhhh OK. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rodrigoandrade ( 713371 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:40AM (#24082323)
    >Really this page is just some renderings of some concept computers that are pretty far out of practical production reach. Some >interesting ideas, but mostly a whole lot of yeah right.

    Then why is it on /.?? Slow Monday morning?? Whatever happened to the "stuff that MATTERS" part of the slogan??

  • I bet... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by God of Lemmings ( 455435 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:42AM (#24082349)

    that Felix Schmidberger looks at his fingers while he types.

  • The future - same as today ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by trolltalk.com ( 1108067 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:45AM (#24082365) Homepage Journal

    Internal Server Error
    The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

    Please contact the server administrator, support@freehostia.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

    More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

    Apache/1.3.33 Server at future-design.freehostia.com Port 80

    BTW: You can have my keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead hands!

  • Tactile response (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Swizec ( 978239 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:46AM (#24082375) Homepage
    So what's the tactile typing response on those advance touchscreen keyboards of the future?

    I bet there will be a lot of disgruntled programmers/novelists/actual-users-of-computers in the future.

    • Its organic!. Therefore it's obviously better for you in every possible way!

      Or does that mean its steeped in unprocessed manure?

      I always get those two mixed up....

    • Re:Tactile response (Score:4, Interesting)

      by paradxum ( 67051 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:09AM (#24082593)

      I love that argument! Simply because the answer is so obvious. Most (newer) laptops have bluetooth integrated in them. If you just NEED a keyboard (really, nothing wrong with that... I NEED one for what I do) just get a bluetooth keyboard for when you are "working" ... there are even roll up ones to take when you are traveling.

    • A tactile touchscreen? Perhaps something that gives a slight tap back whenever a keypress is registered?

      Alternatively,a clear keyboard with a screen underneath it would allow for tactile feedback, as well as the advantages of a touchscreen board. The overlay could also be removed so that only the touchscreen is accessible....

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bhima ( 46039 ) *

        There's already been a patent on a tactile touchscreen... I probably read here too.

    • Re:Tactile response (Score:5, Funny)

      by Jurily ( 900488 ) <jurily&gmail,com> on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:18AM (#24082697)

      Oblig. [thebestpag...iverse.net]

      First of all, the E70 has a full keyboard, not some shitty stripped down, tap-and-pray smudgy piece of shit. Nokia uses a technology that's even more advanced than the iPhone's tap screen, allowing you to actually feel the keys you press as you're pressing them! The technology is called "tactile response," and it allows you to do things like dial a phone number without staring at your screen like a shit-chucking ape. In fact, every other cellphone ever made has this technology, sometimes called "buttons."

    • Re:Tactile response (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MightyYar ( 622222 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:30AM (#24082859)

      With a little luck, and some help from engineers [redferret.net], they will still have tactile feedback. I'm actually rather anxious to try one of these Nokia "haptic" screens.

    • Re:Tactile response (Score:4, Funny)

      by clickety6 ( 141178 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:56AM (#24083149)

      microscopic ray guns built into every pixel that fire tiny repulsor beams into your fingertips as you type, creating the illusion of feedback. Plus tiny speakers also built into each pixel that creates the sound of clacking springs. the deluze model has miniature tractor beam guns bulti in for those who want that "spilled the coffee / ate a doughnut over the keys" slightly tacky feel...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jsiren ( 886858 )

      I have seen the future and it's Das Touchscreen.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by *weasel ( 174362 )

      In any respectable future we have at least foolproof voice-to-text, if not sub-vocal mics and/or brain-interfaces.

  • 2015 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:47AM (#24082383)

    Oh, well. It seem that 2015 will not be the year of the Linux desktop.

  • old news (Score:3, Informative)

    by hansraj ( 458504 ) * on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:48AM (#24082393)

    Dupe too [slashdot.org]

  • I already have it (Score:5, Informative)

    by oodaloop ( 1229816 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:49AM (#24082409)
    I have a Sony Vaio 280p Micro PC. I bought it in 2007, though it came out in 2005. It's small enough to fit in a jacket pocket and I can walk and browse at the same time. It's got wi-fi, bluetooth, 2 cameras, a USB port, a fingerprint reader, et al. Granted, it still has XP on it, but I'm going to put Ubuntu on it one of these days. I'm not about to go back to a full-size laptop, no matter how much cooler it looks.

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by sm62704 ( 957197 )

      For the life of me I can't figure out why anyone would buy a computer that was manufactured by a company that would put rootkits on music CDs.

      You would buy a computer from Sony? What were you thinking?

  • New machines need new operating systems... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ClaraBow ( 212734 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:52AM (#24082421)
    Hardware designers may come up with some beautiful and innovated designs, but there needs to be a new OS to go with the hardware which will take advantage of the machine's unique design. The iphone works because the software and hardware work together and provide a good user experience. I say this because I noticed on the screenshots that these new amazing machines were running Vista. I know they are just rendered images, but nevertheless, it takes away from the hardwares' appeal. Tablets could have been a great success if the hardware manufactures had used a better OS than XP with some extensions.

  • 'Futurism' reflects the current age (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Langfat ( 953252 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:56AM (#24082455) Homepage
    Ok, not all of it, but most of it.

    Case in point? Look at the holographic shark that jumps out of the cinema and bites Marty McFly in Back to the Future II. It looks so 80s because, well, it was made in the 80s. It is likely that even 7 years from now there will be technology which hasn't been invented yet that will be incorporated in every computer -- that is, assuming notebooks are even considered reasonable any more... i personally expect things to go more the way of the iPhone/Archos for portable computation.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by that IT girl ( 864406 )
      Mod parent up for mentioning Back to the Future, which I don't think I'm far off the mark in saying is the best movie ever. :) Seriously, though, you are quite right. By 2015 it's possible that the traditional idea of the laptop/notebook will have been forgone entirely for a whole new design we haven't thought of yet.

      In speculation... although I enjoy typing, I'd like to see some voice recognition in place for dictating (useful when on the road, if you must use your computer there) rather than the usual m

    • I'd like to say that I agree that the marketplace will fulfill and push, but instead I see us waiting for the patent from something that was patented some time ago to change our lives when the patent finally expires.

  • Obligatory conversion (Score:2, Informative)

    by Knx ( 743893 )
    Because there are still a few countries which haven't yet adopted the U.S. customary units (just joking, hey ... but go ahead and start bashing me now): three-quarters of an inch is approximately 1.9 centimeters [google.com]. Which is not *that* thin, IMO. At least for a 2015 laptop, I mean.

    • We use metric when describing our NUCLEAR WEAPONS!!!

      (That's a "Civilization" reference, not a threat...)

    • A laptop that's three-quarters of an inch thick? That's crazy talk! [apple.com]

  • No touch screen keyboards please! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jabjoe ( 1042100 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:59AM (#24082491)
    Why on earth would I want a touch screen keyboard? You can't feel the keys! I touch type solely on the feel of the keys. Why would I want to have to go back to looking down? If I using my hands to input, having to look at them as they do so is wasting my time. Yer they look good on a set of star trek, but in reality that ship would have been destroyed long ago but villains with keyboards they don't have to look down at to press fire. Until the touch screen raises where buttons are, you are using one sense less while working, and if you aren't using that touch screen to look at, what is the point?

  • Too Much Touch (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tom ( 822 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @08:59AM (#24082503) Homepage Journal

    I'm a big fan of multitouch, and in fact am an early adopter, and one of the probably 2000 or so people who bought a TouchStream (the first multitouch keyboard on the market, many years ago, long before TouchStream went bancrupt and was then acquired by Apple...)

    But exactly that experience has taught me one thing: You can't beat tactile feedback for keyboard input. As long as your display doesn't have tactile feedback, multitouch sucks and won't replace a regular keyboard.

    What multitouch is great at is analog input, i.e. the stuff we use the mouse for right now. Dragging stuff, resizing stuff, drawing shapes (for gestures or graphics, or to select, whatever) all that kind of things. But when it comes to typing text, you don't want to do that on surface that doesn't give you tactile feedback. FWIW, I can type more error-free with my eyes closed on a regular keyboard, than with my eyes open on a touch-keyboard.

    So if those designers could shed their fanboyship of multitouch surfaces for a while, and do what designers ought to do for a change, namely look for the meeting point between form and function, they'd find a lot more and better applications for multitouch displays than keyboard replacements.

    • Keys that automatically fit to your hand size. Keys that move to be under you fingers. Keys that teach you how to spell. Resizable keys. Keys that change color to fit your mood or chosen scheme. Keys that fade if never used. Keys that rearrange themselves for new kinds of games. Keys that align themselves by application to make some combinations faster to type. Keys that show different characters by character set and language. Who wouldn't want one of these?

  • Same old same old (Score:5, Interesting)

    by neokushan ( 932374 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:00AM (#24082507)

    Every year we see all sorts of concepts for computers that we'll be using in 5, 10 or 20 years time. Yet 5, 10 or 20 years ago, the devices we used then are still largely the same.
    Sure, they're faster and have more memory, as well as maybe more colours on their screens, but ultimately they don't look all that different.
    I very much doubt any of these concepts will see the light of day unless they offer something truly useful and innovative.

    • largely the same? o_O

      Released in 1989.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Portable [wikipedia.org]

      Now
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Air [wikipedia.org]

      although I have a mobile phone more powerful then most desktops from 1989.

      • Macs are a slight exception to the rule as they tend to focus on changing their style, but the only thing that's really changed (When you think about it) is the size of the device.
        They both still essentially are made up of a keyboard, screen and some inputs here and there.

    • At first, I wanted to reply with something snarky, "oh this one has a crystal ball". But then I realized the first thing I do when my laptop is booted... is opening a terminal emulator... to get to the UNIX commandline. Which was created in 1969, almost fourty years ago.

  • It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future but in terms of display technology, I think rollable displays will be common by 2015. The rollable screens have an obvious form factor appeal. The devices will probably be cylinder shaped (think paper towel tube, but a bit smaller) with a virtual keyboard. There are already early versions of both rollable displays and virtual keyboards in existence, see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/technology/06novelties.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref= [nytimes.com]

  • Free Hosting? (Score:3, Funny)

    by miakeru ( 683909 ) <michael.singleta ... NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:06AM (#24082565) Homepage

    Did Slashdot really just link to a page with the words 'free' and 'host' in the URL?

  • Rejected technology (Score:5, Interesting)

    by just_forget_it ( 947275 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:06AM (#24082573)
    Tactile response is a huge reason we have keyboards. The technology that can replace them is here now, and has been for quite a while. But nothing can beat the practicality of a keyboard. Replacing it with a touchscreen is just impractical. There's no tactile response, and banging your fingers on a hard, unyielding surface is going to cause typing fatigue much quicker. Then, there's the fingerprints and smudging you have to deal with, along with scratches.

    There are plenty of technologies that came along that were poised to replace something but never quite made it. Remember the "push button transmission" in the mid-50's Dodge models? Of course you don't. It was supposed to do away with that antiquated lever system used to switch gears. But people LIKED the lever, and with the push button controller you could do something that the lever didn't allow you to: place your car into reverse directly from drive, which is obviously extremely dangerous.

    Then in the 1980's we saw another phenomenon: the digital dashboard. Instead of using those antiquated analog dials, automakers started using digital readouts instead. It was all computerized and cool and futuristic...and was gone by the early 1990's. People wanted the old-fashioned dials.

    To predict that the keyboard will be gone in less than 10 years is like predicting the steering wheel will be gone by then, too.

  • that last one with the laptop fitting to the steering wheel is just scary.
    does this come with an autopilot?

    still, that's the last thing we need.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mspohr ( 589790 )
      It's so last century to fit your laptop to the steering wheel. Actually, they will fit a steering wheel to the laptop as the new input device. You just plug the car into the laptop when you want to drive somewhere... just remember... nothingcangowrong.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Atti K. ( 1169503 )
        Just imagine:
        "Drivecar.exe has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down."

        Or...

        "Inflate airbags: Cancel or Allow?"

    • I don't think you understand. That is the "grocery getter 2.0" peripheral. It snaps into a small slot in the back of the computer. Oddly it is not the largest peripheral available. However, there is a limited market for ICBM 3.2.

  • just like phones, cars and televisions (Score:3, Informative)

    by petes_PoV ( 912422 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:13AM (#24082637)
    When a human-interfacing technology gets past the experimental stage, the major aspects (size, weight, function, layout) tend to remain static. Partly because that's what people expect - and there's a cost to having people change their habits, and partly because they work well.

    So it will be in the laptop of the future. Keyboards won't get any bigger or smaller, same with screen sizes. So the LotF will be the same size as todays (and 10 years' ago's, too). Functions will probably be similar, also: documents, games, media, communication.

    Yes, they'll be faster, but all the extra DRM and security features (such as having everything encrypted) will take away most of the gain. Disks will be gone - hello SSDs - but that's an easy prediction, as is wireless connectivity. the O/S and applications will be so transparent to the user that who owns/makes them will be irrelevant.

    The only major change I can foresee is the need for personal identification and possibly a built-in payment mechanism, for all the media - whicj will have to be paid for, before you can view it.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I'm still a fan of the "hub PC" or home server model. I think that it makes your devices smaller and cheaper.

      For instance, I have a rather limited iBook G4 that could NEVER be my main PC. Not enough space, smallish screen, etc. However, since I have my PC online and available via SSH, there's almost no downside to having a cheap, low power, limited storage portable. Similarly, since my PC is hooked up to my TV/stereo in the living room, I don't need to have an expensive system in there - I can just play my

  • Moving parts? In 2015?? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ThePhilips ( 752041 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @09:16AM (#24082679) Homepage Journal

    I hope by 2015 notebooks would have no moving parts - no sliding things either.

    I just want a normal notebook. Just normal notebook from Sci-Fi: no physical parts, voice interface, 3D projector and virtual keyboard. All that packed into watch.

    Google can't find images - but something like it was in Heroic Age [wikipedia.org] anime.

    • A voice interface for something meant to be used in public places strikes me as a terrible idea, unless it uses a microphone quite close to your mouth, which is less than convenient.
      And if the 3D projector is supposed to replace the screen altogether, it's going to be pretty hard to have any privacy in public too. At least a laptop can be turned away from people.

      Also, virtual keyboards suck ass. There's a lot to be said for tactile feedback, and a good reason that laser-projected keyboard [thinkgeek.com] hasn't taken off.

      I

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by ThePhilips ( 752041 )

        Privacy (esp in public places) is interesting point.

        But honestly, my first association with notebooks somehow now is "desktop replacement". I use right now laptops at home and in office. (And frankly, have no wish to carry one around - I get enough of computer everywhere else. YMMV.)

        What we do right now with laptops and more importantly how we do it, would change in coming years. Think of text/image/video-blogging - that is mostly public activity anyway and doesn't require privacy. Though yes, lack o

  • Since it's been slashdotted to hell.

    Sheesh, what kind of a wunderbar laptop could it be, if it couldn't even handle a little slashdotting...

  • Why are we carrying around physical media, computer screens, and keyboards? How geeky can one get? Why hasn't the day arrived when everything on our hard drive exists on the cloud instead?
  • Thinner by 0.01 inches - that's 7 years in the future for you!

  • Monthly BIOS license fees, DRM enabled login (Score:3, Insightful)

    by heroine ( 1220 ) on Monday July 07, 2008 @01:17PM (#24086027) Homepage

    The laptop you use in 2015 will require monthly BIOS license fees, monthly service plans to log in, & fall apart in 3 weeks. It'll be made by 5 year old slave kids in Kazakhstan. All data storage will be through wireless networking to the giga corporation & monitored by the FBI for signs of the word "republican" or negative comments about the giga corporation.

    However the display will be made out of organic LEDs.

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