Anyone interested in hardware?

[Nadav Har'El]

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010, Steven Benmosh wrote about "Anyone interested in hardware?":
> Prefer to discuss it here, as most comments on my blog are from purveyors of
> viagra or illegal downloads/trjoans.

This topic doesn't have much to do with Hamakor, or even with free software,
but I'll bite...

> Essentially, I am voicing the opinion that the tablet - including it's hyped
> up iApple version - is going in the wrong direction. The computer of the
> future should be a keyboard/CPU/RAM/SSD with a minimal screen and a port to
> connect to any output device that fits the case - e-ink, LCD,
> pico-projector, TV, etc.

This is giving me a sense of Deja-Vu. In essence you are describing the...
Comodore 64! The Commodore 64 (and its contemporaries) where computers which
basically looked like one fat keyboard that contained the processor, memory
and i/o ports (no drive, though - this was also external), and you plugged
it into the output device that was popular then - the TV.

When you think about it, having a device which resembles a keyboard is
mostly useful for people who type a lot - e.g., programmers, authors, and
so on. Having a device which is mostly a screen is useful for people who
*view* a lot - which is, you have to admit, the majority of the population -
people who watch movies, read books, browse web sites, play games, and so on.

Anyway, I think both approaches (a keyboard-less-display machine and a
display-less-keyboard machine) have merit, to the point I have to ask myself,
why not get the best of both worlds: have a machine with no keyboard and
no display! Actually, not really "no" keyboard and display, but rather have
something like an improved iPod Touch - a tiny display and a tiny on-screen
"keyboard" which will be useful in some situations (e.g., watching movies
in bed or on a train) but allow *both* an external keyboard and an external
display to be connected, e.g., via bluetooth (or at worst, a wire).

The iPod Touch doesn't actually allow either, but I've seen similar devices
that do. E.g., some Nokia cellphones have a really cool external keyboard
which connects using bluetooth, and many personal media players have a
video-out port (I have yet to see a chordless one, though).


-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |      Thursday, Feb 25 2010, 11 Adar 5770
nyh at math.technion.ac.il             |-----------------------------------------
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