Microsoft Pitches Displays for Laptop Lids

[rtdgoldfish]

Kind of a cool idea coming from Microsoft. Small display on the outside of your laptop lid that shows battery life, clock, WiFi signal and some other customizable stuff. I could see this being a cool idea for Apple to take and make it much better than Microsoft's.

Microsoft Pitches Displays for Laptop Lids

 

[ravenvii]

Wouldn't really work for Apple's laptops, they go to sleep when in closed, and unlike PC's, the network card goes to sleep along with the machine. I wouldn't want a ugly little LED telling me the time and battery either.

Hell, who am I kidding? If Apple does it, Steve's RDF will probably make me beg for one

 

[Dr. Dastardly]

Well the only thing I would find useful is the battery life really and thats alreadylocated on the battery. I guess a wifi indicater on the bottom of my PB would be kinda cool but not on the lid. I think that will look to tacky.

 

[Cybernanga]

They could leave the battery as it is, but add a wi-fi singnal strngth meter to the apple logo.

If it's full, you've got full signal, etc

IIRC, Apple patented a dynamic Plastic Casing Color changing thing some time ago, maybe they could use that.

 

[JFreak]

who the hell wants to monitor wifi signal strength if the computer is otherwise not used? i mean, come on, if there is no active display (that could show the signal strength on menubar), why would it be so important to know how good wifi reception is?

i mean, come on, laptops are not servers that actually benefit from some led indicators. in addition to the sleep light, every single indicator led in a laptop is not necessary.

 

[jadam]

You know what would be cool, if they could get the laptops color to change. So that when your waching a movie for example, the laptop starts to become black, but when your editing a red photo in photoshop, the laptops starts turning red and whatnot. I believe one of the TV manufacturers have that, a backlight that displays a color. It might end up being pretty cool.

 

[Jalexster]

I've seen Longhorn screenshots demoing the customisation of this. It's quite good. You can use plugins to customise what shows up on the external screen. There is also a little 5 way (NSWE + Enter) controller next to the screen.

You can use the screen to check battery life, check our outlook calander, play music, etc...

Also, having a wi-fi signal indicator is useful, because you could use that to see if there is a hotspot nearby.

 

[ravenvii]

who the hell wants to monitor wifi signal strength if the computer is otherwise not used? i mean, come on, if there is no active display (that could show the signal strength on menubar), why would it be so important to know how good wifi reception is?

i mean, come on, laptops are not servers that actually benefit from some led indicators. in addition to the sleep light, every single indicator led in a laptop is not necessary.

Well, one thing it would be good for is while wardriving. It's easier to glance at your laptop to see if there's any signals than to open it up and look at the menubar.

 

[brap]

Ah, I see. Microsoft loving to be first and all.

If this is what they can come up with when trying to be original, they should stick to plagiarism.

 

[russed]

I've seen Longhorn screenshots demoing the customisation of this. It's quite good. You can use plugins to customise what shows up on the external screen. There is also a little 5 way (NSWE + Enter) controller next to the screen.

You can use the screen to check battery life, check our outlook calander, play music, etc...

Also, having a wi-fi signal indicator is useful, because you could use that to see if there is a hotspot nearby.

so basically they are wanting to turn a laptop into an ipod with a function that tells you when you have an email. and a laptop will fit so much better in your pocket!

 

[Applespider]

I guess a wi-fi indicator would be handy when you're at an advertised hotspot to check whether it's working and where to sit for the best signal before you buy your coffee.

But I'm not sure how useful it is otherwise - I only look at my laptop when it's on and then I can't see the top of the display. The rest of the time, it's quicker checking my watch (time), iPod (music), phone (email) for information.

 

[brap]

so basically they are wanting to turn a laptop into an ipod with a function that tells you when you have an email. and a laptop will fit so much better in your pocket!

Consider the steps required to collect an email:

Activate DHCP
Acquire address
Connect to mailserver
Retrieve and send passwords
Download mail
Store mail

To do the network rudimentaries, th OS must be active. In order to know what mailserver, passwords, accounts are used, the OS and mail client must be active. Ergo, HD must be spinning, doing a fair amount of work (The OS will not be stored in ROM. Nu-uh). CPU must be processing. Hell, let's cut to the chase. Your computer would be on, all the frickin' time. So, in order to preserve battery life, you'd need to override the display and turn it off.

These brains at Microsoft, they really deserve their paycheques.

 

[Timelessblur]

Hmmm I kind of wondering what everyone reaction would of been it was apple that came up with this. I bet you all would be singing apple praises and saying how great of an idea it is but the fact MS came up with it means it must be a bad idea...... Most of you need to get off the if it not from apple means it is a bad idea. Face it MS creamed apple to the punch of this one and came up with a great idea.


I think this would be a very handy thing to have. Havng the battery monitor from the lid of hte laptop knowing how much is left at all times. The wireless signal thing would very handy when knowing where a hot spot is with out having to open up the computer. It really shows a lot of protentional

 

[wordmunger]

Consider the steps required to collect an email:

Activate DHCP
Acquire address
Connect to mailserver
Retrieve and send passwords
Download mail
Store mail

To do the network rudimentaries, th OS must be active. In order to know what mailserver, passwords, accounts are used, the OS and mail client must be active. Ergo, HD must be spinning, doing a fair amount of work (The OS will not be stored in ROM. Nu-uh). CPU must be processing. Hell, let's cut to the chase. Your computer would be on, all the frickin' time. So, in order to preserve battery life, you'd need to override the display and turn it off.

These brains at Microsoft, they really deserve their paycheques.

Please read the article. I think Microsoft has some idea of what's involved in this.

 

[notjustjay]

Apple could do this..

Yes! We'll have the Apple logo change colors when new email arrives! Or revert to the old multi-colored striped Apple on the lid -- and one segment of color could disappear for every notch of battery power running down.

It'll be brilliant! They'll sell millions! They'll usher in a whole new fashion era!

 

[brap]

Please read the article. I think Microsoft has some idea of what's involved in this.

Really, really can't see the hairbrained scheme coming together without OS calls, HDD access and such. Sure they have admirable intentions, but it just won't happen that way. Maybe it will, I hope they surprise me... maybe it'll be useful without killing battery life.

 

[anonymous161]

sounds like a gimicky way to sell more units, like the external display/controls for playing cd's that appeared on some laptops a few years ago, except this time it is "integrated" into the OS and you can do other things that only a 14 year old would enjoy. I personally wouldn't care for it if Apple put it on the outside of their laptops, but even if they did it would probably actually do something more useful than this. I really prefer the mies approach "Less is more" and besides, PC laptops currently have a lot of "features" that I have no use for- power lights, hard drive access lights, floppy drives, card readers, eject buttons on the cd doors, cd doors, single led battery indicators (green, red? I'm color blind), bulk, ps/2 connectors (to be fair, I haven't seen this is a little while, but I don't look often), windows xp, spyware, viruses, etc.

 

[Applespider]

Rethinking the wireless thing - I'm going to have to get the laptop out of its carry case in any case to see the indicator that tells me I have a wifi signal And will it tell me which network/s it's found or am I going to have to open it anyhow?

I don't think I'm MS bashing for the sake of it - I genuinely don't think I'd use it.

 

[Koodauw]

I think its like the outer color screen on cellphones. You wouldn't think they would come in that useful, but I really like having one. I bet they would catch on for laptops as well.

 

[jsw]

so basically they are wanting to turn a laptop into an ipod with a function that tells you when you have an email. and a laptop will fit so much better in your pocket!

And now you have Apple's version:

80GB Color iPod with built-in Bluetooth 2.0, linkable to all new laptops.

System service that runs in new "drowsy" mode (almost asleep, but not quite) with all networking, Mail, and calendar functions in RAM.

iPod is the remote display, and it can be far away from the PB. iPod color display is of suitable size and resolution to serve up all this data.

And the cool factor of checking your appointments, email, wireless reception, whatever via your iPod while jamming to <insert music of your choice> with your lappy snugly secured in your backpack/briefcase/whatever is much higher than that of holding your giant Dell laptop on your lap, seeing if you have mail by looking at the cover.

 

[jsw]

Really, really can't see the hairbrained scheme coming together without OS calls, HDD access and such. Sure they have admirable intentions, but it just won't happen that way. Maybe it will, I hope they surprise me... maybe it'll be useful without killing battery life.

I think you could do it without HD access, but obviously you'll need OS calls (they mention supporting it in Longhorn, and if it didn't involve the OS, MS wouldn't be pushing it).

I think its like the outer color screen on cellphones. You wouldn't think they would come in that useful, but I really like having one. I bet they would catch on for laptops as well.

But I don't see a PDA form factor display on the cover being useful - why not just open the thing if it's sitting on your lap or in front of you? On a phone, it's different - you keep it closed to protect the main screen (unless it's a God-forbid-we-make-a-flip-phone Nokia), but it's not awkward to use when closed.

 

[Blue Velvet]

...unless it's a God-forbid-we-make-a-flip-phone Nokia

Do I detect a little work-grumpiness there?

 

[jsw]

Do I detect a little work-grumpiness there?

No, not at all. Nokia's products are very, very competitive with any of the phones you could have bought in 1999. And they are better than most of the 2002 offerings.

 

[maya]

But I don't see a PDA form factor display on the cover being useful - why not just open the thing if it's sitting on your lap or in front of you? On a phone, it's different - you keep it closed to protect the main screen (unless it's a God-forbid-we-make-a-flip-phone Nokia), but it's not awkward to use when closed.

There is a DUAL-DISPLAY OLED that is incorporated in a picture frame case. You can view the same image on both sides, or different images.

Something along that line would be BETTER then this implementation, since you can either use it as a TABLET PC, a Picture frame, an Indicator, etc... and it uses very little battery life to power. Plus you can turn on and off either the internal or external display. And the display is thinner too.

MS needs to rethink they concept, it has some issues with it, however it can be even better as I have suggested.

Battery LED indicator is nothing new, Apple notebooks already have this integrated in the battery. Other hardware companies already have the LED for WiFi, etc... so the only thing new is that this is on the lid of the display, why not put it on the edge so it can be viewed from a wider angle.

MS can incorporate its Pocket PC OS to run the smaller display information for retrieval so that is not a problem. Seems MS is trying to integrate a Pocket PC/Palm into a laptop lid.

 

[Timelessblur]

But I don't see a PDA form factor display on the cover being useful - why not just open the thing if it's sitting on your lap or in front of you? On a phone, it's different - you keep it closed to protect the main screen (unless it's a God-forbid-we-make-a-flip-phone Nokia), but it's not awkward to use when closed.

You know I have heard the same arguments used in the past about the display on the frount of flip phones saying why dont you just open them to see what all that infomation is (for my phone the infomation on the out side LCD I care about is singal strengh, bat left and time infomation.) I could just open my phone for that same infomation. The out side LCD is very useful for when I miss a phone call or got any type of message (text, or voice mail) with out me opening the phone up to check that part is the same as you getting an email. It right there on that displaying telling you that you have an email. You are more likely to see it thier.

People are not seeing the usefullness of it. It just like I could open my flip phone up to see all that infomations but i get it faster from the outside LCD and I also more likely to noticed other critcal infomation a lot quicker. Same goes for the out side LCD on laptops. It basicly going to make it quicker to noticed cricals or very helpful infomation. The green/ red light not extermly useful to me on my laptop since red only comes on it the crical range (10%) it green the rest of the time and knowing with a much greater degree of accercy on it would be helpful. When it goes red it the computer telling me "Hey nemrod I need extranal power NOW. GIVE ME POWER" and to me that is to late if I reach that point if I needing the laptop for any thing. If I had know it was droping below 50% back when I had access to extranl power I could of charge it up some or stopped the drain.