AI is now a lazy catch-all term for things that are usually just automation
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Tech anachronisms
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AI is now a lazy catch-all term for things that are usually just automation
Other way round really. Or maybe more of a synonym.
"Laptop" has always included bulky devices that you could use on your lap if you didn't mind numb legs and heat rash.
"Notebook" usually means a smaller/thinner/lighter laptop. You probably wouldn't call a AlienWare gaming laptop a "notebook". It goes back to those Epson "flat" portable computers with a keyboard and a tiny display, or even to the 1970s "Dynabook" concept (closer to - and part of the inspiration for - a Newton or iPad).
Arguably, every portable that Apple have made - apart from the original Mac Portable - has been a notebook - hence PowerBook/MacBook...
I'd absolutely call an old-school calls/texts mobile phone a "dumbphone" to contrast with a smartphone - although I think the marketing euphemism is "feature phone".
Basic75
macrumors 68030
Perhaps "upper case" and "lower case" are the oldest anachronisms still in use in the tech world?
Basic75
macrumors 68030
Vice versa, a notebook is a small laptop.
They are mostly called "feature phones".
Basic75
macrumors 68030
Automation? Rather for all things machine learning, neural networks, expert systems, and even fuzzy logic. The list is probably longer. Decision trees?
boppin
macrumors 65816
As far as I know, "notebook" simply refers to a portable computer, as opposed to a desktop computer—for instance, a MacBook Pro versus an Apple Studio or iMac.
If you use the terms synonymously, or if the meaning differs in your context, there is likely a different historical background involved; the German-language Wikipedia states the following:
In the late 1980s, Toshiba introduced the term "notebook" to emphasize the computers' small size and light weight—likening them to a notebook.[1] Today, the terms "notebook" and "laptop" are used largely interchangeably in German-speaking regions, though "notebook" tends to be applied to smaller or mid-sized models. "Laptop" refers to the fact that the mobile computer can be placed on one's lap.
Basic75
macrumors 68030
A "portable" computer was a distinct category, for example the Commodore SX-64 was a "portable".
Laptops are all computers that you can put on your lap and open in the usual way. Notebooks, as you correctly found out, was the name given to a sub-category of laptops, those that were relatively light.
Using laptop and notebook interchangeably nowadays is technically mostly correct because most modern laptops including all current Apple laptops would have been categorized as notebook back in the days.
Some modern gaming laptops and mobile workstations might be too large and heavy to have been considered a notebook but I don't know that market well enough to give an example.
Essentially, I'd take "Laptop" to mean "not a desktop" (and probably a clamshell design) while "Notebook" usually implies something roughly the size and shape of, well, an A4 or Letter note book.
Historically, "portable computer" was something like this:
Osborne 1 - Wikipedia
Or indeed:
Macintosh Portable - Wikipedia
...clearly neither "laptop" nor "notebook". I don't think there are many mainstream products like that today (googling turns up some fringe examples).
The common top-level distinction today still seems to be Laptop vs. Desktop (with maybe tablets and all-in-ones as separate categories).
Eg: https://apple.com/mac/
You'll see the same top-level categories on the Dell or Lenovo websites.
What you'll also find on HPDelNovo's websites are high-end "mobile workstations/laptop workstations" and "gaming laptops" (typically with 16-17" 16:9 screens, numeric keypads and hunky CPUs and discrete GPUs) which - while sold as laptops - look like flying bricks compared with anything Apple produces. I don't think anybody in the English-speaking world would describe those as "notebooks" - although they're now being surpassed by newer, low-power tech.
Of course, all of Apple's laptops since the demise of the old Mac Portable being sold as "Powerbook" or "Macbook" - the Neo and Air are clearly notebooks but that's a bit of a stretch with the 16" MBP (which is more mobile workstation territory). However, even the late, lamented 17" MBP made a contemporary Lenovo mobile workstation look like a 1970s brutalist car park...
Basic75
macrumors 68030
And just like "laptop", "desktop" has two meanings, the overall category of non-mobile micro computers, and specifically those with a horizontal case as opposed to a tower case. At least that's how it was in the 90s 🙂
boppin
macrumors 65816
Nah, that’s not how I know it. It’s probably because we live in different countries.
My ISP supplies me with a modem, their words and I provide the router. I see modems everywhere I look in modern networking so I think your lack of familiarity with the term is based more on you lack of contact with the modern and current networking world. Router does not have the same function as a modem, but the fact that often a router, modem and WiFi access point are integrated into the same box does not mean that the term modem has ceased to exist.
I don't speak German but it turns out I don't need to 🙂 ...
Mac
Die leistungsstärksten Mac Laptops und Desktops aller Zeiten. Mit der Power der Apple Chips. MacBook Neo, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio und Mac Pro.
www.apple.com
Computer, Monitore und Technologielösungen | Dell Deutschland
Dell bietet Technologielösungen, Services und Support. Notebooks, Touchscreen-PCs, Desktop-PCs, Server, Speicher, Monitore, Gaming und Zubehör kaufen
www.dell.com
(Edit: but "notebooks" turns up in the summary that MacRumors extracts, so I guess it's just not clear-cut).
Please try it and post pictures 🙂- 27" iMac for maximum comedy, I think, and no cheating with a magic trackpad...
...but you can use a laptop on a desk (more easily than using a desktop on your lap), so isn't a laptop *really* a desktop?
You can't apply too much logic to names that come about mostly by chance and popular usage and aren't even used consistently.
boppin
macrumors 65816
As I said, my understanding is that here in Germany, a portable computer is called a "notebook," while all others are called "desktop computers." I believe even Microsoft used this term back in the Windows 95 days. Then there is the "laptop"—the kind you can actually place on your lap. I recall someone writing—maybe 15 years ago?—that this distinction arose because a user once burned themselves on their device, prompting the manufacturer to state that it was a "notebook" and not a "laptop."
However, for some time now, these terms have been used synonymously. Or in other words, it no longer matters these days whether you say "notebook" or "laptop."
Or maybe not. That’s all I found. Hmm. Anyway, I’m pretty sure they were smaller, portable computers.
A "Laptop":
🔎 Notebook 1995 - Google Search
www.google.com
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Arran
macrumors 603
That may have been intentional irony (groan) - if so please excuse me while I spoil the joke...
You mean, after the tiny ring-shaped ferromagnetic "cores" that were threaded on a matrix of fine wires to make one of the earlier forms of RAM*? Nope, not anachronistic at all 🙂
Magnetic-core memory - Wikipedia
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Speaking of ancient computing terms, have we done boot/reboot (short for bootstrap) yet?
After powering up the computer everything was just full or random bits, so you had to enter and run a short program (often using front-panel switches to enter binary codes) called a "bootstrap" that would start loading the operating system (or whatever) from some high-tech medium like punched tape... I.e. to get the computer to "pick itself up by its own bootstraps"...
Also used for the new-fangled hardware to automatically reset the computer after power-on and run the "bootstrap" code from one of those fancy-pants ROM chips - which still happens today on some level I guess.
(* well, maybe after mercury delay lines and those CRT Williams Tubes that used the persistence of phosphor to store data. Hey, maybe we could call SSD sticks Will... no, maybe not!)