The Sketch 'N' Send: a dual screen, split keyboard laptop from the Clinton era
It looks like a 1997 era Compaq broken in frustration across the knee, but what you are looking at is is Ergonomic Dual Screen Split Keyboard Notebook Computer... the world's only platform "to exploit Windows (TM) with dual screens!"
Like its prototype, the "Sketch 'N' Send", the patents for the technology apparently stretch back to 1994, but the guys at Ergonomic Keyboard now claim that the laptop will ship in 2008. And hell, they must be optimistic about the laptop's success: they're selling all the patents!
These Patents are for sale. There are about 4 million notebooks sold each year, if you get 2.5% of that market that is 100,000. If you sell the notebook for $1,000, that's $100,000,000/year. This product could easily get 10%-20% of that market with a selling price of $2,000.
It's a huge joke, but my lust slithers out of its sheath, striking its tentacle-like appendage in the Sketch 'N' Send's direction. It's like a Yanko Design from the Clinton Era, but it hearkens back to the days when laptops were huge and chunky and came in gray, when trackballs were ubiquitous, and when any conveptual deviations from the stock laptop archetype were inspired almost entirely by Star Trek: The Next Generation..
Ergonomic Keyboards of the Future [Electronic Keyboards via Technabob]
the latest
latest episodes
I don't know...the name 'Sketch N Send' and the actual look of the thing, just screams to me that it should be in the hands of my 2 year old while they slobber and pound on it, and play Barbie or Spongebob games with LED graphics.
Ah. My heart goes out to the lone, dogged inventor, laboring over the solution to a problem experienced by him alone, building a product for a market whose metamorphosis he was never quite able to discern.
He will continue laboring even as his suspicion that his genius may never be recognized dries into a cold, waxy certainty.
A toast to him and his windmill.
"conveptual"? is that an actual word or just a very popular typo? after a google search I'm a bit uncertain...
Yes, a girl for you, young man. And quickly!
Brownlee,
Based on the tentacle thing and the SIM card post, I say you need to take time off for beaver hunting
Another thing horribly influenced by ST:NG are cars of the era, esp. Ford/Mercury
I hope their products are better than their website. Horrible - please shoot the developer.
Just by looking at it, you get a sense of the flimsiness of its build quality. The logo in red Times Italic, that looks like it was designed in Microsoft Paint circa 1994, is the icing on the cake. This is one janky mo-fo.
This does have that "abandoned in the basement of the computer shop" look to it.
I was going to say something about explaining to ten year olds why they can't have one, but I'm pretty sure the kids would pass on this above age seven or eight.
Sadly, the raw concept is a little nifty.
Not a lot nifty, and these days I'd demand a tablet screen interface on both of those screens, along with ditching that trackball for something from this millennium. The raw idea of a two-screen notebook is cool (Like a Nintendo DS, but a full computer!), and the idea of combining one of the screens with a keyboard is cool, and I like split keyboards so that's nice.
He's just managed to put them together ALL WRONG.
Just buy these patents and you'll magically make $100m a year!! It's so simple. I need to go speak with a financial adviser.
...There have been times when the old carpal tunnes have *screamed* for a design like this. I'd gladly give Cory's left nut for the privledge of getting one of these from the company and give it a good, serious Dell-class evaluation test. So if anyone from the manufacturer is reading this, feel free to contact me. I'll even let you know how it works with BlackXP :-P
I dunno. This looks kinda cool except for the dorky name and the early-90s-Powerbook color.
I think this prime for a redesign contest. I'm curious what some people with a good design sense would come up with the same basic concept.
I actually like the idea. But I am not sold on that split key board. I do really like the concept. Was it even born?