Would you believe that Acer is working on a frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard? As far-fetched as the idea might be, it's certainly plausible, expected even. The idea, as rumored by
DigiTimes, involves doing away with the display's frame by printing colors directly onto the back of the display's reinforced glass substrate from Corning (a la
Gorilla Glass presumably). Coupled with a touchscreen keyboard, the rumored device should be impossibly thin by traditional laptop comparisons. Keep in mind that we've already seen this
Frame Zero concept pictured above from Fujitsu and Acer's arch-rival ASUS has been showing off its
dual-display laptop prototype with touchscreen keyboard for months. Even the
OLPC XO-3 plans to eschew the clickity keyboard in favor of a touchscreen version. And anyone who has ever seen a scifi movie knows that tactile keyboards and display bezels have no role to play in our computing future anyway, so we might as well get things started now -- or in the second half of 2010 according to
DigiTimes' sources.
posted March 8th 2010 5:55AM
Sure, why not? I hate bezels anyway. Not so sure about the keyboard but i'm open minded.
@Bahumbug It wont be reliable. Acers never are and touchscreen keyboards fail hard.
The only good thing about touch keyboard I can think of is , spill proof.
@Bahumbug One company comes to mind that just seems to LOVE bezels :P
@Bahumbug
If we're talking features, maybe include some sort of piezoelectrics in the keyboard so it can give SOME tactile feedback, but something better than surepress
@camroncake
how about the keyboard is a metamaterial and it uses an effect similar to muscles flexing that raises keys which depress under your touch
@Cy Starkman
Better still if we could have the screen make physical exdentations when its in keyboard mode so you can 'feel' the keys, and turns into a flat surface in tablet mode. Not THAT I would buy.
which you just said cause I just skimmed over it. It reinstates the point anyway
@Bahumbug
I want one. Though can we replace the LCD if it's broken? I just replaced my LCD on my laptop for $60. I don't think I can with this one. Though, you can never say never.
@Bahumbug
No USB 3.0 ports. Disappointing.
@Bahumbug What I like about touchscreen keyboards is being able to visually change the key mappings to a specific language and have accents appear on the keys. Maybe even be able to add a virtual track-pad when needed.
@Bahumbug I want my keyboard with... KEYS!!!
@Bahumbug
Dream form
@Nokia N900
If the keyboard is just glass then that is even more spill proof than a keyboard tray, as there should be zero openings into the guts of the system from the top of the unit (just wipe away). Keyboard trays have come a long way though...my Dell Latitude E4300 tray is made so if I spill I can just dump the contents out quickly and the mobo is inverted so spills aren't nearly as hazardous.
@Bahumbug unboxing...taking it out of the packaging...oh cr*p i dropped it *SMASH*...ah well it was pretty while it lasted i suppose
@Bahumbug
Hmm. I'm not seeing the usefulness of this as a portable laptop. I would love to mount this thing into my coffee table though due to its spillproofiness.
@Nokia N900
Thats actually a big one for me. But also the fact that the keyboard layout can be easily changed (different languages).
I want one!
@Alias233
I want two!
@Alias233
No in this decade- unless you don't want to compute. I don't even think Moore's law supports this mockup. Maybe if it was just used as a calculator... but I don't see ANYTHING like this in ten years. Nice Look tho.
@think before you react
And that same spirit is what drives those people that still use XP.
@25i
No, I actually could care less about the shiny. I care about safety, efficient use of resources and support. And I've had less crashes with 7 than with XP, and I'm not alone in that.
Will a borderless screen on a laptop be durable enough?
Well, it's hard to see acer as innovative company. seriously, they didn't invent anything, just making good stuff.
Sony - "island" keyboard
Apple - OSX
ASUS - netbook
Acer - em... frameless laptop with touchscreen. Not bad though
@rainbury
None of those ideas were original anyway;
Sony - chiclet keyboard - dates back to calculators and ZX Spectrum.
Apple - OS X - UNIX code is stolen (without thanks, may I add) from the open source community.
Asus - Netbook - Basically just an under-priced, underpowered ultra-portable notebook.
In a market so saturated; it's difficult (verging on impossible) to find a product with true, original inspiration.
@Professor Hubert J Farnsworth
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/certificates/1190p.pdf
Should come with a serrated edge for slicing bread.
Convergence is all the rage now. =)
@Ducman69
Add the possibility to bake your pancakes between the two lids when shut, and i'm sold.
@kitsune I say cutting board. And say goodbye to coffee spills.
These things would just snap with any pressure. Unless they have a nice titanium body, it's simply a stupid fx idea.
@GeneKam Well, you don'tt sound like a former Acer engineer that's disgruntled, just a know-it-all that isn't involved in the project. People will put this through the stress test during development and there will be plenty of sites doing reviews of build quality. I don't think many people are going to give your current opinion much weight. Don't believe in something stronger than gorilla glass is possible in a production device in 9 months? Eh, why am I asking you?
Frameless is so damn sexy.
enough with the touchscreens already.
it might be fancy, make things thinner, and be useful for some applications, or some functions of applications.
yet, any typing more than a few LOL or IMHO are cumbersome.
even with tactile feedback it is not great, you need to constantly watch where and what you are typing., and constantly either readjust your hand position, or do corrections.
most of the applications we use need some kind of keys you can feel, and where you feel the difference between the keys easilly.
these would be: typing longer than a few words, gaming (your fingers know what key you are on) drawing, moving a mouse on the screen without making huge arm gestures....
I dearly hope some show me wrong, but I have yet to find any appli on my convertible notebook, or 3GS where I do not need to grab the mouse or type on the keyboard instead of touching a flat surface, just because it is more precise, and more easy.
oh and the future: I always found it weird in Star trek, raising meters on a touch screen in the middle of combat or the teleportation where they say they need to be precise....
@D1Only1
replying to myself:
the frameless screen is a great thing though!
i like the frameless screen, but i'm skeptical about the touchscreen keyboard - is there really any reason to have one instead of a traditional one apart from looking cooler?
@mrqs If it can function as a second screen, it makes sense.
@mrqs decrease the size dramatically. This will blow away the worlds thinnest category, adding a real keyboard might get like a double-quintuple size difference. Anyone who doesn't care about the worlds thinnest wont touch this because it will cost 4K.
The iMac team is holding a panic meeting
@kopmis
then Apple legal calls down,
"Relax, we're on it."
Give me now!
Make it stylus-and-finger-enabled (like the Courier, or HP's new "Military grade" toy) and we can talk. The only thing I'd sacrifice a real keyboard for is handwriting recognition (at least on a device bigger than my pocket).
I wonder if this is what the old people felt like when rotary dial was starting to get replaced by the touch tone key pad
The only reason I can think for the keyboard, is to allow different languages and custom layout of the keys. Also I believe that it can function as simple controls without needing a keyboard.
Or I can just be blowing this out of my ass, for it could just be for looks and have bragging rights.
As much as I hate touch screen keyboards....That screen is sexy as hell.
I want this be have Colorvision!!
my god where almost there
This'll be way cool
*cough* iPad *cough*
@SteveWiilliams
Please cover your mouth.
@SteveWiilliams I'm pretty sure the iPad has a bezel.