MEDL Technology's 'The Panel' hands-on
By Sean Hollister 
posted March 29th 2010 7:00PM
posted March 29th 2010 7:00PM
At 80 percent brightness, Liao says the device's 4200mAh rechargeable battery gives it 4 to 5 hours of spreadsheet slinging bliss, and those buttons on the right side might be used to control more than brightness and contrast -- should the company adopt wireless USB as originally planned, Liao intends to have them double as arrow controls, allowing you to cut the cables and still have basic e-reader functionality. A headphone jack is still in the works, which should allow audio passthrough from HDMI and possibly USB. Last but not least, there's a reason The Panel looks so good lying prone next to that Macbook: should cost decrease, future revisions may include a tablet-style touchscreen. Shame most of these ideas are still on the drawing board, but even the primary product is shaping up nicely. Hit up our gallery for the visual scoop.
P.S. Those blotches on the LCD screen? Liao says that's a manufacturing defect, and that MEDL is testing LCD panels from a variety of manufacturers to avoid such mishaps in the final product.
video or it didn't happen
This.
@jdm28690 Agreed.
Wait, so is this a computer or a 2nd try at the Smart Panel concept?
It's another dumb video-over-USB device.
USB is for mice and keyboards, not video.
Dell XPS M1530 is still the shit!
@artstate
Indeed. Mine is still running.
So.
Things like this only get better with time, unlike SE phones...
What
I'm excited for this.
They should have focused on making it a touchscreen, 13 inches of tablet-goodness.
Now I have something to bring with me to use for my PS3. I don't have to worry about not having a source for those pesky hotel room TVs.
Does the iPad USB port has video input. If an app could be created for the ipod that acts as a USB monitor. 1024x768 secondary monitor that last around 10 hours, it would be very cheap solution. I guess that app wold sell & people can now justify bringing their laptop and their ipad together :-). Wow I wish I was a developer and this is possible.
HA HA HA. You're acting as the the iPad has any standard ports on it. There's no USB port on the thing, so forget that. Some vendor would have to go through Apple's happy horseshit to create a dock-connector-to-USB adapter, and you know that wouldn't be approved even if someone bothered.
@Information Central
its an app. I don't know if I am right, but I think USB monitors don't use video signals because the port is not designed for that. USB port is designed to transmit digital signal and perhaps a decoder on the USB monitor decodes the signal much like a video decoder decode an MKV, AVI or any video file. If that is case it is possible to create an ipad app for that and it is even possible transmits through wifi of bluethooth if the bandwidth could handle it and I guess it could. All it needs is a program installed on the computer and the ipad.
@Information Central
USB monitors don't need a female usb port (unless you want to add a usb hub feature), what it needs is a male usb plug to plug on the female usb port of the computer. attach the usb sync connector of the ipad and you have replicated the usb male plug of a USB monitor. Imagine the iPad secondary PC monitor app, could even support multi-touch just like a multi-touch monitor.
@Dhelle you can't do that as long as you can't let the extender-service run in the background, obviously. else, all you could do is use the extender-app itself to extend on the screen, but no other app, ever.
@davepermen oh, noticed it the wrong way round (thought you want that screen on an ipad.. yeah, the other way round could work.. :) obviously :))
@davepermen
lol... Yes I want to use the iPad as a secondary pc monitor. Thought the screen is smaller I am sure it will last longer than this and it would be more functional rather than carry a monitor all the time.
PRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
And how would it work if one already got Primary display and Extended display. INNNNNNNNNNNNNNFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ?
@ashleythehottiest
Yup, yet another Lameblet.... bleah!
Just 5 days til real awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This would be PERFECT to be setup in a car dashboard. Alpine and the rest of the car in dash radio/dvd makers are long overdue to go the way of the TomTom and Garmin Nuvi for their overpriced obsolete shit. All you need to do is hook up your smart phone to an external display and you have mounds of additional features than your radio system for less or the same price and on a BIGGER display than most in car dvd players.
@Eternity
Already happened. Nokia is already teaming up with Alpine and others to allow a terminal mode so your phone can be hooked up to the car entertainment system for GPS and Music and other things
Dude, what? Hook up your phone? What would that have to do with your car stereo? You still have amps and tone controls to deal with, not to mention radio reception and possibly a CD player. Also, phones don't support even this USB-over-video nonsense.
Finally, this screen is way too big for a car. I'm with you in looking at every new portable screen as a potential car installation, but this is not it.
The iPad would've been a very cool, dockable car-control center, but the lack of real GPS, multitasking, and all of the other crippling factors ruin it. It's just another way that Apple hypocritically shoots itself in the foot by making it impossible to do things that they apparently haven't imagined. "We're inventing a whole new category." NOPE. You're killing it before it starts.
@kingstu
Guys I mean skip the radio manufacturer altogether. All you need is a touch screen display or a regular display and a smart phone with video out. Why use DVD and CD's? I mean who actually wants to be sorting through physical media that gets scratched and lost. It's 2010 baby! Why install more parts into your car that can get messed up or stolen? Like a hard drive, dvd player, xm radio and all this other nonsense? Why not just have an interface that routes your calls with noise cancellation standard without the needing to buy another gadget to put in your car too? Also use online radio stations instead of subscribing to xm or sirius..
Make a 15" model so it matches up perfectly with my MacBook Pro and I'll preorder that shit today!
@FlyersPh9
we'll consider it.
If they can deliver on the touchscreen functionality and for a good price then I'm sold.
How can a noname company with no resources can create something usefull for an average Engadget reader? Give me a break.
Add a touchscreen (maybe an older model Wacom digitizer) to that and you've got a Cintiq for less.
@ashleythehottiest
Sorry to hijack a post- but I have to say, that is one SEXY looking Mac Book in those pics!!
it would probably take a few generations before Apple would allow the iPad to be used as a second screen. If it could be used as a second screen then my job would be done.
We're hoping to sell The Panel for $300 but that's only a speculative price.
How much would you pay to have a touchscreen on it? A good touchscreen on a 13" is not cheap.
-eric
@ericmedl
I am the IT Director for a CPA firm and the Audit dept. would KILL to have a 15" version of this. They work in the field constantly and they NEED to have a secondary monitor to be efficient. Till now, the only option was to lug around a real LCD monitor every time they went on site.
I'm also a member of several CPA groups and one of the constant requests are for portable, easy to use, secondary monitors for field work. We are already using DisplayLink technology to power our 3rd & 4th monitors, so this would be a godsend.
15" please and we'll be first in line for the pre-order.
@ericmedl I'd be willing to pay 200+ for touchscreen capability; not some cheesy pinch to zoom function, but Wacom-like stylus driven work, though I could live with it if it weren't pressure sensitive. I work in design and a lot of times am required to work with clients out of the office and this would be great both for displaying, and for doing actual work. If it were pressure sensitive though, I'd use it on my workstation as a replacement for my Wacom, depending on how good it is.
Also, if there were a functionality to daisy these to have multiple displays, that'd be awesome. Obviously, that's not a huge deal, but it would be really cool.
I would LOVE to see this with Wireless USB. My dream is to have a wireless monitor that I could connect to my desktop so I could play games or browse the internet from my living room. I currently use a laptop (as most people do) but I really want to play games without going to my office and I don't want to(and haven't) pay for an expensive laptop. It may be a niche market but if it wasn't too expensive, I could see a decent amount of people picking up on that.
I'm with theletterj, touch screen w/ stylus support, not really concerned about pressure sensitive + some kind of wireless function and I'm sold for $200+ easy, hell if it had speakers and I could use it like a tablet around the house I would say $350+ easy.