The perfect laptop, take two

A number of readers responded to our call to describe their perfect notebook. We were pleased to discover they generally agreed with major elements of our WorldBook design, especially the integrated smartphone and the embedded solar panel. We also learned that features we excluded for being too expensive or impractical might have enough market appeal to justify another crack at doing them affordably.

Modularity was a popular theme among the submissions. More than one reader wanted a removable keyboard, a removable screen, a detachable camera and mic, removable wireless speakers, and a removable disk drive that could be easily slipped out of the laptop and into a desktop computer.

Many readers wanted more from our WorldBooks. Wish lists included TV, GPS, a music synthesizer, shortwave radio, a tablet form factor, a keyboard that doubles as a touchscreen, even a fold-out screen or add-on panels to extend the display. Other readers wanted decidedly less: a form factor the size of a paperback book, small enough to fit in a pocket.

[ View a slideshow of our perfect laptop features. See “The best notebook money can’t buy” to explore the interactive Flash illustrations of InfoWorld’s ideal notebooks. Read the article on our original designs, “The birth of the InfoWorld WorldBooks.” ]

Readers loved the idea of the smartphone integrated into our notebooks’ touchpad/tablet. The embedded smartphone allows WorldBook users to access EDGE and 3G for Internet connections, as well as the ability to run productivity widgets, play stored and streaming media files, and employ the browser without powering up the notebook or lighting its display. Some readers, including grand prize winner Enrique Gines, wanted this smartphone to be removable. So did we. What nixed modular removal of the smartphone from the original WorldBooks were design challenges that we couldn’t address affordably.

Hold the phone

Having a user-removable smartphone module would mean that the notebook would spend some of its time with a giant hole where the touchpad/tablet once sat. We could conceivably create a module that slides into the same space to provide only the pointing device, but wouldn’t it make you crazy if you misplaced or damaged this? Whenever you removed the smartphone, your notebook would be useless, with a crater where the pointing device should be.

We also had to wrestle with the ever-present dilemma of creating a perfect, durable, and forgiving yet thin hot-plug connector rated for thousands of insertions and removals. Finally, when we sat down to sketch a smartphone that also functions as a removable cartridge, we ended up with one ugly phone. The connector would have to be on the side. The removable smartphone presents some hurdles, but we agree that it is an idea too cool to abandon.

Another approach is inspired by a screen-sharing server written for iPhone. We could fashion an affordable external wireless handset that is effectively a dumb terminal, an extension of the integrated smartphone’s display and touch surface. By making this a Wi-Fi device, you’d be able to use your phone whenever your notebook bag was within a few hundred feet, even if it was powered down.

Readers emphasized the importance of seamless sync between the notebook and the smartphone module, as well as with the clouds to which a user might be subscribed (such as Exchange Server, Domino, Groupwise, MobileMe, and Ovi). We agree, but sync is a nasty business where proprietary, noninteroperable protocols prevail. As a mere notebook manufacturer, we can’t staff up the software engineers needed to cover every sync contingency, and we certainly don’t have the clout to push the wireless industry for meaningful standards. We’re confident that third parties will step in to fill this gap.

Display madness

During our design discussions, we agreed that notebook displays weren’t flexible enough; you can never put them where you want them. We considered a tablet PC design, but the added cost would place the machine out of reach for many buyers. That’s why we compromised with the touch-sensitive strips at the sides of the display and the multifunction touchpad/tablet.

We love the idea of a fold-out display. We’d split the display into three panels so that, when folded, they’d latch in the middle at the top of the lid, like beetle’s wings. We’d lose the solar panel unless we designed a swiveling hinge, a la Tablet PC, so that the backs of the folding displays would present upward when the lid is closed. Putting the solar panels in the wings would let you tip the panels toward the light while the notebook is in use. If we could flip them over and latch them facing outward, the wings could display a presentation viewable by people at both ends of a conference table.

There would be a vertical bezel between the panels, so the display couldn’t be continuous, but the complex hinge would allow the wings to fold down at either side of the display to flip their orientation from portrait to landscape. We wouldn’t be able to do landscape view on the wings facing the user, but you could sit at the center of a conference table and have your presentation seen by the entire group. You could also flip just one of the wings over to watch a widescreen movie without sucking up the power of the full display.

The fold-out panels would also allow you to have three-party videoconferences, with the center display showing a whiteboard or shared screen and each talking head having its own display. The model with the fold-out display will be called the WingBook. It will list for about 150 percent of the MSRP for the single-display model. We can’t make the wings snap onto a single-display unit. Their hinges have to be tight.

Thinking outside

We also tossed around the idea of a removable display. Once again, we faced the dilemma of needing an indestructible connector to dock and undock the screen, along with the added challenge of putting a battery inside the display. No wireless technology can carry the entire contents of a high-resolution display, losslessly, in real time.

A reader came up with a brilliant alternative: an integrated projector. He cited an example of an intriguing technology in development, the Microvision Pico, that’s small enough to fit inside a smartphone. In a pinch, your display is the wall (or ceiling) of your hotel room. Great tip.

On the WingBook, we’d put the projector in the bezel of one of the wings, iSight style, so that it could be directed at any surface, including the ceiling. A Webcam would be set in the bezel on the other wing. Faces look more natural shot from the side, and if the projector isn’t in use, it can serve as a video light during a conference.

Security was frequently cited as a requirement as well. Full disk encryption is a must, and with the attention that iPhone has brought to the ease with which data can be lifted from a phone, the smartphone needs encryption, too. This carries a high compute cost, which implies a higher power draw, but we agree it’s a problem that needs to be solved.

Biometric authentication was suggested by several readers. We had a notion to use gesture-based authentication: Draw your password on the touchpad/tablet in what amounts to invisible ink. Your strong password might be your finger-paint rendering of a cat or a house with a shining sun. It would be enough to frustrate even a dedicated shoulder-surfer, and imagine going after that password with a brute force attack.

Readers were keen on what you might call couch potato ergonomics, asking us to consider that people put notebooks on their laps, bellies, and pillows, surfaces poorly suited to a notebook’s tendency to concentrate heat on the bottom surface. We also remember when notebooks were laptops, and some of us have the fried thighs to prove that we stubbornly persist in using them as such. One reader suggested that we put stabilizing wings and tea-tray table mounts on the chassis.

That might be a bit much, but we liked his idea of using heat pipes to vent heat through the top of the display. It works for iMac. Heat pipes would make the display lid thicker, but it could make the base thinner. Where’s the rule that says the base and the lid can’t be the same thickness?

Notebook dreams One of our favorite esoteric requests was from a musician who wanted us to design in ports for MIDI instruments and XLR microphones, along with a 500GB solid-state drive. A number of reader-recommended features fit into the “money’s no object” category, so InfoWorld’s laptop manufacturing operation will have a division devoted to custom designs. If you can pay $150,000 (up front) for the notebook of your dreams, we’ll build it.

For the most part, though, readers tended to dream about notebooks whose features call for pushing the state of the art, but not by much. We’re left with little doubt that much of our notebook design, and what readers have contributed to it, will be realized in one form or another. When that happens, we’ll see some notebooks worth getting excited about.