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Technology/Dream Palmtop, (sdf.org), 01/15/2019
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Twice I owned an HP Omnibook 300, and twice I sold it on
eBay. Now, they are all but impossible to get (for a
reasonable price.)
What I loved about the Omnibook 300:
- Flexible power options, including AA's (not sure why this
still matters to me.)
- Large LCD screen with 16 levels of grey, wonderful viewed
in full sunlight.
- Good keyboard, amazing little mouse invention that worked
really well.
- DOS and Windows 3.1
- PCMCIA
I suppose you can't really go back in time and appreciate
things more than you did in the moment (though I'll not stop
trying.) In the spirit of the Omnibook 300, my dream
palmtop/subnotebook of 2019 would include:
1. An ultra-low-power black and white LCD or eInk screen
Remember the interesting b&w/color hybrid screen on the
OLPC? I don't know what that thing's power consumption
looked like, but it was a fascinating bit of engineering.
B&W LCD screens in general have come a long way; I'm fond of
the modern ones, which seem to have a very shallow depth to
them, compared with the old ones. eInk has also developed
nicely, with vast speed improvements over the first screens
(have you SEEN the performance on the Dasung PaperlikePro
Touch?)
Why B&W? Primarily for power consumption and outdoor/full
(sun)light visibility; I appreciate the decoupling of the
lighting from the machine itself- I have plenty of ways to
make or use light. Color doesn't offend me (as you may
already know, if you've encountered me in any pubnix
settings.) I find it rather useful, generally speaking. But,
in a dream portable computing device, I want absurd maximum
power savings. I suppose if a backlit color screen won on
power, durability, and price, it might be the better bet.
2. A good, solid keyboard
I'm no expert here- and I say that because I realize that
there are experts who spend a good deal of time and energy
playing with keyboards. I'm not sure what the solution is in
the perfect keyboard, but I know there have been some
glorious failures. That OLPC I mentioned is a painful
example, though I'm positive no one would ever repeat it
even if they had never seen the OLPC (seriously, what were
they thinking?) I've owned a couple of small keyboard
devices, such as the Dauphin DTR-1 (decent keyboard), the
Journada 300LX (crap kb), Journada 720 (better kb), Vadem
Clio (decent kb), Psion 3a (crap kb), and the Diamond Mako
(great kb.)
Since I'm dreaming here, I don't feel that it's too much to
ask that the keyboard gods gather all of the vast learning
and experience relating to keyboards and come up with the
perfect portable keyboard for this application. Thinking
more on it, I'm pretty sure different folks would want
different keyboards- so my perfect palmtop/subnotebook of
2019 would have a user-changeable keyboard setup, with 3-6
options, to make everyone happy.
3. A well-supported, low-power CPU architecture
Again, I'm a dreamer, not an expert. Something tells me that
ARM would win, but that's probably just the availability
heuristic coming into play. If it can run Linux or BSD, and
it scales really, really well in terms of power usage, I'm
fine with it. Ideally, I'd like it to scale easily toward
the very bottom of the power specturm; and be able to lock
there, based on user preference (s/w controlled.)
4. Cost/power benefit of SoC, with RAM/ROM expansion
Does this exist? In my dream palmtop/subnotebook I want the
cost and power benefits of a System-on-a-Chip, with the
ability to expand RAM and ROM. Expanding RAM and/or ROM
might have a cost in terms of power, but I want the ability
to be there.
As I ponder, I feel that this is an unreasonable dream in
today's landscape. Devices are throw-away, and no one cares
about upgrading or expanding. I'm a dinosaur. And with the
low-cost of today's devices, perhaps I need to evolve. Of
course, there is the question of landfills full of e-waste,
and a serious lack of decent recycling avenues. Shouldn't a
dream include some thought for good old planet earth?
Doesn't upgradability help with that, at least a little?
Well, this is a dream, so expansion is a go, assuming it's
possible to engineer. The Omnibook had RAM expansion, after
all.
5. Wicked-long battery life
I want the battery life to be so long it's practically a
sin. I want the power companies to scream out in agony, "Why
did we let this happen?" I want there to be rioting on Wall
Street when the energy markets plunge.
Off means off. If I shut this thing down, I want it to stay
shut down. No magical network signals that continue to wave
around, nothing to wake it up except me giving it
life-restoring power through my own will and choice.
Networking is optional. Backlight (if applicable) is
optional. Whatever can be made optional to save power, is
optional (especially CPU horsepower, as previously
mentioned.)
I want the dream battery to be a new hybrid that combines
the weight/energy-density benefits of LiPo with the
low-self-discharge of rechargeable alkaline. And, I want it
to be easily user-changeable without tools (see item 6.)
6. Industrial, utilitarian design
At some point, industrial designers decided that screws and
bolts and seams were ugly. They were wrong. What's ugly is
your equipment after you've torn it all up trying to pry it
open so you could fix something that was meant to be thrown
away. There is a black stain on the soul of industrial
design, and it needs to be addressed.
My dream palmtop/subnotebook gets back to our "roadside
repairable" big iron roots, and builds from there using our
collective steampunk visions and the most modern materials
available. Durability, longevity, and ease-of-maintenance
are the result, along with a reasonable weight and
form-factor. MIL-STD-810 as a baseline. Metal, plenty of
metal, maybe even some brass, if it fits. I don't mind if I
have to polish the thing. I wouldn't mind being able to buff
out scratches either.
7. Open platform
It doesn't come with an OS installed, though several
easy-to-image packages are available. There is nothing
stopping the owner from installing whatever OS they choose.
There is nothing stopping software companies from creating
an OS for it, even a commercial one. The hardware will be so
desperately desirable that the software makers will be
forced (although with great pleasure on their part) to
produce wares for it.
And now, my dreaming has transformed into ridiculous
reveling, so it is time for me to stop. It's fun to dream.
