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Concept PC 2001 273

Posted by CmdrTaco from the not-coming-soon-anywhere dept.
Rami Kassab writes: "Check out this sweet PC developed by HP. It runs on the Intel P4 and features a wireless keyboard, mouse, even a wireless 18" flat screen LCD monitor. The wireless mouse and keyboard run over RF. All of the components are connected to eachother via Bluetooth technology. Included with this PC is USB 2.0 and an ATI 7500 AGP card." The screen looks a little strange, but I always love seeing interesting new designs for these boxes since I spend so much time in front of one.
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Concept PC 2001 More

Concept PC 2001

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  • Non-Wireless Monitor? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bwindle2 ( 519558 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:27PM (#2586428)
    Maybe its just me, but I didn't see anything about a wireless monitor..."DVI Interface LCD monitor" "and an 18" flat screen LCD monitor to top things off".
    • Monitor? Have you looked at the picture? Looks like a microwave to me. And just yesterday I was joking about building a pc inside an old microwave.
    • Correct. DVI Interface is a cable/connector definition for a digital interface to the monitor. I'm not sure whether Bluetooth has enough bandwidth for a monitor, but it wouldn't be a good idea for most offices anyhow. Put an RF-connected monitor into every cubicle and that's way too much RF in the air...

      The mouse and keyboard are bluetooth, and that is a good idea, if it doesn't cost too much. Oh, and put a beeper in the mouse so I can hit a key and find it under the piles of paper. 8-)

  • The Cats Will Be Very Upset (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quarters ( 18322 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:27PM (#2586432)
    No cables to play with and/or chew to bits. If I can't offer my computer to them as a sacrifice they'll make a beeline to the A/V gear cables.
    • There's up to 300' of cable to chew to bits. Only the mouse and keyboard are wireless, the rest is a cable bundle from the monitor to the PC, up to 300' of cable.
    • My cat is already very upset. She isn't prone to chewing cables but in the old days of TV set like monitors she loved to soak up heat and stay close to me while I was working or playing games by "Garfielding" on top of it.

      Then I brought in the first monitor with a tilt/swivel base. Scared the piss out of her the first time she tried to settle on top of it. Not IN the monitor, thank God.

      With a flat screen she won't even be able to warm up by lying *next* to it.

      By the way, the best definition of a cat that I've run across is:

      "God's way of letting you know your furniture is too good."

      KFG
  • My IBM PC jr had a wireless keyboard that came standard. For you folks who don't remember the PCjr was popular in the mid 80's
    • The PCjr was a joke, as was Bill Sydnes who commissioned it while at IBM. Another example of his handiwork is the death of Commodore (specifically the Amiga).
    • ``the PCjr was popular in the mid 80's''

      Oh, really? It was slow (but then so was it's bigger brother in those days). If memory serves, it didn't include a floppy drive as standard equipment and the software available on those cartridges was... no, I take that back; there was virtually no software available in those cartridges. And the keyboard was the biggest problem of all. It probably set a record for causing unanimous negative opinion in the shortest amount of time of any PC product.

      Surely ``popular'' wasn't the word you really meant to use...

  • Finally... (Score:1, Informative)

    by nll8802 ( 536577 )
    There is finally some bluetooth devices coming out. I have been using a traditional wireless keyboard and mouse (IR) for a while and get quite a few missed keystrokes and mouse jerks. Bluetooth from what I understand is supposed to eliminate this. For those of you who dont know what bluetooth is go here [bluetooth.com].
    • Logitech and Intel both have RF based keyboards, mice, trackballs, and game controllers. I swore I would never use an IR based product like that, (after the loads of fun I had with an IR based NES controller). They are well worth the inventment when going cordless to avoid that irritation.

      It is nice to see Bluetooth becoming the standard here though. I just want a PC with USB, Firewire, Bluetooth and 802.11g for connectivity outside the box. I'd be happy. (Ok, and maybe a Gigabit ethernet port just in case)
      • It is nice to see Bluetooth becoming the standard here though.

        I wish it was the standard, though; Logitech and Thrustmaster are both coming out with wireless gamepads, but every RF device from either company needs its own receiver. A single receiver would save a mess of USB ports...

  • Not a wireless LCD (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sportal ( 145003 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:29PM (#2586438)
    The article says nothing about this being a wireless monitor. That would be quite a task though, bet that doesn't run across 802.11b or Bluetooth.

  • and power? (Score:3, Offtopic)

    by spankfish ( 167192 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:30PM (#2586443) Homepage
    It won't be really wireless until the power supply is also wireless ;-)

    Maybe someone can beam the power into the machine with lasers or something, but I wouldn't want to have to reboot every time a cat runs under the desk!
    • But you'd have pre-cooked cat snacks while you wait for it to come back up.

    • Re:and power? (Score:3, Funny)

      by babbage ( 61057 )
      I would think that would only be a problem once.... PZZZZT!
    • I built my 802.11 interface with old crystal radio parts. It is self powered. Now I sell the excess power back to the Electric Company:-)

    • Re:and power? (Score:5, Funny)

      by MindStalker ( 22827 ) <mindstalker@gmai ... com minus distro> on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:44PM (#2586541) Journal
      Well you can easily beam it through microwaves, and run a battery for times when the beam is crossed. Though the cat would QUICKLY learn not to cross the beam. Anyways untill we learn how to do subspace power transportation. I think the fun way would be to have 2 how swap batteries in it, and make the batteries with robot legs which are smart enough to walk over to their recharge station when they get low. And walk back and redock with your computer once filled. Get a bunch of these put the recharge station across the room and put up obstacles for it to cross. And you could have a fun time watching your pet batteries do their little labor walks. After a while it will start to feel like warcraft gold miners in your own home :)

    • Maybe someone can beam the power into the machine with lasers or something, but I wouldn't want to have to reboot every time a cat runs under the desk!


      Every time? I suspect each cat would only be able to do this once. How many cats do you have?

      • Every time? I suspect each cat would only be able to do this once. How many cats do you have?

        Heh. I dunno 'bout you, but I always have V cats running under mine!

  • I've seen systems before where the cd drive is built into the monitor (like this one). I'm curious what happens if the CD drive goes bad on you. Obviously, it would be a bit too expensive replacing the entire display, but the drive itself looks like it would have to be very slim to fit in there. Has anyone had experience with something like this, and if so, how hard is it to find a replacement drive? Just curious. :)

    Other than that, this thing looks nifty. It would make a great in-car computer if it doesn't draw too much power.
    • I would hope they use laptop cd drives in these, for compatability's sake.
    • Same thing as replacing a 3.5" floppy on an 486(?) era HP server box that had the funky curved pannel - you pay dearly - they wanted $300 for a 1.44M floppy! Course, a normal $14 floppy fit just fine in a 5.25" w/adapter. Looks like you really will have to think "out of the box" for any repair....

  • wireless kbd and mouse (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Last time I tried wireless a keyboard and mouse was about a year ago. It sucked. The keyboard dropped characters often enough to bug me, and the mouse had a tendency to "stick" as it lost its connection for brief periods. Has the technology gotten any better? It doesn't seem like that hard a problem to solve reasonably.

  • Slashdotted! (Score:2, Funny)

    by artemis67 ( 93453 )
    Now if only it had a sweet web server and some sweet bandwidth....

    -----

  • p4! wow! (Score:2, Funny)

    by tulmad ( 25666 )
    How many more times could they have mentioned "Intel's Pentium 4" in that article? Funniest part, was when I came back to write this response there was a p4 ad running on slashdot (ugh).

  • Wireless monitor! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Wow! That's cool. How about calling it television?

  • RF (Score:1, Troll)

    by Wyatt Earp ( 1029 )
    I have a couple problems with the devices being hooked up via RF.

    1. There is the Cancer aspect. It's obvious that no one understands the issues that may arise from having a radio transmitter around you all the time (Cel phones) let alone multiple ones around you all the time at your computer.

    2. Interferance. The FCC regulations for RF devices at these frequencies state that you have to accept whatever outside interference there is. Getting bad input on an RF mouse, display or keyboard would blow.

    Those things said, my mother had an RF remote for her C-band sat dish, and it was really neat.

    • Re:RF = Sniffable? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by czardonic ( 526710 )
      In addition to the above, I would like to know about:

      3. How secure is this?

      I have already heard tales about being able to spoof/sniff logitech wireless mice and keyboards. Like much of wireliess tech, this just adds another layer of vulnerability. Why go through the trouble of getting a trojan onto a system, when you can do it remotely, w/o using a network? Add this to a wireless LAN, and it seems like it opens a lot of doors.
    • IANAEE [electrical engineer], but it's my understanding that all electrical circuits generate electromagnetic fields and/or radiation to some degree. So unless you plan living on a small island in the middle of the Pacific, up a tree, you can pretty much assume there is a chance of cancer.

      Of course, you're much more likely to get cancer from the toxins in the air or the toxins in your food or radiation from your glow-in-the-dark alarm clock that some low-energy RF emissions.
    • I'm surprised no one has mentioned security yet.

      Remember Tempest [google.com]? Who needs ultra-senstitive EM gear to pick up blips in your monitor timing, when you can broadcast everything you do on radio...
    • 1. There is the Cancer aspect. It's obvious that no one understands the issues that may arise from having a radio transmitter around you all the time (Cel phones) let alone multiple ones around you all the time at your computer.


      Although it (appears) true that RF energy can cause problems with cells in the body, the amount of power in an 802.11b or Bluetooth antenna is FAR less than cellular equipment. A microware cooks food at 1000 watts @ 2.5 GHz, but long term cell phone use at 1 watt is debatable (probably not good for you, anyway), and long term use of 802.11 equipment at 0.05 to 0.1 watts is most likely insignificant. Plus, RF signals degrade at 1/(n^4), so even 1 foot away from an antenna is significantly less power (though I won't debate how much radiation my left leg receives from my Lucent PCMCIA wireless card in my laptop - still, the convenience to me is with the miniscule risk).

    • There is the Cancer aspect. It's obvious that no one understands the issues that may arise from having a radio transmitter around you all the time (Cel phones) let alone multiple ones around you all the time at your computer.

      Bluetooth is low power/short range, even less of a cancer risk (if there actually is a risk) and last time I checked I don't put my mouse and keyboard up to my head when I use it.

      The FCC regulations for RF devices at these frequencies state that you have to accept whatever outside interference there is. Getting bad input on an RF mouse, display or keyboard would blow

      It says that on every electronic device that falls under FCC regulation wired or wireless, like your monitor, computer, wired mouse and keyboard, sound card, etc... These protocols are designed to handle interference. One point I do worry about thought is having the batteries run out...now that sucks...
  • Been five minutes waiting for that site to load. Time that someone used a proper CSM rather than those PHPNuke pieces o' ####.

  • Prettier outside, same junk inside (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ars-Fartsica ( 166957 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:39PM (#2586506)
    How about PCs that are actually simple to upgrade or alter if we see fit? A few years back PC vendors tried removeable components, but now these designs are relegated to server-class systems (i.e. hot swappable RAID drives).

    Still to this day, upgrading a hard drive or a graphics card is an unnecesarily obfuscated process, requiring the PC guts to be cracked open and laid out on the kitchen table.

    Of course easily upgradeable components would cut into PC sales, so its probably hopeless.

    • PC guts to be cracked open and laid out on the kitchen table

      Because it's cheaper .
      No, seriously. I love Apple's G4 case for replacing/installing drives, RAM, etc. I showed my PC-loving friends, and they were mightily impressed.

      Trying to do that to a consumer PC would necessitate raising the cost $100 or so, and every single dork on /. would scream blue murder because they cost too much. So there's your answer in a nutshell: innovation and convenience are great things, but only if it doesn't cost ME extra. :P

    • I wondered about this myself. Wouldn't a company like Dell turn a modular system into a profitable endeavor by also selling upgrade modules?

      The problem is that the desktop system market has razor-thin margins, and the extra materials necessary to make good modular interfaces would cost enough to raise the price significantly. Right now it looks like the market is moving in the opposite direction, towards more integrated systems with non-upgradable parts. Otherwise there would be no way to make $600 computers.

      I guess most people are cheap bastards, and the industry has to cater to their desires.

      • Re:Prettier outside, same junk inside (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Soko ( 17987 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @05:18PM (#2586710) Homepage
        Yup.

        No one realises that if the PC is going to be an information appliance, then it's not likely going to be very upgradeable. How many times have you swapped out parts on your toaster, or even your TV? Likely, you just go buy a new, better one that's already the way you want it. Only chipheads like us want an appliance that we can hot-rod for next to nothing. Welcome to the world of disposable goods.

        There's also the argument that things like batter memory architectures and CPU-Perepheral interconnects are rapidly improving and changing, and it's WAY expensive to future proof a PC against changes in foundation architectures. A valid argument, it would seem.

        However, when you think about it, why would a manufacturer make a PC that someone would want to keep for years and years by getting simple, cheap upgrades? The perpetual upgrade cycle keeps the PC makers (and the toxic waste disposal companies) in business. Supply/demand in action. Meh.

        Soko
    • There's another problem with those easily upgradeable, modular systems: they are also very easily *downgraded* by thieves. This is especially worrysome in large office environments, where it is often quite easy to walk in and out with a bag full'o'drives and company secrets. I've heard about quite a number of these incidents when I worked for one of the bigger companies in The Netherlands.
    • Seriously, if you're advocating simple to upgrade PCs.

      Pull a latch and the side of the G4 pops open. Drives sit on the bottom and are connected to a ribbon cable. CPU sits on an easily upgradable daughtercard (or maybe it's in a ZIF socket by now, I own a Titanium Laptop), ram is easily accessable, and all the PCI slots are trivially available because the motherboard lies on the hinged door.

      The problem? Most PC buyers don't want to *pay* for the ability to easily tinker with their PC, instead placing higher value on performance and price, leaving design innovation, power consumption, and noise pollution as casualties of their budgets.
      • yeah, so?

        take a Dell case, lie it sideways, the case is hinged so it's easy to open, and in front of you are the hard drives and the cdrom drives, angled out at you because they're on the hinged part. unplug power and ribbon, use the easy tabbed sliders that are a sinch to remove (and install on another drive because of the way that they clip into the screw holes instead of actually screwing in), put on new drive, replace, reattach, done. entire endeavour : 30s.

        Or for any normal computer, remove side conver, disconnect, unscrew, remove drive, replace, rescrew, reattach, replace side cover. this is not brain surgery folks. total time : 60s.

        the only way to make it easier is to have actual slots where the drives themselves just slide in and out of, so you don't need to screw around with any wires, but you can also get those, unfortunately they are a bit more expensive.

        the reason why things are the way they are is because (drumroll please) ... there is no big demand for it to change.

        Dell has the cases setup the way that they do because their primary customers are businesses (well, these are business cases I'm talking about anyways), and they will have IT departments that are more likely to screw around with the insides and want easy access to things than your mom&pop home users. Most people still refer to their computer chassis as the "CPU" or the "hard drive", and they think it's just a magical box. they couldn't care, and really don't know about what's inside of it, thus there is no demand to create a modularized system. It is cheaper to not, thus things aren't modularized.
      • We were really surprised at work a little while ago. Bought a cheap midi tower case and it worked pretty much like that! Higed out from the side via a small latch. Really nice to work in.

        Drives were then mounted via a system of clips and thumbscrews (could be fitted _so_ easily_) while there was a 3.5" bay for the HDD pointing to the side - which meant that the rear you need to get at was pointing straight out at the hole where the side had hinged down and the motherboard.

        Of course, being a cheap case, details were missing. IDE cables fitted when it was out but were tight, but some bright spark hadn't remembered to include a power cable extension, so that stops it with about 30 degrees to go until you remove it. Still, it's a start.
      • ribbon cables? BAH

        Find an old IBM PS/2, you can take the whole thing apart and reassemble it in 60s, including bootup times.

        Everything is clipped into a casing structure and connects by solid edge connectors, even things like the fans.

        They don't make em like they used to
    • It's just not worth it to have an upgradable computer for most uses. I know how to do it fairly well, and my main computer is easily upgradable, but for instance the simple box I got for my girlfriend isn't worth bothering with -- it's easier and less of a pain to just get a new one. In the not-so-distant future I'm sure the same will be true with my own personal computer -- I might as well just replace the thing. USB, firewire, etc., only make this more true, as the more interesting, eclectic, or novel components won't be built into the computer.

      The real problem is that current computers (or perhaps operating systems) don't allow for replacement of hardware without software. At this point with Windows, the operating system decays faster than the computer anyway, so people don't notice it so much. But it isn't true for Linux, and is less and less true for Windows, and people are going to want to keep their software environment even as they replace the hardware.

      How exactly this will be possible, I'm not sure. I suppose I can imagine a piece of software that would mirror the old hard drive over to the new one, over USB or something -- it wouldn't even be a big deal if it took an hour or two to transfer, considering the benefits. Kind of like Ghost or something.

      Licensing will make this very difficult on Windows -- anyone who writes that will be asking for trouble. Also, the nature of PC hardware makes this difficult -- you'd have the wrong drivers installed once you crossed over (it would work really nicely on Apple hardware, though).

      But hey, maybe this is already available right now...? If it gets included with new computers, then there really wouldn't be much point to upgradable hardware.

  • ...they could make the toilet wireless..
  • My sources tell me that these PCs are really cheap for foreign HP customers in the information technology sector. However, buyers should not wonder when black vans permanently circle their premises. As additional benefit, you don't have to file any patents in the U.S. any more, others are doing this for you.
  • The PC is pretty cool, but the monitor is kind of strange.

    1. The dials on the right look like something off of a 1960's era tv set

    2. No cables are going to the monitor

    3. The article does not say anything about the monitor being wireless. That would have to be a lot of bandwidth


  • Hmmm...a wireless monitor?

    At 24bpp and a 1600x1200 display, that's 3 bytes x about 2E6 pixels per frame, times (very nominally) 60 frames per second, or ~360MBytes per second.

    If they could do that cheaply, they wouldn't be using it just for sending digital video to monitors.

    DVI is Digital Video Interface. It's neat (no more ghosting and shadowing), but not wireless.

  • illegal circumvention device (Score:3, Funny)

    by libre lover ( 516057 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:43PM (#2586533) Homepage
    According to the users of this device [zapatopi.net], wireless peripherals constitute an "illegal circumvention device" under the DMCA and will be filing a lawsuit against HP shortly. In the meantime they urge that all computer users stick with wired peripherals.

    ;)

  • What's the point? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by gUmbi ( 95629 )
    Sure, it uses Bluetooth, but you still have to run power cables to each one of these things, a VGA cable to the monitor and worry about replacing batteries in the keyboard.
    • VGA Cable? Did you miss the part where it said "wireless monitor"?? Power cable, sure, but there are ways around that just as easily...besides, one white power cable dropping straight down wouldn't deter from the appearance too much.
      /jhoffoss
      • Apple Display Connector (ADC) is much better. It runs power, signal, and USB through the same cable into the same jack. You still only need one cable, and it is much cheaper.

  • Smells fishy... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by houston_pt ( 514463 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:47PM (#2586562) Journal
    As anybody noticed the image on the screen is always the same in all the pictures? And no power cables shown...
    Looks more like a model to me than a real working PC...

  • Just Fabulous (Score:5, Funny)

    by Francis ( 5885 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @04:49PM (#2586574) Homepage
    I have enough trouble with finding my remote.

    Now I can lose my keyboard, mouse, monitor and CPU. This is definately progress.
    • Easy. First, if you lose the monitor, it's _way_ too small. So you put a buzzer in all the other pieces, and a button on the monitor to activate those buzzers.

      It's a little harder with your remote, because it doesn't have any kind of receiver on it. But with Bluetooth devices, they'll receive the signal as long as you don't close them into the metal filing cabinet. 8-)

  • Sweet PC? Bah! (Score:2, Informative)

    by ddillman ( 267710 )
    Did you actually look at the thing? Sure, some of the gadgets are interesting, but the way they've put it together isn't what I'd call sweet.

    Expandability? None, internally, to speak of. So that means loads of things hanging out on FireWire or USB cables. Wanna upgrade? Better call HP, as I'm sure this thing screams 'proprietary case design' for the thermal management they mention, let alone that's generally how HP works. Add that DVD-ROM? External, please. CD-RW? Same thing. Hard drive? Replace the existing, while juggling your data, because there isn't space for a second one.

    They mention XP pretty prominently, but I doubt seriously it will run Linux out of the box. They mention the Intel Pentium 4 a LOT. But I can get more bang for the buck with an Athlon. Option for that? Not that I could find...

    All in all, the whole thing looked like a commercial for Intel, not a sweet concept PC.
    • All in all, the whole thing looked like a commercial for Intel, not a sweet concept PC.

      Gee, who did the article say was teaming up with HP to make this thing? Let me check... Oh, yeah, there it is: Intel! What they hell are they doing?!?!? Intel shouldn't waste their money promoting their own products... They should be getting together with HP and developing a product built around AMD chips... Sheesh.

      As for the expandability of the thing -- read the first line:

      Equipped in their concept PC.

      Concept widgets generally never make it to the public as is... Oh, look, it says so right here:

      Will we see these new PC's on shelves soon? Not likely..

      If you are looking at something other than the link in the article, I am sorry, please post a link, but the way I read the article this is nothing more than what they call it: A Concept PC.

  • From the article: "Most of us can assume the same prices for most store bought computers, with a little added cost for an LCD screen"

    Perhaps Bluetooth connectivity is an add-on then? I have trouble believing this. HP make good hardware, and they charge a bundle for it. Thats the way it's always been. Even if it does have an intel heart-replacement.

  • HP? ugh. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by vsync64 ( 155958 )
    I'm sorry, but I discounted this story as soon as I read the words "developed by HP". Any PC developed and/or marketed by HP is almost guaranteed to be garbage, thanks to the pathetic quality control and design at HP.

    HP doesn't really even deserve their name anymore. Hewlett and Packard are both dead. All the cool scientific goodies have been spun off into Agilent. HP just killed off ACO after insulting their loyal user community with the 49G. And Carly Fiorina [hp.com] (can you look at her picture and honestly say that she doesn't look like a vulture?) is gleefully turning the remnants of HP into yet another Microsoft whore.

    Their printers are the only tolerable product they're still producing, and I hear Epson is rapidly catching up. I have had the worst luck with HP's computer systems, both with the Kayak (their "high-end workstation" that I used at a previous job) and with various Pavilions that I have tried to fix/upgrade for people (oh, and their tech support is useless; try calling and asking what Ethernet card they have inside: "oh, that would be a `10/100' card, sir").

    HP has a training program wherein you can get significant discounts on their products if you take online classes. I guess the idea is that retailers will be more eager to sell HP if they have 1) gotten free stuff from HP, and 2) know lots about HP products. Well, the HP PhotoSmart 612 which I got at a nice discount is of horrible quality. The camera design itself is actually pretty decent, but I had to go through 5 cameras before I found 1 without significant CCD defects. What I can tell you from my extensive HP training is this: Don't buy HP, kids. They suck.

  • It seems that the only consumers willing to pay for design considerations are Apple customers.

    Fanless design, low power design, ease of accessability, ease of maintainance, CPUs on daughtercards, Firewire and USB, easy to access ram, easy to open cases, are all part of the G4 Tower and the G4 laptop.

    The majority of PC buyers would rather put up with more noise pollution, cramped and difficult to maintain cases, spaghetti cables, and heat than pay for the design and manufacture of concept PCs.

    • Re:Only one problem... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by victim ( 30647 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @06:31PM (#2587066)
      First off, design is cheap. Divide design cost by 1,000,000 computers and it vanishes. Second, problem is that PCs are designed. They are designed to minimize production costs while still being marketable. When people say paying for design they frequently mean paying for better usability, longevity, or aesthetics at the expense of low cost.

      This can't be the product of a serious HP design effort...

      Look at the pictures again and consider ergonomics.
      • In the first picture (tall skinny) your right knee is going to be bashing into the CPU.
      • In the second picture the helpful model has turned to face his cpu box which has no user interface funcations at all and will be twisting his head to the right all day to see the monitor.
      • 3rd picture, not enough context to tell. Looks like it is back in knee bash position. Why is this cpu box taking up my desk? The CD is in the screen after all.

      Now let's talk design. Just because this is different from the 20 year old PC form factor doesn't make it `designed'. Look at the display. Why is only 50% of the object's area useful display? Why is there a big handle on the bottom of it? I suspect it serves some other function, but it looks like a handle to me. Maybe I can hang my keyboard on the monitor handle? And no patententing the keyboard hanger HP, thats my idea.

      I suspect we are not looking at a design effort, but rather some engineers were tasked to show what a bluetooth maximized PC would look like and produced a minimal vision.

      Questions for future consideration...
      • Why isn't their a bluetooth headset there. Integrate my music grade headphones, my voice control mic, and my telephone. Give me voice dialing while you are at it.
      • Why isn't my PDA sitting there syncing through the bluetooth? Aren't we trying to sell a vision? show me!
      • Why am I looking at the same old cubical design? You just took away 16" of monitor depth yet you are showing me a cube designed with a corner desk to hold deep monitors. This monitor is incompatible with corner desks! Revisit that. Shrink the cube or use the space. $20/sqft/year. Use it or lose it.
      • I don't want to hassle with batteries. My freaking electric toothbrush charges inductively by sitting on a special base. Wacom powers their pointers and mice by wireless power transfer. Give me a little power mat I can place my keyboard an mouse on that will charge them. Make sure their battery can go a couple of days so I can forget once in a while, but let them recharge when idle. Consider solar power. It works for calculators in offices. Do my headset too while you are at it.
      • Where is my video conferencing camera? Stick it in my display like a little pointable eyeball. you've got enough room! and give me a little shutter I can flip over it so I don't feel watched all the time. maybe one of those round things in the display is a camera and one is a speaker?
      • Integrating tons of features (camera, DVD drive, etc.) in the display might seem cool, but what if one of those parts break? You need to make do without your screen, uncool.

        Plus the costs of having the DVD drive, etc. in the monitor will drive price probably way up.

        Of course if you are going the integration way, why stop halfway? why not have the whole PC inside the display... wooops we get the long rumored LCD iMac, don't we? :) (as for the people wanting extra PCI cards or ATA devices, there are external firewire ATA bridge/enclosure and PCI chassis... of course, it drives the price up.)
  • here's a link [intel.com] to Intel's version of the page...the other link i saw only took me to www.intel.com, lotta good that did...
  • I could never get into the whole small pc thing. Every time I have to fiddle with small case computers, I have visions of hell turned loose. To me a "sweet computer" is one in which everything is easily upgradable and insertable. On my last computer, I replaced every component except the actual case (which I am also planning to do soon with an addtronics 7896 case). This thing is just begging to be outdated before it is even fashionable due to when the next cool graphics card comes out or when 600X cd roms are all the minimum on games or even just to upgrade ram.
  • ... besides the matching cute exteriors of the devices? We already have the "concept" of wireless mice and keyboards. Besides, why the hell would anyone want a wireless mouse, with its horriffic refresh rate?
  • There's a blind guy I know that has a radio frequency wireless keyboard and has his PC sound output going to a short range FM transmitter (the sort that is used to listen to a portable CD player on a car radio). He walks around the house with his keyboard and headphones while his computer reads out the contents of web pages.


    For those of us that can see and need to be in the same room as the monitor, the range and less dependance on direction or line of sight of RF over infra-red is an advantage. For example, my IR mouse can't quite make it from the lounge to the top of the TV set, so the sensor has to sit on an object at the same height as the mouse about a metre in front of the TV.


    One possibility, which I don't think has a commercial solution yet, is to connect a transmitter to the RF-out on a video card, have it tuned to a spare channel and use TV sets wherever you go as monitors. The frequencies for TV are at the top end of the MHz range, so a very similar piece of equipment to the small, low power FM transmitters should do to job. Picture quality will not be fantastic due to NTSC (not the same colour twice) and PAL limitations. For those of us with one TV a cable would be better.

  • coffee (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I love the wireless cup of coffee that is featured in most of the pictures of this new comp. what would ever get done without coffee? obviously nothing.
  • I can just see it now - 100 keyboards and mice within earshot of each other - that's 200 xmitters and 100 recivers. Can anyone say RF pollution?

  • Intel marketing has been getting on my tits... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by glwtta ( 532858 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @07:32PM (#2587262) Homepage
    ever since the P4:

    "'Concept PC 2001' uses the power of the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor platform for future PC innovation."

    What does that sentence MEAN?? How can a computer (even a Concept PC) use a platform to achieve future innovation?? Or is it just using a platform that's itself is a platform for future innovation? In that case, since when is a proccessor a platform for innovation? And lastly, what the hell does "platform for future PC innovation" mean in the first place???

  • Wireless Power (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Baldrson ( 78598 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @08:36PM (#2587444) Homepage Journal
    wireless keyboard, mouse, even a wireless 18" flat screen LCD monitor. The wireless mouse and keyboard run over RF."

    So where's the wireless power [braincourse.com]?

  • My wish for a PC is to be rackmount at home, in the basement. Keyboards, mouses, CDROMs and Monitors are dispersed in the house. Since the CPU is in the basement, the fan noise would not be a problem in the main appartements. Quiet, slick terminals across your home... Imagine...

    Note that rackmount of a 5U unit at least. I want the same upgrade possibilities as I have with my mid tower. The CPU unit does not need to be slim; costs consideration must come before space or even noise (to a limit of course).
  • This monitor has effectively increased the surface area that I have to put the stickers from my bananas on by at least 500%. It's going to be a long time before we see another innovation like this from the computer industry.
  • Judging from the looks of this Concept PC's keyboard and from HP's past keyboards - looks like the trend is continuing. Keyboards are devovling.

    Is it me, or have computer keyboards actually gotten crappier over the years? More keys, buttons, dials, and knobs. Fancy colors, new computer interfaces (USB, IEEE1394, bluetooth). However, the actual performance, functionality, and durability of computer keyboards has gone down hill over the past 10 years. The strange thing is that almost every other aspect of computers has improved significantly over the past 10 years. CPUs are god-like compared to those available 10 years ago. RAM is fast, plentiful, and costs next to nothing. Same goes for harddrives. Video displays have gotten larger, and have better quality.... etc... Hell, even the other major input device, the pointing device has improved (trackpoints, laser and mechanical mice, etc).

    Keyboards on the other hand are degenerating into cheap pieces of crap. They no longer have crisp clean tactile feedback, which makes fast and accurate touch typing possible. Keystrokes often fail to register. Keys stick, and even sometimes fail to press. All in all, the modern keyboard fails at its most basic task: typing.

    Why are keyboards getting worse?
    Here are some of my theories:
    • Most modern GUIs require a pointing device, and in these GUIs, the pointing device has replaced many of the tasks previously accomplished by a keyboard.
    • The average computer consumer isn't very educated about keyboard technology.
    • For many reasons, it is difficult to make a high-tech keyboard a key marketing feature of a new computer.
    • The huge influx of novice computer users within the past 10 years has diluted the market with people that don't know how to type.

    So yeah, this Concept PC looks cool, and I am glad that overall, computer technology is improving, but I wish that the "few steps back" taken in the keyboard technology department didn't have to happen from generation to generation. Of course, some people still make and sell good keyboards [yahoo.com] with the high quality and durable capacitive aka buckling spring keyswitch technology.
  • No way is that monitor 18 inches diagonally. The whole cabinet might be, but the display looks like a 15 inch panel.

    Sony's 18.1" LCD display [sonystyle.com] is available now. Looks better, too.

  • Yet another sad attempt by a PC designer to make cool, elegant, homogenous looking computer components like Apple. At least this doesn't look as slapped-together and idiotic as earlier HP and Compaq attempts.

    Maybe they'll get it right in several years, just about on track for the general "PC now is Apple 10 years ago" rule.

    Why is it that only Apple seems to be able to pull this off? They couldn't have hired all of the talented industrial designers in the world.

  • Cube (Score:2)

    by Refrag ( 145266 )
    This seems to me that HP was inspired by Apple's Cube. The color scheme looks the same (from the tiny pictures), they tried to minimize cables (Cube had ADC & AirPort), a slot load optical drive, and they are using airflow to control the temperature just like the Cube.

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