Comments on: 5" Folding Screen could Help take smartphones to the next level.

By: pc_g

pc_g — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:59:50 +0000

Good idea. Really good. I am pretty optimistic this can be usable

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:37:58 +0000

folding screen, now thats sci-fi becoming real life

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:36:34 +0000

or maybe its time to reevaluate what it means to have a “full os”?

if one keep limiting oneself to thinking that only a wintel machine will do, there will no longer be any new developments, only repeated repaints of the same…

i cant see how windows mobile running on a sufficiently powerful cpu would not be able to do what one do on a wintel box today.

By: JC

JC — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:27:54 +0000

I honestly think that it would occur to most people to want a PC that folded and fit in their pocket. I wouldn’t mind one, but I recognize that it’s a niche interest. Also, with a 5″ width, unless the keyboard folded too, the design has to be some sort of thumbboard.

It’s not a bad idea. I suspect it’d need a Steve Jobs to make the general public see why they’d want it though.

(BTW, note how everything Al writes is ultimately about a modern Psion? I suspect that he doesn’t realize the computer he wants is already available in the form of the Everun Note.)

By: Al

Al — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:24:13 +0000

Phones are phones and if you get too much beyond a windows mobile phone you really should be talking about a UMPC.

MS got the entire UMPC form factor all wrong and so is that concept design. Foldable screens can be great but all technology must follow function. Most people want a full PC small enough to carry everywhere but the function of a full PC is to do the same work as you would do with your laptop or desktop.

Thus the smart phone is the wrong form factor completely for a foldable screen. A UMPC with full PC OS would be the ideal place for that technology. That PC would also require the right function for input as a full PC people want a touch type keyboard not a touchscreen/thumb input/pen only input. They also want it to fold and fit in your pocket. That prototype is thumb input and would never work for that function.

Foldable screens would be perfect for a UMPC that was designed as a modern Psion 5mx with a nice touch type keyboard but instead of just a 1/2 vga screen that was about 3.6″ x 7″ the foldable screen would allow it to go to 7.2″ x 14″ in size. That is a more appropiate use of the technology.

By: mikey

mikey — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:01:28 +0000

Id pass on one of these,gone too far IMO

By: jkkmobile

jkkmobile — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:48:03 +0000

I’m all for foldable/rollable screens,but that design is far from practical.

These so called “design companies” should really focus on actual use.

By: John

John — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:27:08 +0000

I don’t like the look of a virtual keyboard on that part of teh device… I think it might be more interesting if you could combine the overall concept with the layout of the icePhone ( http://www.unwiredview.com/2008/11/17/icephone-next-gen-winmo-communicator/ ), then that might be interesting:

1) fully laid out, it would look like the Pilotfish concept.

2) from #1, you could fold the keyboard “down” behind the lower screen segment, disabling keyboard input, and giving you just the two touch screen panels for input.

3) from #1, you could fold the top screen segment “down” behind the lower screen segment, giving you something like the micro-laptop config in the second Pilotfish picture. (one risk of this is: the keyboard segment needs to be heavier than the screen segments, otherwise this “micro-laptop” will be top heavy/ screen heavy, but I think that’s do-able)

4) from #3, you could fold the keyboard “up”, so that the lower screen segment and keyboard are closed. Then you turn the device over, and you’ve got a touch screen phone, like a Nokia Tube or iPhone. If you have a camera on the underside of the keyboard segment, then this configuration also makes sure the camera is exposed for taking pictures.

Put Android or Maemo on it, and I’d be in.

The main technological leap would be that the “hinge with a display on it” would need to somehow be a “jacobs ladder” type hinge, similar to the icePhone hinges, though perhaps not exactly the same.