Of course. Just as I’m about to finish university, and leave school behind me for good, some company comes up with a dual screen tablet which I would’ve killed for to replace that boatload of textbooks I’ve read over the years. It’s called the Kno (more here), and it’s a massive thing for sure – but considering their target demographic, it actually makes sense.
The Kno is being developed by a Santa Clara, California, company called, well, Kno, and is aimed squarely at students. The device is massive – two 14.1″ multitouch IPS displays (1440×900 each) bolted together like the Courier concept from Microsoft. It uses NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset, has 16GB of storage, and thanks to two batteries, squeezes out 6-8 hours of battery life.
At 2.5kg, it’s quite heavy, but then again, I’ve had textbooks back when I was studying Psychology which were larger (and possibly, heavier). And we carried lots of those. This device could replace them all, while also negating the need for carrying around a laptop since the device supports the full internet (including Flash 10.1).
Software-wise, it basically runs a WebKit instance with a custom interface built from the ground up for touch input, on top of a Linux kernel. It supports handwriting recognition for note-taking. The idea is, quite clearly, to get textbook publishers on board. The concept video below shows how it’s all going to work, and dear lord, I would’ve killed a unicorn for something like this during my years at high school and university.
As the hands-on video below of a current prototype shows, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but it already looks pretty promising. The displays are glossy at this point, but they will be anti-glare once the device goes into production.
If you’re currently thinking it’s far too large, then you clearly haven’t ever had to carry a 15kg backpack around campus 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. If these guys can get the textbook publishers on board, this could be a massive hit.
The future is awesome.
I think for such a browser based OS to work Linux/X would need GPU textrendering etc. Those things are being developed but they are not ready yet. I really don’t understand why Google isn’t pushing this, because GPU acceleration for the web(kit) would be crucial for ChromeOS. I guess the bottle neck is that there are not enough good X devs on this planet.
Windows and IE9 are leading at the moment (although Firefox 4 might still be there faster on Windows with Direct2D)
I’m really disappointed. They could have ended their video with “And knoing is half the battle”. Such a rare opportunity missed…
Seriously though, as a university student, this thing looks awesome. It’s sad that, with the recent barrage of prototypes, any one device has so little chance of making it to the market, that it’s difficult to get your hopes up. Especially outside the US.
They need to either practice their TWO man demo a little more. For a device to look, and act so heavy it needs to be refined. And he needs to lose a little weight in his fingers or make the screen buttons bigger.
Kinda neat, but realistically they have no chance whatsoever. Who is going to buy a device just for school and reading textbooks? It would make so much more sense to add some annotation features to the iPad ebook reader. Now you have this device without the limitations.
Simple: Universities and Colleges themselves. Get a few schools that are already heaving invested in technology in the classroom, pull in at least a couple textbook publishers and viola.
Your smoking crack if you think binding publishers with schools and technology is going to help in a startup. Its a one in a million, and those are odds I wouldn’t bet on. NeXT with 100s of millions over 2+ years could not get that ‘revolutionary’ device into campuses and have it stick. Instead they ended up in corners of labs. This bulky device is not enabling, it is clearly a boat anchor and the demo these guys did sucked too.
“…This bulky device is not enabling, it is clearly a boat anchor and the demo these guys did sucked too.?”
Dude, well put. Made me laugh.
But it looks like overkill to me.
2 batteries? 2 screens? The useability appears clumsy to me.
Agreed.
Really. Why two screens? What can two screens do that one large screen can’t?
Well for one thing you can see two opposing pages at the same time. Or see one page and take notes on the other side. It also closes with the screens facing each other, protecting them from damage. And since they are touch screens, you could position it like a notebook and type on one screen while viewing the other. The real question is what cool ideas will people come up with in the future. Its running Linux which means it could be used for lots of things. I just wonder about the cost though. That may be what kills it. Or course, if Marvell can sell the Moby for $100, then maybe this will only be $200 – $250. I would pay that for this device.
I’ve thought about something like that before, using one touch screen as a keyboard and one for viewing things. However, I think to take it to the next level, you also need to have an area designated on the screen that would the keyboard to use as a mousepad. It should be possible to do with a multitouch screen right?
What would be needed next though, is a bunch of smart apps that changed what was on the keyboard screen based on the context. Its a pretty interesting idea, I just wish it were easy for someone like me to implement and if nothing else play around with.
Also, I have no idea if something like this already exists. Or if someone is working on something like this. Its just an idea I had but never really looked into too much.
Edited 2010-06-03 02:13 UTC
Those are great points, but being utilitarian in nature, I thought portability should be leading to lighter devices. 2 screens seem unnecessary to me when the other half can be just a keyboard and Viola! You’re back at a laptop. and since it doesn’t have an extra battery and lcd… about half the weight. Tablets, even the iPad’s touchscreen doesn’t justify as a replacement for a laptop or netbook in useability when trying to get work done.
This machine… Even though novel, in my opinion can only be summed up as an oversized Nintendo DS sans the gamepad.
Fold in half.
Seriously, you need to be better than this to replace the leap in tech R&D that went into the ipad. Two screens is fine, but is it necessary even?
I know a old business associate that went broke on an idea much like this, aimed at the medical community. I knew at the time it was a dumb idea to try to beat tech giants at there own game (these guys might be subcontracting the work, but still)……just didn’t know the guy had put his life savings into the damn company.
Hell, if you don’t have the clout to make the market, even 5 years head start in the tech isn’t enough sometimes. This device is 10x better than the one my friend was working on, and I bet they still would have failed if they went to market with this unit! Even palm barely got enough traction to compete against the Nokia’s, Motorola’s, HP’s of the world when they started taking notice…..and then they lost there edge through there own mistakes.
Edited 2010-06-02 23:55 UTC
Ah, yes… the magical Ipad, which miraculously overnight became the de facto standard of tablets. It’s so “revolutionary.”
It probably helps when one wants to fold a large work area in half, to fit inside a small bag/case.
“Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, we are sorry, but we’re not interested in investing in your ‘Google’ project. We don’t see how you can compete in this market, not being one of the big boys, such as Yahoo or Alta Vista.”
I am certainly glad that there are those who ignore the naysayers and who persevere to advance technology and humanity.
We are lost the moment that we all blindly accept the drivel handed to us by the likes of Apple and Microsoft.
Edited 2010-06-03 02:38 UTC
It’s just quite funny that some of the same people who said the iPad was too big, clumsy, difficult to hold etc etc are touting this one as a winner. Personally I think the idea has merit, but your agenda becomes pretty clear when you slam one device for being too big then heap praise on something that’s twice the size…
No, it’s pretty simple actually :
The iPad runs the iPhoneOS + AppStore combination. It hence grabs all the limitations of the iPhone/iTouch products in the way.
I think that many people, like me, were waiting for the iPad as a very interesting work-oriented device running a touch-optimized version of Mac OS X, and were deeply disappointed when Apple said that the thing ran on top of iPhoneOS with only little modifications.
iPhoneOS targets small screen like the iPhone’s one. It’s overkill to put it on such a large screen. The interface looks oversimplistic and clunky. The apps look like stupid toys with no serious use. This comes from a psychological threshold being passed : at a netbook size, people would expect at least the capabilities of a netbook. Not some random useless and locked-down phone OS that screams “in 10 years the new MacBook will run iPhoneOS, and you’ll love it !”
To sum it up :
1″->5″ = Phone or multimedia player (All functions, except for the principal ones, are toys)
6″->11″ = Netbook (Not the everyday working machine, but we expect to actually use that thing to do something useful. Not only browse the web and play with random toys. That’s one of the reasons why WinXP is so sucessful while Linux was there first)
12″->21″+ = Laptop (This thing can do everything a desktop computer does)
With this in mind, maybe you’ll understand better why so much people criticize the iPad for being only an oversized iPod touch. If RIM made a Blackberry tablet while changing as little to the software as Apple, it’d be labeled an oversized Storm.
Edited 2010-06-03 04:43 UTC
You got it, it’s a device just for consumption. You can’t use it to create anything. I’m sure a lot of the entertainment industry are thrilled to have such devices on the market. Let’s keep people stupid and buying products, they don’t need to be creative.
I think you are pointing at something interesting here.
The “i” series of Apple products appears to be geared at the consumption of media contents and services while the other ones (MacBooks and PowerMacs) at creating the contents. Of course, there are also servers (hardware and e-stores) for delivery of all of this stuff. Apple’s business strategy appears to leverage as many areas as possible to make a profit.
The creative people will purchase other devices or will even hack existing “consumption” devices to fulfill their needs of self-expression. However, this is a minority.
I don’t think the entertainment industry purposely intend to keep people stupid…..after-all not every content produced is memorable. Some will not sell even if found in the “delete bins” at below costs of the delivery media. Just that many people don’t need to create in this fashion.
To whom are you referring?
To whom are you referring?
I do think Apple has done a very good job at putty nice hardware is small light packages. Not saying it can’t be done by others, but it’s a challenge.
That is exactly type of dumb idea that starts these projects (the other is obviously “a book has two pages, we have two pages!”). Two screens do not make one large work area. IMO, that doesn’t work on multiple desktop monitors and it doesn’t work on tablet/booklet hardware. I would argue that anything done on the second screen could probably be done with a semi-transparent UI layer on the tablet. The payoff is a more simple, more sturdy design. Big screens won’t fit in your bag until flexible display roll along. Pun intended.
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Software is much easier to innovate in, there is no comparison. Ever watch the movie “Flash of Genius”? The guy had a good idea (software), he just should have never tried to get into manufacturing of it(hardware)! Besides, as your example references, Google was not making the market.
No, two screens allow drag-and-drop action that semitransparent UI does not allow easily.
Moreover, semitransparent UI generally requires permanently turned on and running 3D acceleration, and hence low battery life (remember the 30% battery life hit that Vista Aero brought on many laptops ?), to run smoothly, whereas dual screen does not means reducing battery life as long as you use the increased storage space to store twice the battery
.
Edited 2010-06-03 08:35 UTC
Not really.
Apple enclosure design is largely derivative, retro rehash, that primarily impresses naive, design newbies.
Apple hardware has an extensive history of usability and functionality problems: the round mouse; overheating; non-removable batteries; difficult-to-find controls; lack of connectivity; monitors that cannot tilt downwards; lack of standard features (no floppy on the first Imacs); very limited internal hard drive space (G5); etc.
These problems primarily occur because Apple doesn’t do much field testing and rushes most of their products to market.
Furthermore, the internal components in Apple products are usually run-of-the-mill (or worse).
The challenge would be for Apple to gear-up their design to offer variety/originality on the level of Sony, LG, Samsung, Nokia, etc.
In that regard, Apple could never come close to most of these companies.
Of course. Making a device more portable is certainly a dumb idea.
Not sure if that is an obvious advantage nor if it was the idea behind the two touch screens.
Okay. Someone needs to inform all the Apple fanboys using Final Cut Pro with two screens.
Interesting idea on the semi-transparent layer. It would be worthwhile to check prior art, especially in the *nix world, as there has been a lot of open source UI experimentation with window managers and transparency.
Google is not exactly a software company. They are more of a service provider. However, they certainly use a lot of hardware and software.
Never seen the movie.
If anything, the Google scenario is more of a challenge — having to surpass the established powers is more difficult than introducing something completely new.
Thankfully, just because an entity has “clout” doesn’t mean it will be successful, whether “making the market” or competing with others.
Well, we obviously disagree. The buying public seems to agree that Apple’s designs are good (by buying them), but you don’t. I get it.
This is where, if I were talking to you in person, I politely excuse myself and walk away.
It’s funny how when Apple wasn’t doing so well that the fanboys declared that quantity of sales does not equal quality, but now that Apple has had some success, the fanboys proclaim that good sales figures merit quality.
Well, if we define good design by what the public buys, then Apple still loses by a landslide. The large majority of the buying public chooses non-Apple devices — PCs, Microsoft and Linux OSs, non-Apple phones, etc.
Well, I guess that some just can’t handle the truth.
By the way, perhaps it would be best not to refer personally to other posters on this forum.
Edited 2010-06-05 06:20 UTC
It doesn’t take much R&D to scale up an ipod, and even less to apply lockin.
Permit me to disagree with your second point. Lock-in which actually works against someone who is more experienced than the average Joe still remains to be seen
(And as my father says : “God bless crackers, democracy in the digital age wouldn’t exist without them”)
Edited 2010-06-03 10:10 UTC
I’m not sure I understand your point. The lockin doesn’t affect users with enough technical acumen to jailbreak their iphones
I’m not sure I understand either. If some users are not effectively locked in, how is it a lock-in ?
because most users are not technical enough. Not even close.
I don’t understand why anyone would prefer something like this over the entourage edge? It also has two screens, one of them eink (I don’t get why anyone would choose a LCD-based device for reading) and weights about half to this monster.
J
2 x 14″ screen is pretty big. I would have preferred each to be somewhere between 10″ and 12″. But maybe 14″ screens are cheaper than smaller screens with similar resolution? The resolution (1440×900) is certainly better than on most small-screen devices. My Thinkpad has 1440×900 on 12″, though, so you can get 12″ screens with the same resolution.
Still, if the price is right, I might still buy one. The Linux underneath should make it possible to use it for more than just browsing and reading.
hey look, they came up with a gigantic courier that wiill sell as well as the joo joo.. some companies should give up and donate their money to a useful cause..
this. will. fail. however it would be sweet for porn.
Being one who has gone through the slide-rule -> calculator -> smart calculator transition and the enhancements to the exam rules in schools, colleges, and universities, I sense that the definition of an “open book exam” will change once more sooner than later.
Although personal success will still reside on how well one has organized the study material, this thing is still smaller than 4-5 engineering or science books plus binders of notes…..
This double screen tablet may be closer to the concept expressed by the Dynabook envisioned by Alan Kay in 1968 and developed at Xerox PARC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook) than the iPad. The introduction of the iPad has brought another suite of stories about how Steve Jobs made good use of the ideas seens during the visit made to PARC so long ago(http://www.tomshardware.com/news/alan-kay-steve-jobs-ipad-iphone,10…)
In many ways, having two screens makes sense – one for input (scratch notes) and one for output (reference being looked at). At least, this device does not have to come in left-hand and right-hand versions as the IBM Transnote did (http://www.pencomputing.com/frames/ibm_transnote.html)
I’m hoping that this product gets refined both in hardware (notably weight and longevity) and software (useability for a creative mind) over the next 3-5 years so that this becomes the only “book” needed to be purchased when my own children enter college/university.
The existence of the iPad may help here in the same way the existence of the MacOS helped Windows…..
Thanks for the links. Very interesting.