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Apr 30, 09 - 09:33 am Comment from: silverhawk

Is this Tommaso's way of getting his portfolio to Jonathan Ive?

but please, no "magic dock". Just put some ports on it already!

Where's the aluminum?

Apr 30, 09 - 09:41 am Comment from: shen

Except I worry a bit that it doesn't close completely, and you are just asking to get stuff in there to mess up your screen.

Very interesting design though...

OMG. Me Want.

This is the best concept I've seen yet...radically different.

THIS WOULD BE A NETBOOK I'D PAY $1500+ FOR!!!

Its totally the kind of ground breaking, outside the box technology you'd expect from Apple! I just hate it's in the public domain, give's Dell, Asus, and other's ideas they would normally come up with!

Apr 30, 09 - 09:49 am Comment from: CourtJester

Very smart indeed. Beautiful illustrations.

But is it twice as thick as it needs to be? Is the keyboard screen needed at all?

Why isn't this man working for Apple as we speak?

Apr 30, 09 - 09:50 am Comment from: Basil Ganglia

Extremely clever, beautiful design, multifunctional, lots of great ideas. With haptic feedback on the keyboard this would be a killer device: as advanced in the computer field as the iPhone was in the cell phone field.

I gotta say, I like this design. It's aesthetic is very Mac-like in my view.

I can see that appealing to almost every advertising agency and design company on the planet. Keynote presentation heaven...

Very nice concept. Too bad OLED technology isn't quite far enough to make it feasible yet.

Great design. Just stay away from the glossy black. The amount of fingerprints, dust, and scratches would drive me crazy.

Farking beautiful

Apr 30, 09 - 10:13 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

YUCK. It's SHINY.

What's with the cheesy gloss crap? I guess you gotta love highlighting all those greasy fingerprints and scratches to love gloss!

Very nice design, though!

Cool design, but knowing how much I have to wipe off smudges on my iPhone screen, I'd hate to think how much I'd have to clean this thing off.

Apr 30, 09 - 10:16 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

"The thinnest screens now are barely 8mm thick and can fold like a piece of paper."

8mm is nearly 3/8" thick! .315"

(thank you ConvertBot on my iPod touch!)

Apr 30, 09 - 10:24 am Comment from: Studio8H

Wonderful concept and design. His graphic work is fantastic. This guy should be in a cell in Cupertino.

Looks amazing, but I don't see it being a hugely practical design.

Beautiful, but impossible. The screen size on the inside would have to stretch (not just flex) as the device is opened up. Think of it as lanes on a track or tree rings. The outside is always longer. The display edges would either have to move inward within the frame, or physically lengthen.

Apr 30, 09 - 11:04 am Comment from: Dasgeek

Why is this future Macbook still running Leopard?

Reminds me or the "Knowledge Navigator" Apple concept video in the Skully days. Anyone have a link to that video? I believe it was from the early "Newton Era." The older I get, the more it blurs together.

That MacBook is SEX

@PV: I had the same thoughts, although it could be a sliding screen, and not a stretching one. But your point is correct; flexing is not enough.

Good concept but...

The case must be aluminum and what happens to the bottom side of display when folded and placed on a surface? I see a lot of MacBooks and MacBook Pros that look like someone rubbed the bottom with sand paper even with good feet on the corners. People really do not pay a lot of attention to keeping the bottom like new. Needs to be more ruggedized somehow but I like this concept. The dock seems IBM-esh/Lenovo-esh and would not be high enough for proper ergonomic viewing.

Apr 30, 09 - 11:41 am Comment from: TheConfuzed1

Apple, if you're reading this, and if you really do have somehong like this in the pipeline, PLEASE ADD TACTILE FEEDBACK!!!

Typing on my iPhone's virtual keyboard is bad enough (I've had to backspace and correct three times, so far, in this post alone... Make that four).

Texting on a small screen, with thumbs is one thing, but I can see a full size virtual keyboard as a real productivity killer if unable to be felt.

with OLED, this unit will cost at least $5000

what does "avoids to reach the minimum radius" mean ?
I take it English is not this designers mother tongue.
As I'm here, I'll chip in my humble opinion - fugly.

Apr 30, 09 - 11:52 am Comment from: TheConfuzed1

Damn. Still didn't correct enough!

Apr 30, 09 - 11:53 am Comment from: Jubei

It's gorgeous, but I bet it will cost way too much... Maybe one day.

Apr 30, 09 - 12:02 pm Comment from: Bitjockey

Impressive concept. I believe the virtual keyboard is definitely coming. A flex touch screen is not. Maybe in a few more years

Apr 30, 09 - 12:08 pm Comment from: feral

whilst the design concept is amazing, it is very un-apple like in execution.
more like dell or MSI or someone like that.
dont think i would buy it ...too much to go wrong.

very h.r giger with the spine thing...

Apr 30, 09 - 12:38 pm Comment from: Macintosher

I invented this. The concept is on my desk dated early 2008. So there. And I can prove it. Poor copyright infringers... they don't know what's coming to them!

Apr 30, 09 - 01:00 pm Comment from: Willie G

I've been saying for years now that keyboards would eventually be replaced with multi-touch surfaces like the one depicted in this design. The ability to have custom keyboards with app-specific shortcuts, for example, is very tantalizing.

Once we move away from a physical touch surface, the next step will be in projection... wherein the whole computer will be about the size of an iPhone (or smaller) and 'screens' as well as 'multi-touch surfaces' will be replaced with projection/holographic technology.

Mark my words

Concepts are just that, a visual and engineering ideal that is then (if at all) developed or used as inspiration by other specialists to develop for production. Its precisely because most manufacturers don't conceptualise in this manner that they rarely push the parameters outwards, or to be more precise they tend to use Apple as their conceptualist and then figure out how to do it badly but cheaply.

Apr 30, 09 - 01:27 pm Comment from: KingMel

IMO, this is a brilliant concept. I love the fact that it is a tablet with a screen twice the size of its folded dimensions, a dual screen in a "tent" configuration for sharing information at a table, a "virtual laptop" using touch technology to simulate a keyboard and mousepad. An incredible vision - let it come to fruition.

Apr 30, 09 - 01:29 pm Comment from: db

That's uh.... I think.... uh... it's... uh.... uhm... waaa?...

<shakes herself free of daze>

Excuse me while I go get a mop and bucket to pick the drool up off the floor. I'd hate for my kids to slip and fall on it. <g>

Apr 30, 09 - 02:05 pm Comment from: Crabs

That whole 8mm thing is way off. They have OLED screens that are fractions of a millimeter thick. Maybe it's supposed to say .8mm? I dunno, but someone, Samsung, I believe, had a "flapping" OLED on display at the Japanese tech trade show last year. Which, I believe, is where this guy got the idea.

Also, isn't this similar to an Apple patent that was granted a couple months ago?

@PV: The screen size on the inside wouldn't have to stretch as the device is opened up because of it's like as lanes IN THE MIDDLE (along the DIAMETER OF) a track or tree rings. I will post an accurate description of iSpine in my blog soon, but if you want you can contact me...i'm also a physicist, so I know something about basic geometry...

@Macintosher: I invented it...but if you designed something like that and you are serious you can talk directly to me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)...

I'm italian so I'm sorry for my English...

Apr 30, 09 - 02:40 pm Comment from: Crabs

.05mm thick OLED

There's a link to the current thinnest OLED screen, so the Yanko Design article is quite wrong.

Apr 30, 09 - 02:44 pm Comment from: Swing Geezer

It's wonderful to see someone look into the future and ask: "What if?".
What will happen may not be exactly this, but it is probably closer than not.
Really very exciting.

Why does the case have to be aluminum geniuses?? Jobs would gladly do plastic for this technology or (if you guys bother to read other tech blogs) even carbon fiber cases.

Gawd you people are slow to keep up!

Oh, and there is this thing called google. Use it to catch up with the very latest in flexible OLED tech. This mockup is VERY feasible. And that includes such a product being reasonably priced.
Again, try to keep up with what is going on before grandpa passes you in the fast lane.....K?

Apr 30, 09 - 04:16 pm Comment from: NCIceman

Very, very nice. Probably a bit much....do you really need to open each side 180 degrees? But the one screen display/one screen touch keyboard idea is one I've had for some time.

I fully expect a similar device from Apple eventually.

Apr 30, 09 - 04:51 pm Comment from: Scot Murphy

DO WANT!!!

I had a dream with a product very similar to this the other night.

Hmmm...

Nice concept, but I agree it's functionality is nearly worthless with a glossy screen.

After all why ruin a gorgeous machine with my ugly mug as the reflection?

Apr 30, 09 - 08:22 pm Comment from: Bodie

If Steve Jobs has seen this, he's feeling better already.

wouldn't the screen stretch at the center as it's folded right back the opposite way? Would have to be some sort of rubber surely. And yeah as nice as gloss is (when you first take it out of the box) it is not practical for every day use. Unless you work in a sealed environment and never touch the thing.