Why I Hate Palmtops (was: Re: SGML, XML and SML)

[Jerome McDonough]

At 11:00 AM 11/23/99 -0500, rev-bob at gotc.com wrote:
>Now, if you want something which would catch my eye, steal a clue from about
twenty 
>years ago and rev it into overdrive.  See, back in the early 1980s, Nintendo
came out 
>with some handheld games that were built around about the same form factor as
the 
>modern palmtop.  (Yes, these were arguably the grandparents of the Gameboy.) 
One 
>particularly memorable experiment was a clamshell design - you opened the
game
on a 
>hinge, revealing two screens with the controls arranged around the bottom
one.  Now, 
>imagine a palmtop with this basic layout.  Open it up like a micro-laptop,
make the "top" 
>screen display-only (less expensive!) and save the touch-sensitive tech for
the bottom 
>screen.  In data browsing mode, you could use both screens together to make a
book-
>style interface, or maybe even display two different documents - one on each
screen.  Is 
>anybody following me on this?


Actually, they're way ahead of you on this.  Well, not *way* ahead, because
it's a little
larger than you might like, but have a look at http://www.everybook.net/
and see
if
it isn't close to what you have in mind.  Certainly they have grasped your
desire for
a two screen, clamshellf reading device.


Jerome McDonough -- jmcdonou at library.Berkeley.EDU  |  (......)
Library Systems Office, 386 Doe, U.C. Berkeley     |  \ *  * /
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000    (510) 642-5168          |  \  <>  /
"Well, it looks easy enough...."                   |   \ -- /  SGNORMPF!!!
         -- From the Famous Last Words file        |    ||||

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