Those of you who lug around a lot of gear like myself, and remember my article on a single convergence device, might just find this concept design by Indian Industrial Designer Prashant Chandra very interesting. His entry in the Fujitsu Design Awards competition, the Lifebook2013, was shortlisted to the top 100 from over 3000 entries from 99 countries. Consisting of a notebook, tablet, phone/MP3 player, and camera, the unit doesn’t actually have a physical keyboard, the tablet becomes a virtual keyboard when docked. When connected, the unit shares hardware and storage and only needs a single power charger.
“Our life in this IT age typically consist of these digital devices that we use everyday to do our work, entertain ourselves, enjoy our hobbies, save our memories and share and socialize with our family & friends. Presently we buy each one of these devices separately and then struggle to keep them all synchronised with our data. Also we always use these devices one at a time. This means a lot of wasted hardware which is repeated in these devices and is sitting idle in one device, when we are using other. If there was a device that could have these devices integrated into one thereby making synchronization a seamless process and overall cost of ownership lesser than what I would spend for four individual devices, it would truly be my Lifebook.”
More pictures and details can be seen in Prashant’s portolio on coroflot.com
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Very clever, but I’d want a real touch keyboard when using a sort-of laptop device.
Here’s an interesting look at what appears to be a concept device along the same lines-http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/05/06/bento-box-kinda-like-voltron/
Back many years ago, I was looking for a convergence device as well. I was carrying a MP3 player, a GameBoy, an address book and calendar with notepaper, and a watch with alarms on it. I replaced that mess with the Handspring Visor Deluxe (Ice) and a few of the Smart Modules that went with it (especially the EyeModule camera).
Over the years, it or one of its later cousin upgrades did what I wanted- often with a portable keyboard for notetaking. Now, for some reason I am not real sure about, I have a laptop, tablet, smartphone, camera, and bunch of odds and ends to haul with them (cables, speakers, battery packs, folding keyboard…)
If I am absolutely honest with myself, I can really do about 80-95% of the work with just the smartphone, folding keyboard, and a battery pack (the kind with the folding plug and USB port). Then it mostly becomes a matter of the right mix of apps and cloud.
Of course, there are a lot of things that are BETTER/EASIER on a different device, but the main things I cannot do easily on this set up are ‘artistic’ photography, good image manipulation or creation, or really enjoy movies and some websites.
After having an iPad and Touch I really want something with a real keyboard!