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Apple PowerBook with Goggle Display? 87

Posted by CmdrTaco from the cool-rumors dept.
James Outlaw writes "InfoWorld has a very short article about Apple's new PowerBook- code named Lombard. It's slim and reportedly weights about 3.5 lbs. The most interesting feature is that the LCD panel is detachable and replaceable wth a set of goggles." I've been lusting after a vaio for so long, but if this holds true... yum. Might be time to try out LinuxPPC.
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Apple PowerBook with Goggle Display? More

Apple PowerBook with Goggle Display?

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  • Watch out CmdrTaco... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Friends don't let friends drive and code Perl at the same time.

  • G4 Portable before G4 Desktop? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Correction: Wall Street with G3 processor came out BEFORE the desktop G3 systems.
  • I'd imagine that, after an hour or so of having heavy eyegear strapped to your head, the "coolness" factor goggles afford would have long since evaporated. I don't doubt that a G4 laptop would kick a lot of ass, but the goggles thing sounds like a really expensive, quickly-forgotten toy.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • It seems that the distribution wars are extending outside the x86 world :-(

    AFAIK the reason for the delay of LinuxPPC is that it is still beta for the b&w PowerMac G3 (It does work however).

  • sounds a lot closer to reality now. Let's see, small, portable, optionally battery-powered, devices that connect you to a worldwide network. You interact with this device by wearing a headset and using various navigation keys on the device. Some have flip-up displays. Hmmm...cyberspace deck from Neuromanucer et al. or Apple's next PowerBook?
  • Posted by Rahikainen:

    I waited and waited and waited and waited and waited for LinuxPPC to come out. The new one. The one that runs Netscape.

    I gave up and bought YellowDog Linux. Glad I did.

  • Posted by DonR:

    Actually, the Lombard powerbook has been held up not by its design and engineering issues, but by the popularity of the current Wallstreet powerbook. There are too many of them in the retail sector, sitting in warehouses or whatever. Due to recent promotions, the backstock is mostly gone, and the new powerbooks are nearly ready to ship.

    There was also a holdup because of MacOS 8.6. There are some features in that OS that the new Powerbooks (both Lombard and the new consumer laptop, the P1) require for proper operation. MacOS 8.6 went into Gold Master a week and a half ago, so its only a matter of time. (This version is also a Free upgrade from 8.5)
    ---
    Donald Roeber
  • Rather use MacOS than Linux? Do you cut your steak with a tennis racket too?
  • Do your knives crash often too? Can you only use one implement at a time, or can Knife 8.5 now work with Fork 8.5 simultaneously for more efficient eating?
  • I'd be happy if I could quite simply find a single eye thing like the ones that the MIT Media Labs guys mess around with..
  • My old typing teacher (The Evil Crone) would love this. "Don't look at your fingers, dammit!"
  • Sorry, no EULA on Apple machines. Not that I mind - I'd rather use MacOS than Linux anyway.

    --
    Timur Tabi
    Remove "nospam_" from email address
  • I have high-quality Henkel knives that I use to cut my steak, and every other food I cook or eat at home. Using Linux is like using a chainsaw to cut your steak - instead of just cutting it, you need to start the motor, carefully place the chain on the plate hoping you won't destroy the table, and then when you're done you have to clean up all the meat fragments that the saw sprayed all over the place.

    --
    Timur Tabi
    Remove "nospam_" from email address

  • From what I've read, the Lombard is supposed to replace the current line of Powerbooks and will be in the same price range. Like most new laptops that are for the professional market, they would still cost too much for me. I think I will wait until they start producing the Consumer Portable, which is rumored to be about the same price as the iMac. I might get one of those. More likely my wife will want one and I'll get to use her toshiba as a Linux laptop.

  • You see, it isn't really free, since Compaq has to buy the OS from Microsoft. Apple, on the other hand, makes their own, which they put on the laptop.

    At least, that's what Apple will tell you. Remember, they still consider themselves to be primarily a hardware company.
  • Yellow Dog has Netscape up and running? I thought that was only for the Gone Home edition, which hasn't come out yet (the problem with Netscape is the combination of PPC and glibc2, not the LinuxPPC kernel, which is identical to the one used in Yellow Dog).

    Last I heard, this Netscape issue was the only reason LinuxPPC hasn't released R5 yet.
  • Actually, I think this will be more in the form of a head-up display than true VR goggles. In other words, the screen appears to float in the air in front of you, but you can still see around the screen (and even, if I'm not mistaken, through the screen if you wish). So you could still look down at the keyboard.

    Better yet, get some speech-dictation software and you won't even need the keyboard at all :)

  • This post truly strikes at the heart of the matter, Goggle Displays. Enumerating the weaknesses of perl (of course it has some) really helps to illuminate things (ha-ha).

    Personally, I'm a C-programmer/SysAdmin, but perl certainly has its place.

    Everyone, please. More opinions about C-vs-Perl. Here's as good a place as any...

  • Sony has a cool looking HMD that is shipping for 800x600 resolutions. The XGA 1024x768 version should be comming soon. Integrated sound...

    Only drawback- nearly $3K (and no tracking, as far as I can tell)



  • I can "detatch" the LCD from my notebook with a few screws. It would be nice to have a smaller HUD viewer. Imagine the weight and massive power savings of such a small device. The image could be brighter and seen in full sunlight too... :)
  • Your grammar teachers are rolling over in their graves, darlings.

    When referring to a collective entity, one uses either the singular or the plural depending on what they mean. If the collective entity is acting like a single unit and undivided, it is singular. If the collective entity are divided in their opinions (like any political decision making congregation) then they are plural.

    Examples:

    NATO recognized its 50th birthday this past week.

    NATO are trying to maintain peace in the world.

    Okay, so that last one was just a bit snarky and cynical of me, but do you see the point now? I find this odd, because I was just explaining this to some students in the library the other day about why Mathematics is singular.

  • The same thing has been perplexing me for years. When I were a lad learning German at school, the German's being logical refer to colelctive things like a company etc. as a single entity, as do the Americans in American English, but here in blighty we use the singular noun but use it as if it were plural. That's how it's done here, and as usual we're wrong and everyone lese is right.
    American English is much more logical than UK English, and its spelling is much simpler and less baroque.
    The only reason we deride the Americans for their language is out of purely ignorant self-righteous, snobby self-superior nationalistic jingoism.
  • i'm paying attention to you...
  • I was drooling after this just like everybody else, but I hadn't thought of that. I chickenpeck, and though I don't really need to look at the keyboard any more, I still do out of habit.

    Oh well, maybe this is just what I need to break me of this habit...
  • I just discovered my screwdriver won't cut a board. Must be worthless.
  • Stay away from perl. Use TCL instead.
  • Just a small point...

    In GB, it is proper grammar to use the verb 'to be' in the plural. The poster said, "are Apple...?"

    The company, Apple, is treated like more than one, presumably because it consists of many people. Yet, it is one corporation, a legal alter ego. It should only be treated as a logical singular thing. The most logical way to pose the question would be 'is Apple...?'

    Hey, the Yankee concept of alter ego corporate status came from British common law. So your grammar ought to conform to its logical dictates. Perhaps this is just a colloquial usage.

    I don't know why I care, but whenever I hear or read a Brit saying 'are' for company, a musical band, a government, or any organization I wonder who else they are going to talk about. I think, "Are Apple and SOMETHING ELSE going to do such and such," not "are Apple" and nothing else.

    Most English usages are generally more refined and make sense to me (except for what I said already and the spelling differences). However, this one is baffling.

    You English types sho is funny tho...PEACE OUT....
  • It's a test...

    PEACE OUT!...
  • I don't know how awesome typists some of you are, but every once in a while i do need to look at the keyboard, especially when typing on of those cramped keyboards on laptops. That's my two cents.
  • S'funny, but in England LOMBARD is an acronym like YUPPIE that means "Lots Of Money But A Right D***head" - Are Apple trying to tell us something :-)

  • That's funny, but I think the name comes from the curviest street in the world (which is located in San Francisco) Lombard Street. Looking at apple's other latest designs, curvy seems to be their theme.

  • How can it be vaporware if it hasn't been announced? I am sure those rumor sites blatantly make up the rumors just to have some content for the day. Apple doesn't give specific timelines for their products, so one enever really knows when a product was really meant to come out. I think pretty much every technology company delays major product releases...I can't think of one that has been consistently on time.

    Also, don't even try to compares apple to Microsoft as far as OS releases go. Apple comes out with an update to the Mac OS twice a year, compared to Microsoft's once every 3 years.
  • I think its time for an apple...

    Hope Linux works with it. Does anybody know a release-date?

    Gery

  • Yeah, well, to bad its Apple crap.

    I want Alpha laptops with this stuff.
  • My boss got one and it's a piece of junk. You see how the word "vaio" is embossed across the cover? It's not embossed, it's painted to look embossed. The trackpad doesn't register my finger movement half of the time, and the screen is relatively disappointing. And attaching peripherals is a nightmare. They didn't think carefully about where cords and plugs should go, and they end up getting in your way. I haven't used one myself, but one of my coworkers used a Sharp Acticus (if I spelled it right) and said it was the best mini-laptop around.
  • Lombard is that curvy street in SF that you see in the Guiness Book of Records. It's also the British equivalent of Wall Street. Both references are plausible in connection to the new Powerbooks because 1) The current Powerbooks are codenamed "Wall Street" and 2) The new ones are supposed to be curvy as hell.
  • Not a bad idea, eh? Netwinder, Virtual I/O glasses and all. The power source would be a bitch to put together for an idiot like me...

  • Unlike certain other companies that we could name, Apple has never made any pretensions about offering refunds for the Mac OS if you want to use something else.
  • I'm typing this in Netscape 4.05, running Linux/PPC 4.1. Or am I misunderstaning something about your post?

    I have been tempted to get YDL, or TurboLinux, just to test out the distros. How do you like YDL? I've seen no reviews of it.
  • Even funnier, in Russian the primary meaning of `Lombard'
    is `a place one would go when in *real* need for money'
  • Don't need a license clause for that. When you buy hardware from Apple, they throw in the MacOS for free. You shouldn't have too much trouble getting a $0 refund out of Apple for the unused software.
  • Lots Of Money But A Right Dickhead.

    Used to be applied to posers with mobile phones who ostentationsly make "important" calls in public places but could soon be applied to goggle wearing Apple users.

    Who cares if you look daft though - I still want one.

    --
    starling
  • Well, I just hope they fit the Lombard with GPS and a local map (and maybe a proximity sensor) so the wearer doesn't bump into anything while absentmindedly reconfiguring the kernel.

    Sort of reminds me of the series in Linux Jounal by that weird guy who's into wearable computers - only he seems to have a social agenda rather than a love of the technology for its own sake.

    Seriously though, maybe the Lombard will finally make wearable computers a viable option for the masses and that's a Good Thing in my book.

    --
    starling
  • Wallstreet (curvy formfactor) came out on May 6th, 1998, more than six months after the G3 Desktop systems. if you're referring to the G3 portable based on the 3400, then you're right it actually came out a little before the desktop systems. This was because the G3 was hacked into the preexisting 3400 motherboard and was not a whole new design like the gossamer G3 motherboards for the desktops systems. nevertheless, if production problems would not have held gossamer up, the G3 would have been first in a desktop.

  • Okay, I've gone after some more information on this subject, as I admit my knowledge of PowerBooks much before Wallstreet is kind of hazy. The press releases, introduction, the whole shabang for the G3 processor was on November 10th, 1997. Both the desktop and laptop G3 processor (there's no different versions of the processor like Intel has) were introduced simultaneously. Here's my Source [lowendmac.com]. (I think that because of Apple's confusing naming scheme, you confused the 'old' PowerBook G3 (Nov, 97) with the 'new' PowerBook G3 Series,(may 98)). But again, if you want to get picky, it's possible the PowerBook G3 was shipped to customers before the desktop g3.

    But that's not the point really. The point is that G4 is not ready for introduction in Lombard before the Sawtooth desktop systems expected around MWNY this July. Lombard is a done machine, its production is ramping up in Taiwan right now, but has had some setbacks, which has thus delayed its introduction. It runs on the g3 processor, there really is no doubt about that. The guy who wrote the infoworld article may have just been fed real bad information by a reader or fell victim to one of Apple's notorious leak-detecting far-out rumors. Much like the apple/disney/pixar merger rumors that AppleInsider [appleinsider.com] fell for.

    Also, by reading some of the other posts, the codenames of Apple's PowerBooks are of much interest and intrigue. Yes, The Powerbook G3 Series is codenamed Wallstreet (and there was a low end version codenamed Mainstreet). Then the next PowerBook codenamed Lombard is named after the street in San Francisco, but it also has the additional codename of 101. This is from the highway in California named 101, which is renamed Lombard street when it reaches downtown San Francisco. Neat, huh? The connection of Lombard with the street in Britain akin to America's financial district has been recognized as well.If you want to go way into the future, speculation on the next generation after Lombard/101 says the machine may be codenamed 102, but that's likely to change as we get closer to that product's timeframe.

    Doug

  • G4 Portable before G4 Desktop? (Score:4)

    by DougLandry ( 27581 ) on Saturday April 24, 1999 @10:46AM (#1917768) Homepage
    It is *highly* unlikely that Apple will release a G4 notebook system before a G4 desktop system. At no point in Apple's history has a new generation of processor debuted on a portable system. The other assumptions in the article are unlikely. For more info on lombard, visit www.pbzone.com/lombard.shtml.


    Doug
  • Well, speaking as someone with VirtualIO glasses and netwinders...

    You need better resolution than VirtualIO to use a computer. You can crank the font size on the console enough to be legible (not clear, just legible enough to tell lowercase characters apart) you only get 53 characters across the screen.

    Lots of programs are unhappy with that screen size.

    Now, when I can get a REAL 640x480 for not a lot of money I'll be ready to use it, but VirtualIO isn't it.
  • I wonder how they detach the LCD. Might this be a departure from the usual clamshell design?

    http://www.ryans.dhs.org
  • another big company trying to make it look like they invented wearable computing.. I wish that Steve Mann woud have patented the idea so that all manufacturers would have had to call it a Wearable computer invented by a bunch of geeks instead of some overpaid R&D team that steal's ideas anyways...

    Look at IBM's wearable... and they act like they came up with the idea!
  • Simple... dont use an out-dated flat keyboard... everyone that is anyone uses a Twiddler keyboard!
    Sheesh... use 2 hands for typing and mousing? what are we in the dark ages?
  • Ummm all us wearable users are cyborgs and we stand in public compiling kernels, writing code or just taking photos of everyone and putting them on the net for all to see in order to invade your privacy! we exist and we stand for " We have something you dont have so NYAHHHH!"

    Actually a wearable isnt for everyone.. It's a specific use item. If you dont carry your laptop everywhere and have 3 batterys and drain them dead every day then you'd never use a wearable.
    I need to be connected/computing every second of the day.
    But then that is me :-) Richard Head.
  • is there a clause in the macos license that allows us to get a refund for the macos on this laptop?
  • What a-bout dat ting dat Sony haz, don't dey hav som-fin like dis? Eye sawz it in uh advertizment dat day had. Eye guezz dat dat ting ain't portable dough..

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