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Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

expanscape.com

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Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#181

I'm also not quite sure what I'm looking at, but hn_expanscape seems to be serious about this, so I'll bite. hn_expanscape, what is the actual use-case for this device? You mention day-traders, but what about tiny screens sliding out from behind larger screens swiveling out from behind yet larger screens is helpful? Why is this better than one, much larger screen (i.e. a laptop with a 24" monitor or larger)? Why is t…

Hi Thomas, Founder here. Thanks for your questions: - The use case of this is a portable multi monitor desktop with desktop class performance. - I designed this to specifically facilitate my use case (DevOps, SecOps, SIEM, SOC/NOC stuff). I got frustrated and fedup waiting on the G Screen Spacebook and Project Valerie so one day I decided to just get on with making it myself. I am expected to respond to alerts for th…

The best thing to do about the battery life is probably to make it very flexible in shutting down things, i.e. every screen one by one and so on.

Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@othercharles Not to worry - no offense taken. That's the thing though... Not one person who has seen and used this in person responded in ways you've mentioned. We've also had very positive feedback and suggestions from around the globe. However we welcome any constructive criticism as it provides an opportunity to improve. Quite obviously you can't see a use case - however from your perspective as an engineer your…

"Social implications" angle is quite straightforward, - to the informed, a device like this should not be necessary. It did not exist because it was never required, and where a desire for mobile screenspace is required, better solutions have existed for a long time. I define "better" as "less hinges", "more optional", "cheaper", and ideas along this dimension. A skilled engineer carrying this without an extraordinary…

Thank you for your feedback.

We respectfully have to vehemently disagree I'm afraid.

I feel that some of your analogies are somewhat odious and don't really make sense in the grand scheme of things - to me - but we can agree to disagree.

I also feel you put too much stock in what others think about you and what you might be doing rather than putting stock in what may help you to harmlessly achieve a goal regardless of these alluded to "social norms". - Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Your envisioned "Social norms" also appear to demonstrate a potential reason for the complete lack of innovation in screen real estate in the laptop industry for the last decade.

With the exception of Asus no other mainstream laptop OEM/ODM has really pushed the envelope when it comes to additional screens when demand has clearly been out there for at least the last 10 years.

8 core/16 Thread laptops with 64GB RAM and Multi TB NVMe have only become available in the mainstream in the last 3 years. There are many, myself included who required this in portable form for many years previous to that. (My use case was GNS3 and EVE-NG labs when I'm out and about and internet was patchy)

I reached out to G Screen in 2010 with funds ready to purchase their dual screen laptop prototype and unfortunately wasn't able to.

I made my first quite basic prototype a little while afterwards.

When Project Valerie was announced I thought at last I can now buy the dream - alas it wasn't available - so I just doubled down on my prototypes.

I have personally and professionally had a need for more portable screen real estate since at least 2005.

Also you are definitely mistaken - No one cares what the engineers toolbox looks like as long as the engineer GETS THE JOB DONE in a timely effective manor. Those are literally the only metrics that matter.

Some people are more effective with a 1 screen laptop. Some prefer n screens. Bottom line is I am more effective and can react to anomalies faster if I can view multiple infrastructure monitoring tools without the constant tedious minimising and maximising especially when at customer sites or at the data center.

Some people don't mind balancing a laptop in one hand while tapping on the keyboard when resolving issues in a comms cabinet - I prefer using my TeenySERV Duo.

My "tools" are also personally fine tuned to my other particular use cases. (Granted my professional workload is a little extreme)

Note that we also have other prototypes with less screens for individuals with different use cases.

Imagine my surprise using my prototypes and being told by multiple people that they want it "yesterday" for their professional and personal use cases.

Our company inbox is literally overflowing with people trying to acquire the 7 Screen prototype in stark contrast with your world view.

The demand and diversity of these individuals, digital nomads, CEOs/Executives, lay people, finance specialists, content creators, developers, film studios did initially surprise me but it does make clear that they aren't concerned with your envisaged "social implications"

With the greatest of respect I think that your envisioned "social norms" don't quite resonate with the general direction or actual norms for laptops in 2020 or going forward in this particular instance.

I predict the trend will steer towards Multi screen laptops, laptops with rollable/foldable displays and finally augmented reality headsets capable of projecting very high resolution content directly into the viewers eyes simulating a multi monitor setup. (Some of these are already available and being actively developed in 2020 already...)

Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#183

Does it have a loud mechanical keyboard though...?

We customise the keyboard as required. The current keyboard in the Aurora 7 is not mechanical.

I figure anyone in the market for one of these is going to want the loudest, most mechanical keyboard available...

Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#184
post #141

>Weight 10KG MAX The goal weight is 60% of the way there. Rounding to 50% for convenience, that means the prototype is around 20 kg or basically the weight of a large barbell plate. Imagine typing with that on your lap!

The weight is roughly 12kg. However there were other considerations/goals that it didn't meet that we haven't documented which is why it only met 60% of our target.

I am unemployed but very interested in this field...

Can I get a demo unit? (Ill return it to you, but I want to to do a noob-unboxing-to-functional-use in a documented session... Can we arrange this? (its a good use of my pandameic time))

Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#185
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you should say that. I'm a blind screen reader user, and assumed this was some new 7-inch laptop. Since I don't need a huge screen, I'm always on the lookout for small, performant laptops. Seems this one is anything but. :) Glad I read the comments first.

One Mix Yoga 2S. It's the smallest non-Atom, non-eMMC laptop. It's basically a 2018 Macbook Air folded in half both directions.

My god, the keyboard on that thing is hideous!

Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#186
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One Mix Yoga 2S. It's the smallest non-Atom, non-eMMC laptop. It's basically a 2018 Macbook Air folded in half both directions.

My god, the keyboard on that thing is hideous!

As I mention elsewhere, it's an emergency laptop for me. I am more or less constantly on pager duty but I only get paged like twice a year or so, thus the keyboard gets used perhaps two hours a year or less. It's good enough for that. Forcing me to slow down my typing in those situations is actually a boon.

Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#188

The memo initially said to design a 7" screen laptop, but the " character got lost in communication. This is how this monstrosity was born.

Funny you should say that. I'm a blind screen reader user, and assumed this was some new 7-inch laptop. Since I don't need a huge screen, I'm always on the lookout for small, performant laptops. Seems this one is anything but. :) Glad I read the comments first.

they have that too...

https://expanscape.com/teenyserv/the-teenyserv-prototypes/

Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#189

The memo initially said to design a 7" screen laptop, but the " character got lost in communication. This is how this monstrosity was born.

Funny you should say that. I'm a blind screen reader user, and assumed this was some new 7-inch laptop. Since I don't need a huge screen, I'm always on the lookout for small, performant laptops. Seems this one is anything but. :) Glad I read the comments first.

I'm curious how well the new Raspberry Pi 400 could be adapted as an effective screen-reader–optimized portable computer. No need to waste weight and battery power on the display.

Re: Aurora 7 Prototype – 7 Screen Laptop

#190
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My god, the keyboard on that thing is hideous!

As I mention elsewhere, it's an emergency laptop for me. I am more or less constantly on pager duty but I only get paged like twice a year or so, thus the keyboard gets used perhaps two hours a year or less. It's good enough for that. Forcing me to slow down my typing in those situations is actually a boon.

For a blind user though, it could be a challenge, is all.
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