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Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

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Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#151

Post by akhilcacharya »

amiga-workbench wrote: post #87
Tepix wrote: post #69

I bought a Toshiba Libretto L1 back in 2001 via the Internet (using translation services) and had it shipped to Germany. It was a fantastic form factor: A super wide 10" 1280x600 display (143dpi) which was so wide that it left enough room for a decent keyboard. The CPU was a Transmeta Crusoe 600Mhz which was, unfortunately, the bottleneck of the system. One other highlight I remember about this machine: Despite not h…

I've got a few Libretto's kicking around, they are fantastic machines, full pentium class UMPC's I've also got a GPRS modem for my 100CT and it makes a nice portable IRC machine. http://i.imgur.com/IUp4U7p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/SuMjceM.jpg

I'm a fan of the wallpapers.

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#152

Post by Dylan16807 »

kafkaesk wrote: post #114
pwg wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a) of a 128GB SSD, only 90GB was left after Sony took wat they thought was necessary > e) it still ran Windows Your "e" item indicates that it was not Sony who took 90G of the 128G SSD, but rather it was Microsoft who took 70% of the drive space. Lay the blame where it belongs, on Microsoft, they created an OS that consumes 90G of disk space. Sony did not create mswin, Sony just installed it because it is what most…

90 GB is what was left, not what was used. But even 38 GB seems a bit too much for a fresh OS, I assume that includes a recovery partition or the good old GiB/GB mix-up.

> GiB/GB

That's only 7%

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#153

Post by yuhong »

pjc50 wrote: post #106
dep_b wrote: post #92

I bought a Sony VAIO MultiFlip 13A for my wife because she loves Sony's design and she wanted a touchscreen, so we bought the basic model with an SSD. a) of a 128GB SSD, only 90GB was left after Sony took wat they thought was necessary b) the fan was incredibly noisy, it would crash randomly and would eventually die and take the notebook with it c) when put in a less performant mode, it's really less performant and s…

VAIO were always beautiful garbage. Toshiba, on the other hand, were amazing, both in the regular size and the tiny Librettos.

I have a strong feeling that Sony VAIO probably has the worst quality BIOSes for years.

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#154

Post by sctb »

notoothpaste wrote: post #88
yaakov34 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most manufacturing, you have a prototype hall or floor where you have somewhat more general purpose/flexible machines with a lot of manual intervention to make small quantities of prototypes, and factories with automated machines set up to make the exact parts you need for your full production. This was always my experience in electronics - you, as the development engineer, set up small-scale production (going fro…

Thank you for your sincere and informed response. I understand that EEs create countless prototypes over the course of the development of a product, and that development PCBs need not (especially for debugging purposes) bear any physical resemblance to the finished product. What is impressive to me is that Toshiba could: Redesign and test a PCB Set up a manufacturing process for pick and place etc Create an injection…

You've commented uncivilly like this too many times; we have to ban this account. We're happy to unban accounts if you read the guidelines, email us at hn@ycombinator.com, and we believe you'll comment only civilly and substantively in the future.

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#155

Post by CountSessine »

Oletros wrote: post #89
CountSessine wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most android phone owners don't use it as a smartphone - it's a cheap feature phone they buy at the phone store and they just use it to make calls on. The number of true 'smartphone users' in the android world who are using them to browse the web and download apps is comparable to or less than the number of iOS device owners.

> Most android phone owners don't use it as a smartphone - it's a cheap feature phone they buy at the phone store and they just use it to make calls on. Do you have a source for that?

Yes - see above.

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#156

Post by lisivka »

notoothpaste wrote: post #79
lisivka wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way Quote: Principle 3 Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction. A method where a process signals its predecessor that more material is needed. The pull system produces only the required material after the subsequent operation signals a need for it. This process is necessary to reduce overproduction.

I too have heard of Kanban and JIT from my fellow arrogant valley douches. I would like to understand the specific manufacturing processes that make one-off products of production quality viable.

I suggest to read Gemba Kaizen books. Yes, it is hard to understand first, but then you realize that Toyota Way is like 3D printer — add only what is needed right now, do it fast, be precise.

So yes, you are right — Toyota Way is not viable for mass production, but it perfect for areas where human labor is still plays major role in manufacturing, e.g. programming.

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#157

Post by Oletros »

CountSessine wrote: post #155
Oletros wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most android phone owners don't use it as a smartphone - it's a cheap feature phone they buy at the phone store and they just use it to make calls on. Do you have a source for that?

Yes - see above.

Where?

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#158

Post by mikekchar »

janneklouman wrote: post #84
mikekchar wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others have said, Apple has a very strong presence in Japan. If I go to an electronics store, usually half the models on display are Apple. Panasonic and Fujitsu pretty much rule the desktop with bizarre television/computer fusions. Imagine a TV about the thickness of one of the old plasma TVs. It usually has a stand, but I think you can also wall mount it. You can watch and record TV on them, so they are basicall…

I'd like to add NEC to your list (surprised no one is mentioning them). They completely dominated the Japanese PC market during the 80's and 90's, and even though the've been declining heavily since, it's still a strong brand in Japan holding about a fifth of the market share.

That's really interesting. You are right. As far as I remember, though, I've never seen one in a shop. I'm going to go to the electronics store today, so I'll have a peek for them. I know that they sell routers and and things (and in fact I will probably buy one of their routers today). Hmmm... Definitely something to consider.

Edit: I take it back. Should have did some poking around before I posted. NEC sells the Lavie model in Japan, which I have definitely seen. Looks like they are filling in that middle tier that I like as well. I wonder how well it supports Linux...

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#159

Post by benzesandbetter »

minikomi wrote: post #55
benzesandbetter wrote: post #54

In the early 2000's Japan was way ahead in the Sub-notebook market. As subnotebooks and tablets have come into popularity and wide availability worldwide, this arbitrage opportunity has narrowed significantly. In 2007, I picked up a Panasonic R6 (10" LetsNote/toughbook). It was a great little machine, and I ran both Windows and Debian on it. The keyboard was a bit cramped, and the circular trackpad was pretty lame, b…

Can you share which Chromebook you got? I'm living in Japan and am interested.

I have the Chromebook Flip C100

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#160

Post by benzesandbetter »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #74
benzesandbetter wrote: post #54

In the early 2000's Japan was way ahead in the Sub-notebook market. As subnotebooks and tablets have come into popularity and wide availability worldwide, this arbitrage opportunity has narrowed significantly. In 2007, I picked up a Panasonic R6 (10" LetsNote/toughbook). It was a great little machine, and I ran both Windows and Debian on it. The keyboard was a bit cramped, and the circular trackpad was pretty lame, b…

> The keyboard is both english and Japanese So, Japanese, then? Or does it have English labels on the modifier keys?

It's QWERTY with Kana. You can see a couple images here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAqh-TUpLh3/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGGFILmpLsn/

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