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New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

arstechnica.com

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Re: New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

#181

Post by duskwuff »

stcredzero wrote: post #177
ianl wrote: post #100

I think you are all missing the point. There already is a massive market for high end gaming pcs and laptops. Compare these prices and specs to what is available from Alienware or MSI. This laptop only misgiving is the fact it does not have an SSD. However, it is competitively priced in comparison to its competition and with a sleek sexy design this is a very interesting entry into the market.

This laptop only misgiving is the fact it does not have an SSD. However, it is competitively priced in comparison to its competition and with a sleek sexy design this is a very interesting entry into the market. I think Google should invest in this thing. Include an SSD, and leverage the unique UI elements for Chrome OS. In this case, it wouldn't be just for gaming. Instead it would be a powerful and compelling alter…

> I think Google should invest in this thing. Include an SSD, and leverage the unique UI elements for Chrome OS. In this case, it wouldn't be just for gaming. Instead it would be a powerful and compelling alternative to the iPad for the end-user browse/email/word process crowd.

At more than five times the price? I'm not so sure.

Re: New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

#182

Post by patrickk »

nemetroid wrote: post #170
patrickk wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely a CD/DVD dirive would have to be present for gaming. I know Steam is taking off but a lot of games are still played from discs

I don't think "taking off" is the best way to describe Steam's current position. I don't think there's been any major game in the last few years that required a disc for playing. Perhaps a couple required it for installing, but not many there either.

The point I was trying to make was that many people still choose to buy the physical disc from a high-street or online retailer. Just because the disc isn't strictly necessary, doesn't mean they're going away. A friend works at GameStop, and every now and again has to work for midnight launches for the likes of World of Warcraft where people will be queued around the corner to get their copy of the game.

Re: New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

#183

Post by sapphirecat »

jerf wrote: post #166
sapphirecat wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And before anybody brings up the usual objection that your customizations travel to other people's machines poorly... I'd say that's unimportant compared to other people traveling to your machine's configuration poorly, when the displayed UI does not reflect the actual result. Imagine, if you will, someone sitting down at a keyboard configured as anything not QWERTY, but still labeled in QWERTY. They're going to as…

It turns out in practice not to be a huge problem. As you might guess, I'm speaking from experience. I don't need to "imagine" or theorize, I'm living it. It also turns out that if you really want to, it's easy to make your keyboard flip back and forth between QWERTY and whatever customizations you like. (In my environment, "setxkbmap us" and "jerf_keyboard" (setxkbmap dvorak & an xmodmap) does it. Bind a key to it i…

Your experience isn't universal. I have people using my computer sometimes that I have to change the keyboard back to QWERTY for them, because they can't find the keyboard icon to do it themselves, even when they have directions. It really is a pain, in my experience.

Re: New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

#184

Post by nemetroid »

patrickk wrote: post #182
nemetroid wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think "taking off" is the best way to describe Steam's current position. I don't think there's been any major game in the last few years that required a disc for playing. Perhaps a couple required it for installing, but not many there either.

The point I was trying to make was that many people still choose to buy the physical disc from a high-street or online retailer. Just because the disc isn't strictly necessary, doesn't mean they're going away. A friend works at GameStop, and every now and again has to work for midnight launches for the likes of World of Warcraft where people will be queued around the corner to get their copy of the game.

Right, I can agree with you on that. Your example is very fitting though since at least for the WoW expansions, probably every single one of those queuing already had the game preloaded and just needed a product key to upgrade their account, furthering the notion that the drive itself is not necessary.

Re: New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

#185

Post by ramanujan »

jerf wrote: post #66
ramanujan wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm. Strongly disagree with this. As a hacker rather than a gamer, the concept of a programmable set of LCD keys next to the standard keyboard is extremely interesting for native app development. I hope that particular feature is copied into a subsequent Macbook Pro release. It's really bringing the innovations pioneered by the iPhone (programmable UI rather than built-in keyboard) back to the laptop. Among other th…

"As a hacker rather than a gamer, the concept of a programmable set of LCD keys next to the standard keyboard is extremely interesting for native app development." If you are a developer and you want programmable keys, don't sit around waiting for an expensive keyboard, reprogram the ones you've already got in front of you. As far as I know, all major OSes can already arbitrarily remap keys to any keystroke you like,…

Of course you and I configure tons of hotkeys, but we're hackers here and can't expect normal people to do that!

What I found interesting is the potential of LCD keys to make program features more discoverable for first time users and more accessible to the masses.

Re: New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

#186

Post by stcredzero »

duskwuff wrote: post #181
stcredzero wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This laptop only misgiving is the fact it does not have an SSD. However, it is competitively priced in comparison to its competition and with a sleek sexy design this is a very interesting entry into the market. I think Google should invest in this thing. Include an SSD, and leverage the unique UI elements for Chrome OS. In this case, it wouldn't be just for gaming. Instead it would be a powerful and compelling alter…

> I think Google should invest in this thing. Include an SSD, and leverage the unique UI elements for Chrome OS. In this case, it wouldn't be just for gaming. Instead it would be a powerful and compelling alternative to the iPad for the end-user browse/email/word process crowd. At more than five times the price? I'm not so sure.

At five times the price, no. But if Google put muscle behind it, they might get some economies of scale going.
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