Stuff like a pretty case with slots for optical drives, a laptop with a shitton of ports and all-day battery life or anything else that seems to go against the trends.

This thread is for complaining about how you can’t find it and (maybe) finding it thanks to someone else.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    10 days ago

    This seems close enough for me to bring something that is more adjacent. I used to love tech programs, blogs, segments, what have you. Now though. Its all smartphone or ai related. I hate it.

  • SethranKada@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    A IP68 e-ink Linux phone with both wireless charging and induction charging (to charge other devices), no cameras at all, solar panel on the back, usb-4 and headphone jack, 1TB storage , 15’000 mAh battery, two separate WiFi cards (to allow simultaneous hotspot and client use), and finally a radio transiever for both short range comms and long range AM and FM radio.

    Technically possible with current technology, but as far as I can tell, completely unavailable in the consumer market.

    Price, size and weight are irrelevant for all usecasses of such a product, as far as I’m concerned.

  • IndigoGolem@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    A few things.

    A laptop with 2-way HDMI, so i can plug it into a game console and use it as a small TV. Note that i’m aware that HDMI might not work like this.

    A wearable soundboard with speakers and batteries hidden in my pockets, and controlled by chorded buttons in my shoes. Use cases include crickets, canned laughter, the Seinfeld theme, and audible air guitar riffs.

    A handheld computer that:

    • Has physical buttons instead of a touchscreen
    • E-ink display for all the benefits of that – Physical light switch for a backlight for the screen (my phone is e-ink but i have the backlight turned off by default, a side effect is i can’t see the screen to turn the backlight on when i need it) – Button to refresh the screen, instead of relying on automatic refreshes (Light Phone II) or updating what’s on screen to get it to refresh (Sony PRS 505) – Solar panel, if the OS is light enough to permit it. Ereaders are totally low-power enough that if one had a small solar panel like a calculator you’d almost never need to charge it. A full handheld computer could probably also benefit from this.

    A music player / DAC that:

    • Has physical buttons, non-touch screen, & light switch for screen backlight like the above wish.
    • Lets you mark some files as audiobooks/podcasts, so it remembers your place in those
    • Isn’t just an Android phone that can’t make calls
    • Has a reflective or transflective display, so you can use it outdoors without fighting the sun
    • Can listen to the radio, if you unfold or plug in an antenna
    • Has a headphone jack There’s more to this one because i’m planning to actually make it someday, simply because i don’t expect anyone else to make one that does what i want it to.

    Somewhat ergonomic keyboards in laptops. I know split keyboards are hard because the screen has to be about as wide as the keyboard, but i’m sure there’s a way and i intend to someday prove it. I know we can do better than typewriter shaped keyboards with QWERTY by default, even ortholinear boards would be an improvement because layouts can be done in software.

    An electric notebook with a touchscreen that instead of using OCR to turn handwriting into text, stores handwriting as vector graphics as a middle ground between OCR and images with huge file sizes. Probably with a slider for how much to simplify lines, and an option to select areas of a page to convert to text via OCR so you can still have diagrams and doodles alongside plain text that’s easy to export and edit.

    A device like a generation I pokedex, but for real world animals and plants. This one probably won’t happen because stuff like this is only done as smartphone apps anymore, not as standalone toys.

    HUD goggles that are the display of a full portable computer.

    • Keyboard input could be done through a split keyboard that hooks onto your belt, with half on each thigh
    • Mouse input could be done with a trackpoint / trackball on the keyboard (simple option) or with a bracelet that emits IR light from multiple points so it can be tracked by sensors on the goggles (if you don’t understand what i mean, kind of like a Wiimote and sensor bar), with a ring that goes around your middle finger attached by a wire to the bracelet. When you tug the ring down by bending your wrist or fingers down, that’s a mouse click. (complicated option)
    • Two or more hot-swappable batteries, so you can change one out without the device having to lose power
    • Transparent LCD over one eye, so the background of the image is just what’s actually in front of you
    • Gyroscope somewhere on the head part, so you can turn your head to access different windows like it’s a VR headset. Imagine there’s a bubble around your head with program windows projected onto different parts of it. Large windows look curved around the surface of the bubble. You can drag them around with the mouse, or turn your head to move them relative to your eyes. Probably also makes this good for AR stuff.
    • Headphone jack and bluetooth for audio, but not necessarily built in speakers This one might never happen, apparently making any kind of HUD is very hard and expensive and this one is asking for a lot. But it would be so cool. It would finally be a portable computer with a good input system (keyboard) and a display at the same time.

    And there’s more stuff i want to exist that doesn’t fit the question. Software (why hasn’t anyone mad a 3+ D spreadsheet program?) and non-technical products.

    • HubertManne@piefed.social
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      10 days ago

      Oh I have wanted a laptop which could act as a dumb console with video input and keyboard/touchpad out. Honestly would be great to have something like the framwork but just a dumb terminal that clicks down onto the main computer and then maybe another level that is graphics.

    • Blisterexe@lemmy.zipOP
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      10 days ago

      The HUD goggles are starting to exist, not the way you described it but the technology is starting to get there.

  • smiletolerantly@awful.systems
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    10 months ago

    A high-quality laptop without any branding.

    I’m currently using a 9-year-old, woefully underpowered laptop made by Xiaomi. Full aluminium unibody, and NO logo. Not printed on, not etched in, not glistening only in the right light. NO LOGO.

    I’m not a billboard. I’m not responsible for your brand recognition. Ironically though, far more people have come up to me and asked “hey, what laptop is that” than ever would have cared if there was a logo on it.

    It also just looks and feels fantastic, all-aluminium-no-logo just looks so sleek.

    So yeah. I will not be upgrading until I find another laptop of the same build quality, with no logo. Tuxedo has that option for most of their laptops, but for some reason not for their only current full-aluminium body -.-

    Oh, and don’t come at me with stickers.

    • IndigoGolem@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      A lot of dumbphones have pretty small screens. My Light Phone II is about half the size of my old Something-Or-Other brand smartphone.

      But if you want a small pocket supercomputer that can make calls, someone else already linked to https://www.unihertz.com/