4. Laptop on the move
Scenario: You are wanting to choose a new laptop in your job as an international sales manager who travels widely. Consider the limitations of this technology and what may come along to improve matters.
To start with consider some of the features of a laptop. These are:
|
| Limitation of ICT | Possible improvement |
|---|---|
| Shape factor: At the moment most laptops are of the clamshell type. The limitation is that the keyboard is vulnerable to spillages and the lid must be rotated up to view the display within. The hinge is also vulnerable to damage. | One concept for the future is to have two super bright OLED displays that slide into each other. The lower display is a virtual keyboard or other function while the upper one acts as the main display. The whole package is only a couple of centimetres thick. The laptop can also be used as a tablet computer when the keyboard is not in use. Or it could act as digital photo display when not needed as a computer. |
| Computer interface: At the moment, laptops use the traditional mouse or tracker pad to control the software. This is awkward, because you either have to carry a wireless mouse with you or the tracker pad is tiny and fiddly to use. | In the future, gesture touch control, now commonplace on the tablet will migrate to the laptop, whilst still keeping the track pad or mouse as an option. Its functions will be more advanced than the present day tablets, such as a single gesture on the screen to shut it down instantly and at the same time save and encrypt all open files. A widely used function of laptops in business is to use them for presentations. Usually by hooking them up to an external projector. In the future, laser projection technology may be fitted into the laptop that can project a clear, bright image onto a wall or screen. |
| Battery technology: Poor battery running time is a serious limitation for laptops on the move. They are also a large part of the weight of a laptop. | Although a Lithium battery does offer many hours of use, there will be improvements over the next few years. For example, an inductive charging system (e.g. Powermat) that can charge the battery by simply placing the laptop on a convenient charging pad at the hotel or airport - no connections needed. Another option is to include solar panels on the the machine to top up the charge. Another possibility in the future is to charge with a methanol based fuel cell capsule such as the 'Dynario' unit that Toshiba have been working on for ten years or the Horizon hand held methanol charger. |
| Storage: There is an ever increasing need to store a lot of data on a laptop. This requires a large capacity hard disk. This is prone to vibration and consumes a lot of battery power whilst running | Over the last few years another technology called 'Sold State Disk' or SSD has slowly become more cost-effective and capacious. For example, you can now get a 256 GB solid state disk for about £300. Still much more expensive than a standard hard disk, but it offers much faster access times (0.1ms vs. 5ms), instant turn on (no spinning up), it is silent, vibration proof, lighter, takes about 1/3rd of the power. So with all these advantages, as the cost comes down, the uptake of SSD will increase. |
challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you
Click on this link: Future charging of laptops