Cylindrical Rolltop Laptops 159
akshaynhegde writes "Germany's Orkin Design has proposed this fantastic concept of a futuristic laptop. The rolltop is a 'rolled up' laptop. By using the flexible OLED and touchscreen technologies, the created concept is a cylindrical laptop which can be rolled out when it needs to be used and can be rolled up again when not used." Something tells me it will be a little while before you will be unrolling your laptop on a plane.
It's not a newspaper (Score:5, Insightful)
And even if it was, do you know how god damn annoying it is to read a paper after it's been rolled up?
Look, laptops do it right. The hinge? That's a crease, a fold line, and allows this thing that otherwise should not be bent to use space more efficiently. A cylinder is will have that big empty volume in the middle. Well, it will until the slightest bit of pressure to the sides squeezes it flat.
Re:It's not a newspaper (Score:5, Insightful)
This. Just because you can make something doesn't mean anyone is going to want it. There's a reason we upgraded from scrolls to books. Rolled up things are an inefficient use of space.
Re:It's not a newspaper (Score:3, Insightful)
There's a reason we upgraded from scrolls to books. Rolled up things are an inefficient use of space.
Could it be that we went to books because of the invention of the printing press, which was not able to print continuously on a long scroll (contrary to the more modern printers, starting with the matrix printer)?
In the fluids / beverage industry, cylindrical containers are very common. Volumes range from a few milliliters to thousands of tons. Nobody ever complained about the volume taken up by the space between the bottles or tanks.
In fact, cylindrical containers tend to be very strong, and that's a major plus.
This. Just because you can make something doesn't mean anyone is going to want it.
Just because it's not what you're used to doesn't mean it's a bad idea :-)
And anyway, just because it's new, there are plenty of people who will want to buy it. Especially if it has an Apple logo.
Re:It's not a newspaper (Score:5, Insightful)
They aren't using cylindical forms because they want to, but they have to to contain the pressure. Trust me, they complain a lot about the space lost due to cylindical containers.
Re:It's not a newspaper (Score:2, Insightful)
Scrolls are sequential access documents, while books are random access. The advantages of a book over a scroll are completely unrelated to their uses as a computer screen form factor.