Remember that cool ‘Made in China’ computer concept design? And the fact the guy who made it, John Leung, is an Aussie? (Hi John!) Well he’s had a chat with PC World about concept, the design, and the future of such a pretty ‘dumb terminal’ idea.
I took all the time I could to investigate and found that there were so many PCs in the market that were made in china but none of which are actually made for China, it really inspired me to design one – so that even my grandmother and a three-year-old toddler will be interested in using.
It’s a good read, with a pretty solid vision that could well be a more viable long-term concept than the current OLPC initiatives. Could high-speed wireless networks open the door to a new breed of dumb terminal?
Next-Gen PC design made in Melbourne, for China [PC World Australia]
Penguinister
Monday, May 28, 2007 at 1:39 PMWhen I read “PC itself contains no CPU, hard drive, graphics card or sound card” my warped brain thought the designer had won $25K for putting an antenna on a plastic serving tray (not far off though).
Now I just need to design a car with no motor or wheels or doors and get a $25K award from Ford.. I’ll call it “The Big Assed Kite”.
Reckless
Monday, May 28, 2007 at 3:22 PMOf course now he’s made it easy to upgrade into a media centre PC by simply not adding a tv tuner card.
McbLt
Monday, May 28, 2007 at 3:41 PMThis really does take the dumb terminal to a new level, and as computers become more and more ubiquitous, I think this is probably where things are heading for your basic computer user.
Online services are expanding and offering more alternatives to having to install software on your computer and out of the box into the ‘online’ realm, especially in the office type applications (calendars, word processors etc).
More online storage solutions are also popping up everywhere, reduing the need for physical drives.
As network technology develops and Internet connection speeds and bandwidth increase, why couldn’t we extend this idea of ‘online software’ to hardware?
No idea how they’d do it, but this is visionary stuff – the same stuff that moves the industry forward.
Buddha-bar
Monday, May 28, 2007 at 3:59 PMYou’re absolutely correct in saying that this is “visionary stuff”…. it’s going to revolutionise the entire concept of the PC dinner.
Penguinister
Monday, May 28, 2007 at 4:24 PM@ mcbit
I agree, with andwidth becoming faster every year sooner or later the whole logic of having a complete PC for basic web services becomes questionable, especially with so many web services coming on line.
Isn’t it amusing though that Microsoft has awarding a designer who’s idea makes a large part of the desktop OS division redundant.
McbLt
Monday, May 28, 2007 at 5:50 PM@ Penguinister
Well, from what I’ve seen they’re one of the companies who is pushing the idea of online services with their Windows Live offerings.
They could easliy have an ‘online OS’ or an advanced portal with a monthly subscription like what they’re doing with Office`Live: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx
Subscription seems to work, and it’s a more efficient way to siphon money from people too!
I’m sure the lads at Redmond can figure out a way to exploit it :)
wernerwaimarana
Monday, May 28, 2007 at 7:21 PMten years! sushi USB sticks are ready and waiting now.
http://gizmodo.com/archives/sushi-usb-flash-drives-023561.php