Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
We got your practicality ... right here.

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

user:
pass:
register,


                       

Laptop Remote

 PDA drives laptop remotely
  (-1)
(-1) 		  [vote for,
against]

The hard-core business traveler needs to take a desktop-replacement laptop on the road. There's no getting around it. And having immediate access to that laptop while on the road, in a plane, in an airport, and such is essential.

PDAs attempt (poorly) to fill this gap and are currently the poor traveler's only option. Synchronization is a pain and even if you have the appropriate "viewier" on the PDA, invariably, whatever document you need isn't transfered to it or wouldn't fit in the limited RAM available.

What is needed is a PDA that is little more than a Remote Desktop client that operates via Bluetooth to a laptop server that can be stored in a backpack or any carry-on luggage. This would allow the traveler to have constant access to anything on the laptop and a form factor that is easily used while sitting in coach.

—cchaney, Aug 29 2004

Using Terminal Services on Pocket PC http://www.microsof...dgman_02june10.mspx
Control a laptop or a server and anything in between. [bristolz, Oct 04 2004]

Remote Desktop for PPC http://www.pdautili...roduct.phtml?id=100
$15 RDP utility. [bristolz, Oct 04 2004]

Smart Displays http://www.microsof...ation/products.mspx
Several orders of magnitude more expensive [tiromancer, Dec 23 2004]

Small touch screen http://www.mini-itx...default.asp?c=9#p67
Only about one order of magnitude more expensive [tiromancer, Dec 23 2004]

News about unreasonably small computers http://www.handtops.com/
Which cost more than some automobiles [tiromancer, Dec 23 2004]

OQO http://www.oqo.com
a fine palm top with windows xp [neilp, Dec 24 2004]

Please log in.
If you're not logged in, you can see what this page looks like, but you will not be able to add anything.
Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee
Destination URL. E.g., https://www.coffee.com/
Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)






       Interesting idea! But in practice, I'd just use a smaller laptop. Disks have gotten so tiny (20-40 gigs in an ipod, for crying out loud) for storage not really to be an issue.
—jutta, Aug 29 2004
   

       An RDP client exists (and has for several years) for Win CE and also for Win Mobile (Pocket PC). It can work via WiFi but I'm not sure about Bluetooth.   

       Hitachi just released their 60GB drives for iPod.
—bristolz, Aug 29 2004
   

       My Googling for such a device brought me here. How about the backpack laptop is headless and keyboardless to keep down cost and size ? The Microsolutions backpack wifi server with 120GB hard drive looks possible, this is portable but not mobile, i.e. would need a battery pack. Also I don't know if it could be hacked to get at the server component.
—kernelsandoz, Dec 23 2004
   

       I don't really get it, PDAs are remote desktop clients: with wifi you can connect to anywhere via FTP/RDP/VNC, and with a 1gb SD card, you can store pretty much anything you want locally.
—neilp, Dec 24 2004
   

       get an unreasonably small palmtop (see links).
—neilp, Dec 24 2004
   


 

back: main index
business  computer  culture  fashion  food  halfbakery  home  other  product  public  science  sport  vehicle