The 12 Best Gadgets You Didn’t Buy
Motorola Lapdock
Today’s dual and quad-core smartphones offer the performance of a computer, so why not let them turn into one? In 2011, Motorola released its Lapdock, a 10-inch screen / keyboard / touchpad combo that transfored the Atrix Android phone into a notebook. The Lapdocks ran Webtop, a proprietary OS with limited functionality, but you could surf the full web via the Firefox browser.
Later, Motorola beefed up its lineup with the 14-inch Lapdock 500, which added a full-size keyboard, better multitasking, and a built-in webcam. Sadly, Motorola announced this summer that it was discontinuing the entire Lapdock line. I wish Google and Motorola would have held on a bit longer to try a Lapdock powered by the Chrome OS.
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September 28th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
But this particular piece of tech ( Lapdock) has inspired the next gen of tablet + keyboard = netbook combo … the Asus transformer line up, the new upcoming windows 8 tabs with docks ..
September 29th, 2012 at 12:09 am
Oh UMPC, how I miss you. I still remember a few years back how everyone tried to take a good glance at my awesome Vilive S5 UMPC at Starbucks, while they were stuck with using their netbooks.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:12 am
Well, that inspires me to watch a marathon of “Back To The Future” films on my Pioneer Laserdisc Player.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Oh man, if my contract would not end in 2013, The Kyrocera Echo would be mine! Maybe im the reason it stopped selling. :O
October 2nd, 2012 at 11:32 am
lol i did buy most of those things. I have viliv n5 (and s5), beos 4 retail box, kyocera echo, atrix with lapdock, and a dreamcast with network adapter and keyboard. My dad has a palm pre he got from working at HP, and he used to have the jornada and omnibook.
October 4th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
I miss my palm pre! Two android phones and one iphone 4s have not been good enough to make me forget my web OS wonder…
October 10th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Amigas were special. I miss that era of computing.
October 27th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Like some others here I have a Viliv S5, N5, and also an S7. These are great UMPCs that I use every day. It’s too bad that Viliv went under because they were really on the right track. The N5 affords me a full Windows 7 device with a keyboard, SD slot, USB, hours of use on battery power, and slips easily into a pocket. My S5 has 3G, 128GB SSD, GPS and all day battery. Awesome stuff. Also have a couple of Raon Digital Everuns and an OQO. All are/were unique devices but price doomed UMPCs to the beta/laserdisk/DAT club. Even in the age of the iPad I get “wow that’s cool” responses.