Product Pipeline

Over the last decade, laptops have become smaller, faster, and more powerful, so much so that they now often replace desktop computers. However, the changes we've been seeing are nothing compared with what is on the horizon. The next laptop you purchase could very well be a major step up on the evolutionary ladder of portable computers. In this column we'll look at the new and emerging technologies that will impact laptops.

The 'integrated wireless LAN capability' means that support for 802.11b wireless connectivity is built in—you don't need an Ethernet cable or a wireless card adapter. If you're a techie, this means that you can connect to any available network that uses 802.11b WiFi-certified access points (providing you have the proper security clearance). Centrino also supports security and encryption protocols such as WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and VPN (Virtual Private Networks). If you're not a techie, this means that you have to worry even less about wireless—it's just there if you need it, wherever you roam.

The only complaint about Centrino's WiFi design is that it uses the 802.11b protocol, rather than 802.11a, which moves data at a much faster 54 megabits per second. Other chip manufacturers are preparing to roll out products that support both 802.11a and 802.11b in the same processor. Intel says it will offer something similar in the future, but now it thinks businesses in particular will still value the slower but more widely implemented 802.11b support.

Intel also touts Centrino's 'breakthrough mobile performance' because it uses the next generation of Pentium chips (the Pentium 'M'). It supports the faster USB 2.0 standard and handles multimedia and multitasking better than any previous Intel processor.

One of the biggest complaints about notebooks is that battery life is so short. After just a couple of hours, frustrated users find themselves turning off their laptop or searching for a plug, thereby negating the point of having a 'mobile' computer. Intel claims Centrino excels in this area, too, boosting battery life to five hours or more by using 'smart' technology to power itself down when extra energy is not needed.

All of these innovations should combine to mean thinner and lighter laptops, which is a trend we're already seeing take hold in Japan. Adoption of Centrino should accelerate in the United States over the next two to three years.

For librarians? Centrino is a good indication of how pervasive wireless connections are becoming; the connectivity itself is being built into the processor platform, it's no longer an add-on card. As more people buy laptops that automatically handle wireless and that last for more than just a couple of hours, the demand for WiFi connectivity will increase dramatically. Patrons will expect to bring their laptops into the library and connect to a wireless network for Internet access. Staff will also benefit from being able to roam about the library with wireless access at hand.

Both Toshiba and NEC recently announced the prototype of a new kind of battery, the 'fuel cell.' While this sounds like something from an episode of Star Trek, many in the computer industry feel that fuel cells hold great promise for powering mobile gadgets (and eventually even cars).

If you're a techie, fuel cells produce electricity by combining oxygen and methanol and passing them through an electrolyte membrane. If you're not a techie, fuel cells use chemicals to power stuff, and engineers can make their cartridges smaller and lighter while also producing longer battery life. Instead of the current two to three hours, fuel cells could give notebook users up to three times more battery life in the near term and up to ten times more in a few years.

Both NEC and Toshiba say they will bring their first products with fuel cells to market in 2004, but fuel cell–powered notebooks probably won't reach store shelves until 2005. Even then, they might be so expensive that most users won't be able to take advantage for several years.

For librarians? Fuel cells could eventually power everything from your smartphone to your home. Although there are concerns about using chemicals such as methanol, if engineers can successfully harness this technology, we could see portable gadgets go for days on end without needing to be recharged. That means more people with more connectivity carrying around— and seeking—more information

Currently, the biggest drain on a laptop's battery power is often the screen. While batteries themselves become more efficient, other scientists are trying to find ways to minimize the power your notebook's screen needs. That next step is beginning to look like it will make use of something called 'OLEDs.'

OLEDs are widely thought to be the next step in monitor evolution. If you're reading this column on a computer, you're using an LED (light-emitting diode) screen. A few years from now, though, you might be using an organic LED, or OLED. These screens are different because they apply electrical current to plastic films as opposed to the silicon films in use today.

Because plastic products are much more flexible, OLED screens could come in much larger sizes (up to 500' displays). They can also be much brighter (so you could read them outdoors in sunlight), use less energy (the displays are self-luminous so they don't need backlighting), and can be much thinner (so thin, in fact, that you may be able to roll them up like a newspaper). Researchers at MIT are taking this technology one step further and engineering quantum dot organic LEDs, or QD-OLEDs, so named because the film in the middle is just one quantum-dot thick.

For the near future, though, OLED screens will start out small, like the one on the new Kodak EasyShare LS633 digital camera. The screen on it is so bright and clear that Kodak claims you don't need a PC to check the pictures before printing them; the view on the camera itself is supposedly as good as the one on your computer screen. The LS633 is currently available in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Over the next few years, we should see OLED screens become available on smartphones, portable DVD players, PDAs, and more.

For librarians? When future purchases for the library include OLED screens (once prices come down to a reasonable level), mobile computing for staff will become even easier.

You finally gave in and purchased a DVD player, and now Sony unveils a recorder based on a new type of DVD technology called 'Blu-Ray.' Current CD and DVD players use red lasers, but Sony's latest video recorder uses blue ones. If you're a techie, blue lasers have a shorter wavelength, so the laser beam can be focused to make a smaller spot on the disc surface. If you're not a techie, this means that you can store more data on a blue laser–recorded disc.

They look the same as the CDs and DVDs we use, but the current version of a Blu-Ray disc holds up to 27 GB of data on each side of a disc (as opposed to the current 4.7 GB standard). Sony says that by 2005, discs may be available in 50 GB and 100 GB versions, although naturally all of this costs a lot more. So much more that Sony's recorder is now only available in Japan, priced at a whopping $3800.

Sony isn't the only company producing blue laser products, though. The standard is also supported by eight other companies, with NEC and Toshiba (among others) pushing a second type of blue laser technology that would be incompatible with Blu-Ray, perhaps sparking another Betamax vs. VHS fiasco. It will be some time before this conflict plays itself out, but future laptops could record DVDs that hold 100 GB or more.

For librarians? It will be a few years before we deal with this format, but we should remain aware that there are new products on the horizon that may make the current DVD player and the discs we circulate obsolete. Of course, audiovisual librarians know that is always true these days.

Some people think future notebooks won't be like the laptops of today at all. Instead, they'll be 'Tablet PCs,' a term for portable computing devices that act like laptops but include a screen that you can literally write on, just like paper. You can write, highlight, and draw right on the screen itself. Already on the market, they tend to cost more than a laptop. And the first generation of tablets, like the first generation of anything, has quirks and bugs that need to be resolved before they become mainstream.

Microsoft in particular thinks the future is in tablets. The company has introduced a Windows-based operating system just for them (XP Tablet PC Edition), and Tablet PCs are supposedly in wide use within Microsoft itself.

The biggest benefit touted with tablets is the ability to write directly on the screen. The operating system's handwriting recognition software interprets notes into text that can be saved in a Word document, email message, or Powerpoint presentation. Drawings and scribbles can be saved as images and projected, printed, or emailed to others.

Tablets are also lighter because most of them don't have keyboards. Of course, this can be a big problem because keyboards are often the best way to input large amounts of text. But for folks on the go or whose jobs require mobility (such as doctors, those doing inventory, and insurance agents), they may be the right solution. You can also plug a keyboard into the tablet when you need one, and most can 'dock' with a full computer setup to emulate the desktop experience.

Tablet PCs have come far enough that several companies offer their own versions, including Acer, Compaq, NEC, Toshiba, and Viewsonic, among others. As the technology and operating systems improve and prices fall, tablets will likely become popular with at least a section of the computer market.

For librarians? Librarians need to watch the development of Tablet PCs both to support their own work and to understand the lives of our users. Early library implementation may be in venues where handheld computing has already been successful: in the medical arena (especially hospital settings) and the legal and business communities. While librarians have reported that some handheld devices, like Palm Pilots, are too limiting to support roving reference work, Tablet PCs may be the answer.

One thing is certain, laptops are going to change drastically over the next decade. Eventually a large percentage of the population will carry a portable computing device, whether it is a PDA, smartphone, laptop, or Tablet PC. Mobile computers will mean more information on the move and more people needing information wherever they are. Librarians need to watch this trend and do what we do best: provide information to all our users, including the folks with mobile devices.