Netbook for translators?
One problem with using netbooks for real work is the lack of screen real estate. Kohjinsha may have helped to solve this: it's demoing a new "dual-screen" netbook (hat tip: gizmodo).
The new Kohjinsha netbook features two 10-inch screens, which can be pulled out side by side. This seems like a good solution for translators to work with their documents in one screen, and Google/dictionaries/translation memory in the other.
According to the video, the price point will be below ¥100,000 (about $1,000).
More screen width is nice, to be sure, but as a translator I’d rather have (a) more screen height (to see more textual context all at once) and (b) a proper keyboard. In both of those areas netbooks continue to fall down–not to mention that this new one, nifty as it looks, manages to cost as much as a MacBook, as well as adding weight and bulk to the thing, thereby poking holes in the netbook’s price and portability selling points.
@Durf
Maybe the next step is a swivel mount, so you can turn the two screens vertical.
When OLED’s come into commercial production, I think that we’ll see more of this type of stacked-screen setup, because OLED’s are incredibly thin.
As for a Macbook, it may be the same size overall, but a 15″ Macbook isn’t going to fit into a man purse (unless it’s a really big man purse).
Yeah, the keyboard makes or breaks the netbook – that or battery life.
I think the really wide screen might pose a few balance/stability issues, would it not?
Although it is cool how the screens expand like that.