Marko Vuckovic created a very interesting tablet concept called the The Four, a multitouch AMOLED slate that measures 145 x 235 mm and it can be hung on a wall to serve as a digital painting. Notice that lack of bezels on this beauty, making me believe it’s an edge to edge screen affair.
The device shows weather forecasts, natural ambience and also has a travel option, allowing you to plan your flights and bus schedules, for examples. I consider this to be some sort of a photo frame with upgraded features, that include multimedia playback, beautiful 3D effects in the weather area and what looks like a very comfortable to use virtual keyboard. If they add voice command to the device you’d create a Dorian Gray experience, since you’ll be talking to the painting on the wall.
A tablet like this doesn’t even need much of a CPU or any fancy specs, since the originality of the design and the main photo frame feature are reason enough to buy it. It can also be marketed as a luxury product, since people with an Amazon Kindle Fire or iPad won’t feel the need to buy such a device. Interesting concept, that’s for sure!
We have a winning tablet concept to show you, the Extending Note, created by Kim Hyung Geun. This device won the 2011 red dot design award and now let’s see what it’s all about. This slate uses two modules stacked together, that can slide to the side and give the tablet a megascreen.
There’s also solar charging on its specs list and an OLED display. Anodized aluminium is used for the case and the virtual keyboard on the device looks very comfortable. The screen here is a flexible OLED actually, adapted into a solar cell, so the Extending Note will charge directly through the screen. To me the design here is a bit rough and it looks more like a tablet for productivity purposes, used on construction sites and stuff like that. I can see there’s a card slot here, WiFi, some buttons on the side and I’m sure there’s also a HDMI port in the mix.
Having seen yesterday iPads that can become one with magnets, this sliding tablet that expands its screen doesn’t quite surprise me. Is the future about connecting your devices into a bigger unit?
I’ve seen my share of transparent phones or tablets till now, but each new one still surprises me. An example is the slate created by Thomas Laenner, who imagined a futuristic tablet with a transparent display and augmented reality features. Mind you that we had no description to go with these images, so I had to interpret them and draw the conclusions.
For one thing there’s no famous OS in action here, although the simplistic nature of the interface used on the transparent tablet makes me think of Nokia and MeeGo somehow… This looks like a business tablet, one that’s ideal to use on a construction site, when an engineer is up on top on a hill and watching where the future building will be built, using augmented reality tech. Seeing that these images show me that the display is simply a sheet of glass, I Imagine that components such as memory, CPU and camera and integrated into the metallic frames keeping the glass in place.
I’m sure that gesture control is involved here, aside from the big touchscreen that’s available. A nifty aspect is that you can take apart the screen part and the two metal frames and store them separately, so you can carry the device more easily when you travel. I guess that you can also attach those metallic parts to other gadgets and the glass display as well… Simplistic design and minimalism are the key factors here, in building a futuristic tablet.
Created by Roni Margolin, the HiLo tablet actually brings up an original idea: how about a tablet pouch that also acts as a keyboard? The device is a 10 inch OLED slate that doesn’t bring anything unusual, while the wireless felt keyboard is the thing that interests me more.
This is more of a jacket than a pouch if you want, that comes with hot pressed circuitry in order to implement the QWERTY keys you see here. The thing is that hopefully this wireless keyboard won’t connect to devices while you walk on the street and accidentally type stuff on it. I guess that a simple On/Off button can solve that.
The tablet uses an aluminum and ABS plastic case, while the keyboard is all felt. The combo weighs 1 kg and the HiLo tablet measures 14mm in thickness, which is quite a lot. However, it’s the originality that impresses.
If you’re an architect or designer, you’ll love the MPad tablet (in fact spelled m • pad), that’s pictured below and created by Volker Hübner. This concept tablet comes with a 15.6 inch OLED display and 9 fixed buttons, that include the classic ALT, CTRL and more.
You’ll also find two programmable button rockers with e-ink display incorporated in the slate. You can use up to 24 shortcuts for each application and assign any feature you want to them. The scroll wheel enables gesture control and fast 2D navigation, plus there’s a 3D space mouse available.
The MPad is inclined 15 degrees and great when it comes to ergonomics. There’s also a ball-bearing hub and the device measures an overall 430 x 280 x 25mm. Perfect for designers?
How about a flexible tablet to brighten the CES-filled day? Andrew Nammiga from Orange County created the Flexible Modile, a mobile device that flexes and becomes a tablet. This touch sensitive gadget incorporates a flexible display and can fold out in order to be turned into a slate.
The external screen displays the background picked by the user and the unit is ruled by customizability, as its main aspect. There’s a videocall camera in there, plus the ability to turn the conceptual gadget into a photo frame or a media player. Also, considering that the display basically covers the entire device, you can change its looks in any way you want, as pointed out by the last pic below.
Android was chosen as the ideal OS for this concept!
Freescale’s mobile device shown in the following image and videos seems to be a very serious project that we hope to see it turned into a real product some day. The new type of device is basically a tablet, that’s very mobile and user-friendly, plus it relies on cloud solutions and social interaction.
Both business users and kids will love this product, as it can get gaming controls attached and it fits your every corporate need and service. The Freescale slate supports 3D graphics, audio calls via headset, video calls, Bluetooth, WiFi and it even acts as a remote for appliances in the house. Also, the unit is able to connect to your in-car system.
You can use the Freescale tablet in the gym, for health monitoring, you can download apps on it, sync the device with cloud/desktop PC, view media content, browse the web and much more! A 3 axis accelerometer will once again enhance the gaming features on the portable gizmo.
Designer Frank Tobias created a brand new tablet concept, but he couldn’t decide on the branding of the device, yet. Also, he has a hard time choosing the UI and OS for the unit (Windows Phone 7, Android, Windows 7 etc). Any suggestions?
We have to mention that the tablet features a 3.5mm audio jack, 2 USB ports on the right side, a 10 megapixel camera with HD video recording and a triple LED flash. HTC would certainly fit this device, or maybe Motorola? How about Dell? Ideas?
Designer Frank Tobias has created yet another interesting tablet concept, based on the XPERIA X10 handset. Dubbed Sony Ericsson X10 Maxi, the slate comes with an 8 megapixel camera, Android 2.0 OS and 100GB of internal memory.
iPad rival anyone? More info and a larger pic can be found on the designer’s website.
Frank Tobias aka Remort1 from Esato created a brand new tablet, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz XL concept, that you can check out below. This is not his first tablet design, as he also created the very neat Sony Ericsson Maino Windows 7 slate.
Vivaz XL is inspired by the SE Vivaz handset and comes with an 8 megapixel camera, HD video recording and 75GB of internal memory. More details and a bigger pic can be found on the designer’s blog.
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