iPad 3 concept video shows that tablets still have room to grow
The video above was created by Aatma Studio, a design studio that has a history of releasing concept videos like this. It doesn’t have anything to do with the actual iPad 3 of course, it’s just some designers’ wet dream. That being said, at least part of it is grounded in reality. An edge-to-edge screen is possible, though horribly unpractical on a tablet where you need to be able to grab the bezel to hold it at all. You could of course have a system where the device creates its own bezel using pixels, or just some sort of hand rejection like what the video is hinting at, so still something we might – and probably will – see in tablets in the future.
NFC exists, though with a maximum data transfer rate of 424kb/s (according to Wikipedia), it wouldn’t be able to do what we see here. It could of course do a handshake to pair the devices and then initiate a WiFi link, so it isn’t impossible to get this functionality either. The magnetic system is also a nice idea, basically taking the Smart Cover system and extending it to link tablets. No way would those magnets be able to hold the two together while only one tablet is being lifted like in the video, though.
Then you have the holographic stuff, which is definitely the most far-fetched part of this video. Even if integrating laser projection technology into the side of a tablet is “just” a matter of taking existing technology and making it smaller and more efficient, I think it will take a while before we see holographic displays. Then again, if you think glass-less 3D display and not holograms, then only the viewing angle would be implausible as far as the video goes.
Just to be clear, I’m not trying to determine whether this is a fake – of course it is. I’m simply trying to take a fictional product that looks awesome and see what parts of it could be done with today’s technology. If the video demonstrates anything, it’s that there’s still a lot of room for tablets to grow before they start becoming like computers, where only the internal components, size, and so on have changed in the last couple of decades.
[Cnet]
