I have a few laptops -- I'm bad about getting rid of even the never-worked-well, 12-year-old, tiny-keyboard Toshiba Portege for which I paid way too much (used) at a computer show a while back. Like cars, laptops have obvious and welcome utility, but always coupled with frustrating annoyances. All of my laptops have at least something good, some of them have several things I wish I saw on others.
Here's my list of the features I want in a laptop, all of which are demonstrably feasible. (That's what I mean by "from whom to steal" -- I've listed some example sources for at least the conceptual sources of most of these; some of them don't really need proof, so much as for someone to design bits in or out. And by "steal" I mean learn from and implement -- not, of course, to sidestep the advancement of the useful arts and science made possible only through the current patent system.) Even the few quixotic ones at the end are quixotic not because they're impossible, but more because I suspect the demand wouldn't justify the engineering at a price level I would like. I would not hold out for either of the Blue Sky ideas -- I'd pay if I could just get a good chunk of the others.
What's the closest you can come now to wishlist below, and at what price? (Some of my favorites seem to be Apple-only, or at least Apple-included; perhaps then it's a MacBook that's the closest.)
Before the list proper, an overarching demand is that it run (or be able to run) at least some popular version of Linux, and without special tricks to be done (reflashing bios or something). ("Popular" so that support seems likely a few years down the road.) What it comes with by default I don't care all that much about. (Would anyone like a nearly new "Designed for Windows XP" sticker?)
Now, the all-possible list of features I want:
Top of the list: a hardware volume control, or -- alternatively -- at least a mute switch. This is one of the most annoying things about starting up my Eee; unlike my mostly mediocre Toshiba laptop, there's no external physical switch. Starting up in a quiet environment (classroom, etc) means that the admirable Ubuntu noises (in two phases; the quick drum trill when it's ready for login, and the extended ambient sounds of nature *after* logging in, as Gnome starts) play at embarrassingly high volume, unless I remember to insert (and have handy) a pair of headphones. Note: I am not knocking the existence of these miniature soundscapes (I like them), but I want them quiet by default. (Is there a key command I can use for quiet startup? There is a mute key on the Eee's keyboard, but it doesn't seem to work for me w/ Ubuntu -- right now I'm on a late beta of 9.10.) STEAL FROM: Toshiba, others.
Next, a couple of easy things, because they're deletions, not additions:
No caps-lock key. Or a hardware switch for it, NOT on the main body of keys. But caps lock sucks. Kill it, or exile it. STEAL FROM: keyboard!
No "Delete" key (and for that matter, no "insert" key). Insert should be the default; "delete" is like Caps Lock -- banish, or kill. It's esp. annoying on small keyboards, as on my Eee. Steal from: keyboard, dammit!
LED light on AC adapter, so I know that it's getting juice. Yes, there's an LED that says the *laptop* is getting powered in most cases but a) if there's something wrong w/ the machine, not powering on, etc, I like more options for troubleshooting and b) if I'm *charging* the laptop but across the room reading a book or something, the lighted AC adapter is reassuring, when I can glance at it. A small point, but between want and not want, I want this. STEAL FROM: Asus among many others.
LED light *at* AC adapter point: This is one of the many things that Apple's done, design-wise, to make me smile. Clever! STEAL FROM: Apple (others?).
Built-in battery meter: Another Apply one, STEAL FROM: Apple, and who else?
Instant-on sub-OS in the BIOS. Glad that this idea seems to be catching on. STEAL FROM: BIOS makers generally; Dell is one maker who's been doing this (and even w/ a whole ARM sub-system, which is nice but seems like overkill ;))
Long-lasting battery. Apple's seem to generally do better than any of the others; this is one area where laptops have been improving quite a bit -- the current gen. of netbooks, 6-8 hours seems like an actually truthful claim, under some circumstances :) (Mine, no longer current as netbooks go since it's more than 24 hours old, gets 4hrs plus on a full charge.) However, the tech I want to see on this front is not such much the initial power, but how much it can do after a few hundred charging cycles. STEAL FROM: Toshiba (they had demo batteries that shrug off 600+ charging cycles -- says Toshiba -- at this year's CES).
Tablet hinge. I used to think this was silly, but then saw how useful this is for diagrams / sketching / reading lengthy things. STEAL FROM: OLPC, many others.
SCREEN ITEMS:
Touch screen: useful! STEAL FROM: Any tablet maker; imperfect is better than unavailable.
Dense screen: 1024x600 is too small. Give me pixels! STEAL FROM: Sony, Dell, Nokia PDAs -- anyone with an ultradense screen.
Mary-Lou Jepson-style (Pixel-Qi) screen: energy-saving, daylight readable, flexible: Mary-Lou, we're all waiting! (This, along with a tablet design, with a moderately powerful chip, would make me smile so broadly people around might get hit.) STEAL FROM: Pixel-Qi; the OLPC screen I like too, though I wish it was denser. I admit, this might not jibe with the ultradense-screen item just above.
LED backlight -- luckily, this is pretty normal now. And this is another part where a battery-saving screen would be great in combination; b/w, e-ink mode is perfectly fine and nice for outdoors under the sun when power is scant. STEAL FROM: Numerous makers! (Does anyone *not* use LED these days? Is there anything better for a backlight?
Related: A screen that can be *turned off,* like Apple's. Neither my Toshiba laptops nor my Eee like to be turned off below a dim glow. STEAL FROM: Apple (and who else?)
Keyboard borrowed from old IBM ThinkPads; the E600 I think had the best key feel of any laptop I've ever seen. STEAL FROM: IBM (anyone else?)
Tough case -- STEAL FROM: OLPC, Panasonic, Grid. The OLPC design shows it doesn't have to be too expensive.
External, diversity antennae -- OLPC again (though in fairness my Eee gets admirably good WiFi reception.)
Free RAM slot. STEAL FROM: any maker not too annoying to have put the included RAM in the only available slot. I want to expand, not throw the old RAM away!
ROTATABLE camera, not just a fixed one -- old Sony PictureBooks had this. How often do I want to send people a picture of my face as I type? I use my webcam once in a while, but it's ridiculously awkward. (OLPC approach at least allows one to hold the machine with the camera out, while it's folded as a tablet -- only half as awkward as most fixed-view webcams. (Also, the camera should be capable of close focus of a letter-sized page for use as a scannerish thing.) STEAL FROM: Sony, at least. (Anyone else? Older Nokia PDAs, too.)
Power inlet on the back, *and* on at least one of the sides. Laptops get uses in awkward spaces, like on plane trays, cars, the corner of other people's desks, etc; getting the cords to agree with the rest of the world is a hassle that could be avoided if there were more than one (intelligently managed, so you couldn't accidentally double-feed) power inlet. STEAL FROM: no one in particular, but Apple goes mostly on the side, while my Toshibas get power from the back. Just put one in each place, and make the system select whichever's actually connected. I'm no EE, but that seems like other than rocket science.
Similarly, steal / license / somehow surpass Apple's magnetic power-connector. Wish there were a similar thing for USB and other connectors, too. STEAL FROM: Apple.
Trackpoint ("nipple") pointer controller: OK, keep the trackpad if you must (see next item), but please -- think of everyone spoiled by the red eraser in the middle of old ThinkPad keyboards. STEAL FROM: IBM, Toshiba, Dell, others.
An easy off-switch for the trackpad. If you must have a trackpad, that is. STEAL FROM: No one I know of, though usually it's at least an option buried in the BIOS settings.
Target-disk mode: Sometimes, I want to use a laptop as a hard disk -- just hook it up to another machine for data transfer, one way or the other. STEAL FROM: Apple; anyone else? (I know my old iBook could be started in this mode and then be seen as a FireWire disk at least, not sure of the state of this nowadays, hope that USB works, too.)
Lots of USB ports. I've never ever thought "Gee, I wish I had one less USB port." [Note: perhaps that should be "one fewer" but "one less" sounds better to me. Gripe to yourself, if you'd like.] STEAL FROM: No one has enough, but there seems to be plenty of room on every laptop I've owned.
The most blue sky idea: I want a slide-out "dish" into which I could put the ball from a Logitech MouseMan. Or, a tiny USB version I could stick more easily in my bag than the whole stting-ray shaped thing. STEAL FROM: Toshiba, circa 1989. Some of their laptops had side-mounted trackballs, before the invasion of the (annoying) trackpads. This is close; what I want is one that's optical, and uses the size / texture / weight of the one in my Logitech trackball, which isn't sluggish or grippy like most I've tried.
OK, I lied: even more blue-sky: a built-in LED projector, available to the OS as a 2d display, usable as a primary display. Even if it's 640x480 (or, better, 800x600) rather than bigger. STEAL FROM: the demo booth of several different cell-phone makers.
And a pony.