>>>If only someone could integrate a keyboard with a screen into one device - perhaps hinging the keyboard in such a way that it covered and protected the screen, and perhap even containing withing the keyboard module some of the hardware for storage and connectivity - perhaps even the battery...
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>Good idea, Charles
>I'll suggest a name for it...
>Laptop!
>After a few days with the Kindle Fire, I'm convinced that the laptop configuration is the most efficient for business applications, except for some specialized applications like inventory control, UPS or FedEx delivery, etc.
>It's been eons since I've owned a desktop(that's a crazy name.. mine were always on the floor)..
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>I do everything on laptops.
>
>Recently a GE tech answered a service call at the house.
>He came in carrying a rugged laptop by a handle. Swinging off the handle was a bluetooth receipt printer.
>To do the repair, he propped the laptop on top of the appliance, brought up an image of our applicance on the Win 7 screen, including instructions for dealing with our specific issue.
>He followed instructions, fixed the appliance, swiped my credit card and printed a receipt on the printer, all while it was resting on the appliance.
>
>I asked him how he liked that gadget.
>He told me that he loved it and that he'd be helpless without it.
>He had been dispatched to our house with it, including directions and the model number of the appliance.
>He left me lift it .. it weighed about 7-8 pounds with the printer.
>That's a practical weight for something that is stationary most of the time, as many "mobile" business devices are.

The last time my piano tuner came, he opened the laptop, stuck a usb gizmo on the soundboard and fired up some software. Now I've decided it is cheaper to buy a gizmo, a wrench and the software than have him back <g>