...like Wonder Woman trying to remember where she parked her jet. ;)

.

Well, let’s see...

Glass – If there is a rugged type of glass, I would love a frosted glass PowerBook.
Carbon – Hey, that might be cool! But not if it’s as fragile as Carlos suggests.
Corian – I have seen corian used for some really nice things. Unsure about material properties.
Rubber – Yeah, heavy duty rubber. Rugged and it might be ok.
Leather – Corinthian, the Nigerian goatskin preferred by bookbinders, or whatever. I really wouldn’t mind the option of adhering protective leather. Perhaps even tooled by a master bookbinder...

Aluminium – I think it looks nice, elegant, fairly rugged. But mine has received a few nicks and dents.
Titanium – Ok, Apple, but please don’t give it a bad paint job.
Shiny black plastic – Sorry, I realize that Apple is going in this direction, but I just don’t think this fashion will endure.
Other plastic – No, I think that would be a step backward.

Wood – gorgeous, but not very practical to mass produce. But do check out this beautiful wooden iPod!!
http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2005...pwizard/1.html

That woody iPod is gorgeous.

I think the aluminum is a good choice, and we should stick with it. It's light, inexpensive, durable, and looks very nice.

One big difference is that I would like to see a keyboard that resembles a common, fullsized keyboard (minus number pad) with retractible touchpad. The screen should be 16x9 widescreen by default. Keep the backlit keyboard--that's always been great!

Give us longer battery life!
 

Yeah, I think the backlit keyboard is great, too. By the way, when I’m on the road, I sometimes turn my screen off completely when I’m writing, in order to maximize battery life.

Profesionally, I’m far more concerned with that – battery life – than the material of the PowerBook casing. I would like to my fully charged battery to last at least 8 hours. A full 24 hours would mean I could take it into the mountains for weekend trips for my next book.


Ah, well, it’s permitted to dream…

With best regards,
ArcticStones

I think multiple slots for multiple batteries would be a good idea. If you only need if for an hour or two, one battery. Need if for a full eight hours of use? Insert three more into the available slots.

Another idea would be to use OLED technology for the monitor--sigh, someday.

It would be nice to have a backlighting control where if you are in a dark location, you can turn the backlight down to 10% to save gobs of energy. In fact, it can be automatic.

You shouldn't need three batteries to get eight hours. Try two batteries. In an existing laptop. The PowerBook G3 FireWire (Pismo) with its 2 module bays. And that is just the realistic expectation. Those batteries were rated at 5 hours each new, but I did see 4 hours out of each. When I "upgraded" to the Aluminum, it was no longer possible to leave the house for the day without packing the power adapter. That, along with the Pismo's superior AirPort reception, is why moving to a Pismo to the Aluminum was a partial shock - in a negative sense - for me.

OLEDs when they can keep them from fading, otherwise no graphics people will use them. Before you see OLEDs you might see a LED-backlit display which if you read the link has imaging characteristics that absolutely blow away today's flourescent-lit LCDs although I don't know if it can be a low-power tech for laptops.

How is your automatic backlight dimming idea different from the screen dimming in the PowerBooks now?

Thanks styrafome for the lead to the new LED backlit display. I had thought of that as a possibility, but never thought anyone was doing anything about it. Also, the fading issue was something I never heard of. Forget that! From the link, it looks like the backlit LED has fantastic possibilities!

As for automatic backlight dimming on todays PowerBooks, I never had one that had anything like that. I was just thinking in terms of many possibilities for saving battery life. I would rather use smaller, more efficient batteries with a power-efficient PB than a power-hog. Here is hoping the new Intels will make that a reality.