Bamboo laptop
Reader jde sends a note about a new Asus laptop. From the manufacturer’s announcement:
The organic tactility, refreshing scent and minimalist aesthetics of bamboo lend the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook an arresting aura of spirituality, warmth and old world charm that synthetic materials and cold, impersonal metals will struggle to replicate.
I like the bamboo. I like the juxtaposition of nature and technology. But really, the BS is piled high and deep here. An “arresting aura of spirituality”? In a laptop?
Asus is careful to say “bamboo-clad” and “bamboo paneling”, rather than saying the case is made out of bamboo.
And of course, by “bamboo”, they don’t mean actual bamboo, they mean something that was originally bamboo, before it was sliced, laminated, glued, processed and machined.
The genuine bamboo fiber patterns on the touch pad create the sensation of touching live bamboo.
Did you catch that? The patterns are genuine and create a sensation of bamboo… the touch pad is not made out of bamboo.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:48 am
Hmmm….sort of like a woody station wagon from the ’40s- making out of wood what had been made out of metal, which before that, in the days of carriages had been made from wood and leather.
So this is a sort of reversion to a 19th century wooden writing box.
Seems to me the guy who wrote MegaTrends touched on this phenomenon. Hi tech, Hi touch, I think he called it. Predicted a turn towards natural materials as a counterbalance to moving further from a natural environment.
It might be interesting to reskim Megatrends, see how much he got right. I do recall someone -maybe him- predicting the rise of terrorism as a significant problem due to the improvements in personal weapons technology. Back in the 18th century one guy couldn’t do much with a sword and musket- tho maybe with a gunpowder bomb, while today a singleton or small group has poison gas, automatic weapons, fertilizer bombs and such available.
Back on point, can the alligator skin laptop be far behind? Or bound in fine Morrocco leather, hand tooled and gilt?
December 1st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Surfers liked the woodies because they were less expensive. The laptop is more expensive with the bamboo panel. The alligator skin and hand-tooled leather are more in line with the bamboo as status symbols that people pay extra for.