Handspring tried it years ago.

I think as soon as I dropped it (let’s not bother with “if,” since I WILL drop it), the modular setup would shatter into a thousand unusable pieces, or something would warp so that pieces would no longer fit together.

Asus should start billing the R2H as ruggedized…not that I have, uh, any empirical data to base that comment on…really…you believe me, don’t you?

have i already been doing this? i have a raon digital vega and take it in my pocket. when im at home i connect it via usb since it acts as a hard drive when it’s off. now i can access those files on my vega – on my desktop.

if you want to take it a step further and utilize other people’s pc’s (granted you have admin priveleges) you can install mojopac on the raon digital vega (or everrun when it comes out) and access not only your data but your apps as well.

Any device for me would HAVE to have instant on via WM6, GSM GPS also covered by WM6, Office compatibility covered again by WM6, I’m sure you get the picture. So my all-time must-have/want device was the DualCor cPC. Small enough to fit your modular scenario perfectly.

What happened to the DualCor cPC? Didn’t bloggers at the Gadgeteer get a working prototype? Such a shame utopia is also around the corner.

This is a concept that has been discussed extensively at handtops.com.

It’s a great concept, but the processors in most handhelds are still slow by any standards. Perhaps with a shell and added RAM it could make a difference, but you still need to overcome the issues of hot docking RAM. Speed stepping would be a nice feature if the ultramobile processors were simply stepped way down on battery instead of being slow all the time.

I don’t think the current crop of hand held or UMPC’s are up to the “shell game” yet…

Instead of a useless clear side panel on the desktop PC, have a dock-holder for the tablet / UMPC / handheld-PC.

The full size PC can use the CPU of the UMPC in addition to its own (dual processors). But why stop at sharing CPUs ?

A hard drive in each device, set up in a smart mirrored RAID, which updates whichever drive needs it.

I would hate to do any processing on my tablet. It’s too slow.

However, what should happen is that you could plug in the tablet to a beefier desktop PC, and it would boot from the hard drive, but use the desktop’s processor. That way, you still have one machine, but it’s speed varies depending on your need, without having to have two licenses of the OS or Office.

The problem with this is that Windows is tied to one machine, and this method would probably show up as a new install. Still, one can hope!

I believe the costs of peripherals should be quite manageable if the system I describe is done like I’ve indicated. These other modular systems are doomed to be very expensive because they put only the CPU in the core module. If a laptop shell is done right it doesn’t need expensive components in it, just the chassis, screen, keyboard, and some fans to help the handheld core out with heat. That’s it. Such a shell should be cheaper than the Foleo which has a processor, graphics processor and flash memory.

One thing I hope a manufacturer pays atention to is price. The antelope is essentially a modular PC but every module costs the same as the full PC it intends to replace. Not good.

You can already do semi solutions with things like the Q1 portfolio case + keyboard for laptop use and just plugging external stuff for desktop use.

I’m excited about the upcomming external graphics cards but once again I think price will be prohibitive and not a lot of UMPCs seem to include the express card slot.

I agree Apple will make it easy to use with an appealing UI and seamless integration. They will just wait until Microsoft finishes the table.