Mimo 720-S: An External Touchscreen for Any Netbook
Netbooks have many things in common — in particular, low-resolution displays. It can be a real challenge to see everything at once on those small screens. The folks at Mimo have a solution to that problem, the Mimo 720-S, an external monitor that is highly portable. The monitor, which sports a 7-inch touchscreen that rotates and pivots to any desired angle, attaches to the netbook (or any computer) with a single USB connection, so it’s easy to “plug and go.”
The Mimo 720-S can be used with either Windows (XP and Vista) or with Macs. The innovative pivoting stand also serves as a cover for transport; simply close it and throw it in your bag to take with you. Hopefully, I’ll soon have one of these to test out with the many netbooks in Mobile Tech Manor. $230.
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Wow! and @ $230 it cost about as much an additional netbook too….
Let’s see if I understand this…
It offers a smaller screen than on most netbooks, but potentially at a higher resolution so as to strain the eyes quicker; is too small to be a standalone monitor; adds weight and dimensions to a portable device; allows touch input but in an OS that does not support it properly; and as mentioned by Brian costs almost as much as the netbook itself.
Feels that they have created a solution to generate more problems!
Not only that, but at that price you only get 800×480… which is useless for any real desktop functionality (I’m sorry, but it really is).
This will serve more functionality for specialty media or presentation setups and probably for interactive displays at conventions and the like. Before it gets much home use it needs to come in under $200 and have a 1024×600 panel so you can actually functionally fit a web page, document, etc.
Unlike the many naysayers above, I actually think this idea has some potential ;)
The scenario I envision is when I’m at tradeshows for work — I could bring a netbook and this monitor with me, but leave the monitor in the hotel room. While I’m on the tradeshow floor, the netbook would serve me just fine for notes, orders, etc — then back in the hotelroom, I have another monitor to help spread out the screen real estate to get some things done (even with the odd resolution, I could have my ordering system sitting on this screen, for example, and do everything else on the netbook – or email, or whatever).
My real misgivings are:
1) How much does it weigh
2) Touchscreen makes very little sense to me, I’d rather it just be a passive screen and hopefully thus cheaper.
3) I’d like to see some Linux love here, given the proliferation of Linux netbooks.
-Matt
Nah… still don’t see the value. Not sure if the 7 inch at that resolution would add enough screen estate to offset the hassle of carrying it around.
Although if I got two, perhaps I could tape them onto my glasses and create a jumbo Myvu experience ;)
On another note, presumably it uses a USB video card… aren’t they fairly slow?
I owned the predecessor to this mimo 710, and have gone back to one large high resolution screen.
They also have the same model without the touchscreen feature for about $80 less, which you can see on their website.
Both of them use DisplayPort technology, carried through a USB port and their proprietary drivers.
I actually like these, I can see many uses where they would come in handy, especially in portrait mode.
Let me clarify now that the sticker shock has worn off….
I definetly see some potential here. I would love to be able to keep an IM session, or NetFlix movie,or (insert your fav app here) running on a seperate screen while I’m doing actual work on the netbook screen. I agree that the touch screen could go and the screen res would have to be at least the max output of the netbook just to keep my eyes happy…
What I love about this is that you only need a USB cable to power it. Repeat after me…”No more bricks!!!”
While I can’t see me lugging both the little netty and the secondary display to a trade show it would fill in quite nicely back at the hotel where I would be much more likely to stray outside the work mentality.
Although I have not used it, my geek wife uses a VGA to composite video cable which cost less than a third of this and weighs nothing.
She then uses the hotel television as a secondary monitor. It is fairly rare that she really needs a second monitor on the road, so this solution suits her well.
In the home office were we both have our own desk setup, we have large monitors and then use either the netbook or laptop as a secondary monitor flipping between the computers with the Belkin Flip.
I see from the site that they have a version with built-in camera and microphone. Again a nice feature for a monitor, but all netbooks have them already, and since both are going to be set close to each other, (so that they can be read), again not really that important.
I guess for our use at least, having a secondary monitor that is smaller than a netbook screen, just does not seem that appealing.
A better use for this device would be as a “palette monitor” for graphic artists. Having all your palette controls off to the side on a smaller, secondary monitor with a touch screen while you work on a piece of artwork or graphic may actually improve productivity.
Need to change a setting? simply lift your stylus from your wacom tablet, reach up and tough a button on the screen. This is far more useful in that regard.
As a secondary touch monitor for netbooks this fails. netbook secondaries need to be bigger than the netbook, A device like this for netbooks needs to start at 10 inches.
I don’t think netbooks would be the most effective in this scenario. A smaller device such as the viliv s5 would make external screens viable. You have a pocketable device that you could use with a larger screen. What would be better is if this screen came in a better resolution and maybe a 9″-10″ version while still being small and light to take in a backpack.
This would be an…interesting way to expand my TC1100′s desktop real estate. It costs more than my TC1100 did sans upgrades, though. Furthermore, the screen’s only 7″ and 800×480.
However, it is ENTIRELY POWERED BY USB, and fairly compact, not to mention that it has a nice stand and goes in portrait and landscape orientations. It also has a touchscreen. (The TC1100, being an older tablet, only has Wacom pen input. I actually prefer it that way most of the time since it eliminates the possibility of accidental input, but it is rather inconvenient at times.)
Whether I’d use one with my TC1100 or not is still in question, but I do know one killer use for such a device on my desktop:
Flight simulators.
I could use a couple of these as makeshift MFDs or control panels. Some people already do-see TouchBuddy.
And, of course, the notion of manipulating brush setting panels in art apps through the external touchscreen while devoting the entire main screen to the canvas was already brought up.