The classic notebook will soon become obsolete – that is the conviction of Thomas Sirusset. The managing director of “zeroseven design studio” for Ulm and his team has been thinking about what future laptops might look like for several years. Now creative minds have created a concept that unites several worlds in itself. In their study called “iVip” they combined the tablet, laptop and desktop into an intelligent mix of devices and elegantly developed both the technology and Apple’s well-known design language.
“iVip” is a display screen and tablet
The central component of normative concept It is a screen that can also be used as a full-fledged tablet. Unlike iPads, for example, iVip has easily swappable flash memory and can be expanded in a few simple steps. Input pen support of course is provided. The operating system is a “lightened” version that, like iPadOS, is optimized to run a tablet. So far, the concept developed by Thomas Seruset and his team does not seem to differ significantly from devices offered by Apple and other manufacturers.
A keyboard with a trackpad makes all the difference
This basically changes when the keyboard is turned on. This magnetically docks to the screen and attaches to the tablet using the Lightning port. Specialty: The keyboard contains a swappable flash memory on which there are extensions for the operating system. Connected devices learn each other and then provide a complete operating system. The combination of screen and keyboard with Magic Pad becomes a laptop that can use any macOS app like Pages or Numbers. In this mode, the processors of both components are used at the same time, which significantly increases computing power.
If you separate the two components again, the screen will automatically switch to tablet mode with the corresponding iOS apps. Of course, the data stored in the keyboard flash memory can only be used when the keyboard is connected to the “iVip”. The keyboard can also be used without a tablet and connected directly to a TV or playback device such as an Apple TV. This way, for example, movies can be streamed over WLAN.
Various sizes and USB-C ports
The concept offers several sizes for the “iVip”, which is a screen with diagonals of 10, 12 and 14 inches. Thanks to the removable flash memory, both the operating system and data are preserved when the device is changed, making switching to a larger or newer model much easier. Of course, Thomas Seruset and his team also provided USB-C ports, an SD card slot, as well as a fingerprint scanner.
