Bento

Pretty great concept for a laptop composed of modular touch screens and mobile devices. My mom used to pack bento boxes for me when I was a kid so I find the idea especially cool. It takes things I already do and applies design thinking to to them. For example, there’s already all kinds of hacked apps that let me use my iPad as my primary MIDI controller for Ableton, or as pseudo Wacom for my desktop, or my iPhone as a remote touchscreen for when I connect my laptop to my TV… so developing a product whose purpose is to put them together is a pretty natural extension. Wish I’d thought of it :)

It combines a few designs that we’ve seen before (like they Optimus OLED keyboard that can have app-specific keys), with some other ones that I’ve always thought would be great (like the dual input touchpad that accepts/differentiates between both stylus and touch). I do wonder if some parts are overkill, like the Bento Pad 29:1 aspect ratio pad that isn’t all that different from the pad that’s right above it. But hey, always room for a new device type! I wonder if touch keyboards will become a thing, solely for the purpose of being able to have app-specific controls.

http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/05/06/bento-box-kinda-like-voltron/