Where's my 3D laptop? Oh, here it is...

The experience just doesn't work as well on a Netbook.

(Credit: Universal Pictures)

The future of notebooks added another wrinkle at Computex last weekend: Acer's announcement of an upcoming 3D laptop running Windows 7 raises even more questions than it answers.

According to Campbell Kan, vice president of Acer's mobile computing business unit, the 15.6-inch Aspire 3D Notebook will debut at the end of October, in regions unspecified. Co-developed by Wistron, the same company behind a rumored HP 3D laptop, the screen will require tinted glasses to decode the fuzziness into the impressive pop-out imagery you'd expect. Whether it runs Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision under the hood or some other 3D solution hasn't been revealed yet, but more details aren't likely before the official release of Windows 7.

The Acer Aspire 3D, with glasses.

(Credit: Digitimes)

The Aspire 3D will be able to play 3D movies and games, as well as convert 2D movies into 3D with included software, Acer claims. How will this work? We're curious if the effort on a smaller screen will be worth it. Lugging around tinted shades to play Half Life 2 on the road sounds like a bit of a drag.

Acer says it's working on a version of the laptop that works without glasses, which certainly sounds preferable.

Do you want 3D on the go in a laptop format, or is this tech something best left to big-screen entertainment or mobile goggles?

(Digitimes via Engadget)

[monkeyfun14]

I imagine the glasses won't be required to use the computer.

It should just be labeled as a laptop with 3d capabilities.

[pjscullion]

I don't know that I'd use something like this. 3D has always just been a gimmick, it never looks good. Not even Universal's big T-3D Terminator movie... thing... was worth watching in 3D.

I think it's best left in the world of Virtual Boy and that game with the giant visors and gloves and the pterodactyls.

[U. Tripps]

3D has a lot of practical applications in architecture, engineering, biology and other sciences, and even business. Data is constantly being processed in multi-dimensional fashion. Most data records today contain many analytical fields and loads of meta data. Adding another visual dimension will help our brains process the multidimensional nature of data.

The finances at my company are duplicated on an OLAP system (MS SSAS) so that users can very flexibly and quickly rearrange data for better depth of analysis. Some software makers call such an OLAP database a "cube," to give you an idea. In reality, there are more than 3 dimensions, but the ability to navigate through them in 3 visual ones would be far more satisfying and mentally stimulating, in the same way that 3D games are more satisfying and mentally stimulating than side-scrollers.

While looking at 3D layers of data won't show up in any commercials for a 3D system, it could be immensely valuable to people who need to analyze complex information intuitively (and therefore, quickly).

[mnl1121]

Sounds like it would be cool for movies. 3D is pretty gimicky but is still cool when done right. if they can do it without glasses then i'd say its pretty worth it.