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

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.

[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.