The "SlabTop"

Apple Other Apple hardware
1

Saw this on the Verge this morning.

It’s possibly a case of what’s old is new again as what’s he’s done was sort of the default for many of the early PCs. A few that come to mind (and that I’ve owned) including the Timex Sinclair, Apple IIc, Atari 1040

It’s still an interesting idea, but very niche and why I suspect none of the major OEMs make one like this. OTOH it was a thing with the Apple IIC for some users to have a monitor at home and one at work and carry the computer itself back and forth. Or for that matter with the Mac Plus and Mac SE where you could actually buy a “backpack” with the idea that you had keyboard and mouse at home and work.
Why buy a Mac Studio when you can decapitate your own MacBook - The Verge

1 Like
2

What would the battery life be without the lighting demands of the screen? Suddenly having visions of setting up in front of my 60" Samsung 4K QLED TV in a recliner …

If you don’t hear from me in a week, send help.

3

That’s a good question. Typically, in our tests the screen is responsible for around 30-40% of the power drain, regardless of OS/Platform

4

Thanks.

5

As sort of a postscript to this. This won’t work on the new M1 Air or MacBook Pros as the system does a “hardware integrity check” at boot and throws an error code if a display is not attached.

We have an air with a damaged screen in our lab and thus how I was able to try it.

4 Likes
6

To each his own (I’ve lectured around here far too many times that the “P” in PC is for personal) but this is just dumb - and it was even bad in my Atari 500 and Commodore 64 days. Especially his “freeing” experience of not having the screen in his way when gaming - just use a keyboard dude!

2 Likes
7

Fun if you have a super old or cracked macbook in your house, not if you have a recent, perfectly functional Macbook. Checking macbook price in the local market, even a 6-7 year old one are still very costly, and I can’t really imagine destroying them on purpose just for a bit of covenience (and adding a whole lot of inconvenice. You have something to show off at the party, but have fun finding something else to bring to the cafe).

3 Likes
8

This sort of thing tempts me to just get a Mac Mini and a Wacom Cintiq — not really portable, which is really a shame — wish Apple would do a USB C power setup for it.

1 Like