I’m just wondering here, but where is the dynamic shift in ergonomics and laptop design that we’ve been waiting for? Google just announced it’s Chrome-powered laptop, the cr-48 which is available for OS testing purposes only, and it looks like Batman’s ThinkPad from 1998. Seriously? Even if this is only a tester, where’s the tease? Where’s the sexy? Why aren’t any laptop makers redefining that flippin’ brick that’s off-center in weight, flimsy to open and close and awkward to plug peripherals in to?

Those of us at Dinarius have long seen tablet shaped, touchscreen personal computers as the next step in what most users would prefer. Our darling was the Gateway M280. Despite the sense that tablets make, few folks bought in to it. The industry swallowed R&D on tablets and UMPC’s (another brilliant next step that went largely unadopted) and instead found a public ga-ga for smart phones.

See Gizmodo’s YouTube sneak of Microsoft’s kick-ass Courier and see HP’s already realized tablet that left the gate long before Apple.

I recently had a chance to play on some surface computers and developed some strong opinions that no one asked for. Just today, I read news that Microsoft is tipping their toes quietly in the market research area asking consumers what they think they might like about a Surface Computer they’re calling “Oahu,” or ‘the gathering place.’