Business travellers may carry laptop computers, but they would rather watch a
movie or listen to music than work. Modern LCD colour screens are good enough to
display video pictures and modern notebook PCs already contain audio speakers.
So a notebook is already halfway to a personal entertainment centre. IBM
finishes the job with patent EP 784 400. This puts a TV tuner, AM/FM radio, CD
player and 8-millimetre VCR into its Thinkpad notebook PC. Software generates
the icons, which mimic the controls on a conventional TV, radio and VCR.
Laptop movies
By Barry Fox
27 September 1997
