This opened iBook clamshell has turned up today [note to mods: this is not my auction], and it got me to look into at what project Gemini was.
Then I found a short video clip [content note: music] demonstrating the Assistive Touch Technologies Gemini (basically, a clamshell iBook iPad), and it all came back to me.
Years and years ago, I remember reading an article about this aftermarket option and thinking it was a brilliant re-visioning of something which could make outstanding use of the outer shell and handle without it needing to be a traditional laptop. As a dedicated tablet, it pre-dated most of the 2000s Toshiba tablets, many of the Thinkpads with touch screens, and obviously everything Apple did, post-Newton.
In this item, it appears that what Assistive Touch Technologies did was re-route and dedicate the sole USB bus port to function as the touch-capacitive input on a purpose-built LCD with that layer (likely the rearmost layer of the LCD sandwich, as with the Boe-Hydis and Toshiba-Matsushita LCDs). Also, it does appear how not only is the external USB port sealed off, but also the audio-in/composite video port, as I'm guessing inserting something into there may have thrown off the very particular configuration which ATT prepared for their product.
I'm pasting the pics here for posterity, as the only other mention I can find on here of a Gemini was from 2008, also of an auction (for a key lime Gemini, no less!), and there are no pics preserved from that instance. What makes this one worth saving is it offers a rare chance to see how the inner workings were arranged.
[This is also instructive for me personally, as I work out the plans on how to re-route the USB to an internal USB 2.0 hub (and then have one of the hub's ports routed back out to the external port, leaving it still-functional while the internal ports can be put to use for nano-sized Bluetooth and 802.11n (WPA2) adapters (as well as an audio-in port).]
Also, it was hard to ignore this listing without the seller throwing shade at a… certain polka-dot schemer in the form of:
They're mostly correct, although there are Rev. C clamshells both with and without that mark.
Then I found a short video clip [content note: music] demonstrating the Assistive Touch Technologies Gemini (basically, a clamshell iBook iPad), and it all came back to me.
Years and years ago, I remember reading an article about this aftermarket option and thinking it was a brilliant re-visioning of something which could make outstanding use of the outer shell and handle without it needing to be a traditional laptop. As a dedicated tablet, it pre-dated most of the 2000s Toshiba tablets, many of the Thinkpads with touch screens, and obviously everything Apple did, post-Newton.
In this item, it appears that what Assistive Touch Technologies did was re-route and dedicate the sole USB bus port to function as the touch-capacitive input on a purpose-built LCD with that layer (likely the rearmost layer of the LCD sandwich, as with the Boe-Hydis and Toshiba-Matsushita LCDs). Also, it does appear how not only is the external USB port sealed off, but also the audio-in/composite video port, as I'm guessing inserting something into there may have thrown off the very particular configuration which ATT prepared for their product.
I'm pasting the pics here for posterity, as the only other mention I can find on here of a Gemini was from 2008, also of an auction (for a key lime Gemini, no less!), and there are no pics preserved from that instance. What makes this one worth saving is it offers a rare chance to see how the inner workings were arranged.
[This is also instructive for me personally, as I work out the plans on how to re-route the USB to an internal USB 2.0 hub (and then have one of the hub's ports routed back out to the external port, leaving it still-functional while the internal ports can be put to use for nano-sized Bluetooth and 802.11n (WPA2) adapters (as well as an audio-in port).]
Also, it was hard to ignore this listing without the seller throwing shade at a… certain polka-dot schemer in the form of:
They're mostly correct, although there are Rev. C clamshells both with and without that mark.
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