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Ask HN: Portable 17" second monitor?
Has anyone here heard of such a thing as a truly portable second monitor?
I travel a lot but find it very difficult to do web work with only my 17" macbook pro, yet my 24" BenQ external monitor is a real pain to drag around, and either impossible or expensive/bulky to bring on flights. I'd love to have a second 17" screen, identical to the one in my MBP, that I could bring with me in my bag.
I tried a web search for this but couldn't find anything useful, so thought I'd check here.
- alabut 18y agoI used to use multiple laptops and control them from a single keyboard using Synergy. It's not exactly what you're looking for (can't drag documents between windows) but it goes a long way, like being able to offload all the administrative stuff (email, IM, music) to one screen and then work in the other.
- pasbesoin 18y agoInteresting. Instead of (just) a second monitor, you get a second entire computer. Also, while Synergy does not allow screen sharing (?), I've seen descriptions of other programs that do. On Windows, there's Maxivista: http://www.maxivista.com/ http://www.maxivista.com/ and the perhaps dubious ZoneScreen http://www.zoneos.com/zonescreen.htm http://www.zoneos.com/zonescreen.htm Perhaps something similar is already implemented under other OSen? Although having two fully functioning/accessible computers seems preferable to me.
- h34t 18y agoYeah, I could see that being useful. My current laptop is maxed out at 2 gigs of RAM so I have to buy another one anyway to handle large-format design work. Maybe having both laptops with me will be good enough. Still, looking at how thin and light laptop screens are, I find it weird that nobody has packaged one up to be portable and independent.