leonardwarren Chapter 414 Starlight Notebook 2nd Generation Released
Chapter 414 Starlight Notebook 2nd Generation Released
April 15, 2002, Beijing, China International Exhibition Center.
The launch event for Xinghuo Group's new products was held here. The audience was filled with reporters, distributors, partners, and Xinghuo fans who had come from all over the country.
The lights dimmed, and the large screen lit up, revealing the outline of a laptop. It was silver-gray and very thin, about a third thinner than the previous generation Starlight laptop.
Li Mo walked onto the stage, wearing a dark gray shirt and no tie. He held a prototype in his hand, silver-gray in color, which gleamed faintly under the lights.
"This is the second generation of the Starlight Notebook." He held up the prototype, spun it around, and showed it to everyone. "It's 18 millimeters thick and weighs 1.35 kilograms. It's 30 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the previous generation."
He placed the prototype on the display stand and opened the cover. The screen lit up; it was a 13.3-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 1024 x 768.
The keyboard is black, with large keycaps and a moderate key travel. But the most eye-catching feature is the strip of touchscreen above the keyboard—about one centimeter wide, spanning the entire keyboard area, and gleaming with a faint silver light under the illumination.
"This is the biggest innovation of the second generation of Starlight." Li Mo swiped his finger across the touchscreen, and the volume icon popped up, growing larger and smaller with his finger. He swiped again, and the brightness icon appeared. He pinched two fingers together, and a window on the screen resized.
A low murmur arose from the audience, and then some people began to applaud.
Li Mo continued, "This touchscreen was co-developed with BOE and Fingerworks. It can replace the traditional Fn function key, enabling gesture operations such as volume, brightness, playback control, and window resizing. There's no need to remember shortcuts or search for buttons; just swipe your finger."
He demonstrated several gestures: a three-finger swipe to switch apps, a four-finger swipe up to open the task view, and a five-finger pinch to return to the home screen. The movements were smooth, and the screen responded in real time to the fingers, without any delay.
"This is a revolution in laptop interaction," Li Mo said. "Before, we used mice, keyboards, and function keys. Now, we use gestures. It's more direct, more natural, and more efficient."
After the press conference, the demo area was packed with people. Reporters surrounded the demo unit, swiping their fingers across the touchscreen, taking photos as they tried it out. One tech website reporter, after using it for five minutes, turned to his colleague and said, "Even Apple doesn't have this."
The following day, media coverage was everywhere. *China Computer News* ran the headline "Starfire 2: A Revolution in Laptop Interaction." *Computer Weekly* went even further, with the headline "Chinese Laptops Begin to Lead the Trend." Several international tech media outlets also reported on it; Engadget's headline was "Starfire's..."
Touch Bar: A Glimpse of the Future of Laptop
The article, titled "Interaction," states, "While Apple is still figuring out how to make the scroll wheel more user-friendly, a Chinese company has already put multi-touch on laptops."
Also released was the Starlight Notebook Education Edition. It comes pre-installed with the Spark Education System, featuring a clean desktop with only learning-related applications.
It includes the WPS Office suite, Geometer's Sketchpad, English learning software, and introductory programming tools. The price is 20% cheaper than the regular version, targeting the primary and secondary school market.
On the day of the press conference, a leader from the Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Education visited the booth. He tried the educational version of Geometer's Sketchpad, drawing a triangle on the touch screen with his finger, and the system automatically marked the side length and angle.
He then tried an English learning software. He clicked on a word, and the system read it aloud and displayed example sentences. After using it for over ten minutes, he said, "If this could be promoted in schools nationwide, it would be a great help to teaching. We will consider recommending Starlight Notebooks in the national education informatization project."
Li Mo wrote this down and included it in his report when he got back.
But that very evening after the press conference, Li Mo received a phone call. It was Wayne from Fingerworks.
"Li, something's happened. One of our engineers resigned last week. Today we discovered that he copied some design documents for the multi-touch chip before he left. His new employer is a Chinese company called 'Imagination'."
Li Mo's hand, gripping the phone, was bulging with veins.
At that very moment, Jiang Feng emerged from the People's Bank building, carrying a document bag containing the assessment report he had just received. The report's cover bore the People's Bank's official seal, a bright red one. He had already read it once, but couldn't resist taking it out again, standing under a streetlamp to turn to the last page.
"According to the expert panel's evaluation, the Nebula database has met the basic requirements for financial-grade commercial databases in terms of functional completeness, performance stability, and data security. It can serve as an alternative to Oracle and DB2 in the core and peripheral systems of small and medium-sized financial institutions."
Jiang Feng put the report back into the file folder and zipped it up. He took out his phone and dialed Ling Yun's number.
"Mr. Ling, we've received the evaluation report. It's approved."
There was a second of silence on the other end of the phone. "When was it released?"
"This afternoon, the expert review meeting organized by the Science and Technology Department of the People's Bank of China lasted all day. There were twelve experts from banks, universities, and research institutes. They asked many questions, covering every detail, including technical architecture, data consistency, disaster recovery backup, and operation and maintenance support. In the end, the vote was unanimous in approval."
"Okay. What's the next step?"
"We have compiled the successful cases into a white paper. There are six cases in total: three city commercial banks, two joint-stock banks, and one provincial credit cooperative. Each case includes the background, solution, implementation process, and effect evaluation. The white paper has been printed and will be distributed to financial institutions nationwide starting tomorrow."
Lingyun asked him, "What about industries like manufacturing, telecommunications, and energy?"
Jiang Feng said, "The development of the enterprise version has already begun. The needs of the manufacturing industry are different from those of finance. The requirements for real-time performance are not as high, but the requirements for data analysis, report generation, and data mining are higher. We have added an OLAP engine to the enterprise version to support multidimensional analysis and data visualization. We expect to release a beta version in the third quarter and officially launch it by the end of the year."
Lingyun said, "Great. Nebula Technology is no longer just a database company. With databases, application platforms, and industry solutions, you are becoming a data platform company. The next step is to extend this platform to more industries and more companies."
Jiang Feng said, "I understand."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Feng stood by the roadside, looking at the lights of Financial Street. This street wasn't long, but it was home to China's most important financial institutions—the People's Bank of China, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the headquarters of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the headquarters of the China Construction Bank, and China Life Insurance. Every building was lit up, and behind every window, someone was working overtime. The databases they used were mostly Oracle, DB2, and SQL.
The annual licensing and maintenance fees paid to foreign vendors for servers add up to astronomical figures.
Now, there is an option called Nebula.
But Jiang Feng knew that this path to substitution would not be smooth. Oracle would not sit idly by and watch its market share be eroded. Their customer relationships in China were deeply rooted, their technical support teams were spread throughout the country, and a large number of certified engineers relied on their ecosystem for their livelihood. What Nebula wanted to do was not just technological substitution, but ecosystem substitution.
He was about to get into the car when his phone rang. It was Ling Yun.
"Jiang Feng, there's something I need to tell you. Fantasy has gained control of StarCraft. StarCraft's database team—the same group Eric trained back then—is now under Fantasy's control. They're also working on a database."
Jiang Feng stopped in his tracks.
"you mean……"
"Imagination won't be satisfied with just Stardust's operating system and browser. Databases are the next target. They will use Stardust's brand, combined with Imagination's channels, to compete with Nebula for market share."
Jiang Feng's grip on his phone tightened slightly. Then he said, "President Ling, let them come. We dared to fight Oracle, why would we be afraid of a mere former subordinate of StarCraft?"
Ling Yun paused for a second on the other end of the phone, then laughed. "Okay. I'll wait for you to win this battle."