Flybook VM Makes In-Flight Work a Breeze

I have to get on a plane today and am dreading the cramped tray table—in fact, I'll probably be stuck watching Two and a Half Men reruns on "CBS Eye on American," which is my definition of hell (and I'm a TV junkie!).

But I digress. This week at CES, Dynamism's Douglas Krone showed me something that just might help me or anyone who needs to work on planes: Literally off the boat this week, the new Flybook VM is an Italian-designed, Taiwanese-built dual-core laptop with one killer design app: a flexible screen more typical of certain desktop monitors. Thanks to a special hinge, you can adjust the screen to different angles, including one position where the display covers your hands and keyboard—an ideal setup for those cramped airline tray tables.

Only thing is, you'll need to be a touch-typist who doesn't look at the keyboard. I took typing way back when, so I can't wait to get this thing. I wish I had it for my long flight back to New York this afternoon. The VM is available in black, red, and yellow casing (pictured).

I stopped by the Flybook booth at the show as well, and the guy there told me that the PC came out of Intel's Concept PC initiative, in which Intel commissions designers to come up with innovative PC designs. I never thought any of these ideas ever got produced, so I'm happy to see the VM out and about.

My only complaint: It's rather pricey at $3,199. Still, that chunk of change could almost be considered a bargain compared with the alternative of buying business-class tickets so that you can get some in-flight work done. Try that argument on your boss and let me know what happens.