Tip 2 for Apple.Co: A computer for the tropics

    In an ideal world, computers should not operate above an 85% relative humidity range.  This base criteria in fact meets the average standards of much of Europe and the United States.  Key metropolitan centers as Amsterdam or London have average humidity levels of 82.5% and 77% respectively, while Rome and Madrid have 72.5% and 60.5% respectively: all within range.  The same could be said for much of the United States, with very dry states west of the Mississippi and wetter states on its east.  However, this eastern area has a broad swath that on average still does not surpass 75% relative humidity levels on average.  The most coastal regions: Louisiana, Texas, Washington and Oregon stand on the extreme; but even in these, only those thin bands of lands touching the water are 'at risk'.

    If you compare this to Puerto Rico, well within the tropics, you get a shocking statistics.  While average relative average humidity levels might range from 65% to 79%, suggesting controlled conditions, actual measurements for San Juan during 2013 revealed humidity levels from 87% to 91%--well above the standard range.   If this were an isolated fact, it would not merit much of a concern to computer manufacturers, but in fact the vast amount of humanity lives in the tropical range: 3.3 billion, approximately.

    It is pretty obvious to someone who lives in the tropics that there are inherent ethnocentist presumptions in the contemporary design of most computers. Simply put, they are designed for cool, low-humidity temperate regions which result in efficient and low-impact internal/external heat transfers.  

    Computers, as many will know, have to keep their internal components cool; the manner in which this is usually done is via the combination of a fan and an aluminum thermal grille which dissipates the heat generative by processor and hard drive activity. This is perhaps the cheapest solution: blow wind on it.  However, in the tropics, which obviously has a higher average temperature range, the faster you run the fan, the faster the computer degrades given the more rapid chemical decomposition of the internal components exposed to the humid air.  An old friend of mine who lived by the beach, was particularly afflicted also because of the intense wave activity, which raised the amount of 'salt' suspended in the air ('salitre').  While living by the beach might be very pretty, it does horrors to the accouterments of modernity.

    A computer for the tropics is urgently needed, but what would its criteria be?  Here are a few:

    1) Low cost

The tropics is the area of 'underdevelopment', and hence its average income level is lower than that of temperate regions.  This means that whatever computers are sold there, will have to be, on average, lower cost computers  (but hopefully within the same range of power and functionality).

    2) Isolated internal components

The internal components must obviously be cooled, but they should reside within self contained air spaces that are isolated from the exterior atmosphere / air.  The new 2013 MacPro suggests a possibility, but one which is not realized on the current model. Internal air flows mainly via the triangular heat sink, but the processor board is also exposed to this exterior ventilation.  It is likely that a more viable model would be made up of a much larger cylinder, with an large 'donut hole' in the middle; whose internal components reside 'within' the walls of the cylinder. (The interior wall would act as an enormous heat sink.)

    3) SSD based

It is likely that the computer will have to be based on SSD, given their relative low weight. Poor regions tend to have underfed individuals, a higher incidence of crime, and hence the need to be able to easily hide and/or transport the computer without raising suspicion.  It also helps that SSDs run much cooler than regular hard drives, thereby helping to diminish the total heat generated in a computer's internals.  (NOTE: While it is obvious that SSDs are currently very high priced, current trends suggest an accelerated decrease in price in the near future.)

    PD.

The above criteria might suggest the use of mobile devices as computers, given that they meet these 'criteria'.  However, this is far from what is being suggested given that mobiles are mainly 'consuming' devices, and have operating systems that are extremely constrained.  (Ever tried typing a 500 page book on a mobile device?)    We are here alluding to a 'full fledged' computer, with all this entails.  Current chromeboxes/chromebooks have these characteristics overall, but have too many limitations and restrictions to be considered as such; their internals also openly 'breathe' the external air, and hence would not meet the criteria being here proposed.