"How wide can you go?"-The ALIENWARE Curved Ultrawide monitor from 2008 that wowed Gamers......AND IT WASN'T EVEN MANUFACTURED BY DELL!!!!

Nowadays if you really want to,

You could shell out for a nice 34" ULTRAWIDE MONITOR like my 

ASUS TUF VG 34VQL3A Curved Ultrawide Gaming Monitor

Or whatever is available from DELL ALIENWARE, HP OMEN, ASUS ROG, etc.

Speaking about DELL ALIENWARE,

Did you know that back in 2008, DELL showcased a pretty kickass Monitor at a CES show?

No?

I sure didn't know until later on in my adulthood as back in 2008, I was in 4th Grade.

Anyway.

Here's the photo

Now for the record,

DON'T CLAIM THIS WAS BEFORE DELL AQUIRED ALIENWARE!!!!

Because DELL acquired ALIENWARE back in 2006.

Though DELL didn't release an ALIENWARE Laptop under their DELL Name until 2009 with the release of the DELL ALIENWARE M17x LAPTOP

Anyway.

Back to the Monitor

This was quite the MONSTER of a Computer Monitor.

And that's because there was nothing else quite like it back in 2008 when this monitor was showcased.

It was ULTRAWIDE and it was curved.

At a time when the only way to see Curved displays were at a Cinema at your nearest AMC MEGAPLEX

Though looking at the monitor, it really isn't what I call ULTRAWIDE. 

It's more SUPERWIDE.

So in principle, 

This Alienware Curved Ultrawide monitor really does remind me of them 

SAMSUNG ODDYSEY 49" SUPERWIDE Monitors that I see demoed at BEST BUY

It's also worth noting that the monitor isn't CRT, nor is it LCD or PLASMA despite the back protruding ever so nicely

 The reality is that this monitor is actually a DLP REAR PROJECTION DISPLAY.

Remember those?

A lot of my generation hasn't really remembered the days of REAR-PROJECTION DISPLAYS due to the fact that those were......

"VERY EXPENSIVE!!!!"

Thank you BUD DINK from DOUG(1991-1999).

Anyway.

Not only that but REAR PROJECTION TVs were also very heavy so extra care to move that thing into your house and most often could only be in the living room unless the bedroom is on the same floor as the living room or you live in a RANCHER Style Home

Pray tell your home has no front steps unless it has a ramp....

And hope that your TV has WHEEL CASTERS underneath.

And this is how they do the REAR-PROJECTION goodness to provide you the images

Anyway.....

Compared to how them REAR-PROJECTION TVs do their...... projection on widescreen models,

How does the ALIENWARE MONITOR from 2008 achieve this?

Well from what I can gather, it's actually more projectors that are inside the monitor.

How it works is that them multiple projectors project for each side a PORTRAIT MODE image that uses some syncing technology to sync those 3-4 PORTRAIT PROJECTIONS together to make a single ULTRAWIDE IMAGE.

It's also worth noting that despite the ALIENWARE logo present on the monitor's lower front bezel

The monitor was actually not made by DELL COMPUTERS.

In reality, the monitor is just rebadged from another company who manufactured the damn thing just to get more brand recognition.

Is it NEC?

NO.... though they did also license this monitor for sales later on....

And showcased it at the MACWORLD EVENT in 2009.

The real MANUFACTURER of this monitor is OSTENDO TECHNOLOGIES

Yes. THAT OSTENDO of CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA.

They were the true manufacturers of the 

I guess at the time, OSTENDO wanted to announce a new monitor technology for the masses but since at the time they were a relatively new company,

Nobody would take them serious either because they weren't based in JAPAN or they didn't have the same brand recognition as other AMERICAN companies like DELL, HP, COMPAQ, etc.

So OSTENDO allowed DELL, NEC, etc. to license their monitor tech for their showcases until it built confidence in the company to sell the monitor at retail in 2009.

Of course, given that it's REAR-PROJECTION technology, this monitor would run you over US$6499 before GST tax.

So..... HYPER EXPENSIVE and definitely not for everybody financially due to that stupid GREAT RECESSION we all went through in 2008.

Even I could not afford that monitor even if I asked my mother or father for such a monitor for my MDG HORIZON 2900TV PC back in 2009, most likely because I didn't know if I even had a GPU installed that accepted DVI or HDMI which the OSTENDO MONITOR uses.

I don't think my mother would have approved of something that large being on my desk that time.

For example, 

All my Monitors back in 2009 used VGA. 

I had no DVI or HDMI Monitors

(I didn't get my first HDMI TV until December 2010 with my TOSHIBA TV)

Which is saying much considering that my current ASUS Gaming Monitors connect to my GIGABYTE EAGLE RTX 4080 GPU using DISPLAYPORT.

If you want to see the monitor in action, here's a video of fellow CANADIAN TechTuber LINUS SEBASTIAN demonstrating the....OSTENDO Monitor in person

How did LINUS manage to import this BIGASS monitor from the UNITED STATES into CANADA where he lives, ESPECIALLY BACK IN SEPTEMBER 2020 during the height of COVID but when the lockdowns were eased, is really up for debate.

But I'd too be bemused and asking questions about the practicality of what a DLP monitor from 2009 would do good for the year 2027.

Believe or not, 

OSTENDO TECHNOLOGIES is still in Operation even to this day. 

But they are currently in the process of financial restructuring after OSTENDO filed for...

CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION back in June 24 2025....

So who knows what's going to happen to OSTENDO in the coming years.

Anyway.

I'm happy to say that I covered this monitor on my blog first.

I checked DAVE FARQUHAR's Silicon Underground and ran some searches on his blog but so far, I can't find any posts of his covering this monitor.

So....

I'm happy I beat him to this monitor.

Though what I really like to see is CLINT BASINGER of LGR covering this monitor on his LGR YouTube Channel.

So if anybody out there in the UNITED STATES have access to this monitor and it still works like a charm, 

Forward CLINT BASINGER on BLUESKY about this monitor and deliver it to him in ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA because I would really love for CLINT to make a video about this monitor and demonstrate it on both his 

XP DREAM MACHINE Build & his WINDOWS 11 9800x3D gaming build.

Preferably It would be better to drive to his home and deliver in person rather than pay some company like FEDEX or DHL to do the shipping.

The MIGHTY MOUSE Commercial that was pulled shortly after airing.

Poor MIGHTY MOUSE....

He sure can't catch a break.

First, he got falsely accused by A PREACHER IN MISSISSIPPI for snorting cocaine when really it was a flower crushed by BIG MURRAY that he was just trying to smell,

to having a TERRYTOONS SPECIAL being greenlit by JERRY BECK, only for BECK to be kicked off the project shortly after

Then 2001 happened and on early April of that year,

There was this commercial that aired

This commercial shows a suburban town getting itself invaded by aliens....

Think HG WELLS' WAR OF THE WORLDS(1898)

or 

ROLAND EMMERICH's INDEPENDANCE DAY(1996).

The sheer fact that MIGHTY MOUSE is not helping out people outside while just eating cheese is just absurd because you'd think he comes to save the day.

I guess MIGHTY MOUSE's refusal to help while he's eating cheese is due to the fact that he still hasn't forgiven the public for siding with DONALD WILDMON back in 1988 over mistaking BIG MURRAY's Crushed Flower for cocaine.

Well......

I did read that this commercial was pulled off the air shortly after September 11th 2001 due to a certain event that day which I won't discuss for obvious reasons....

But considering that PIXAR had to re-render a restaurant decontamination due to the event,

The MIGHTY MOUSE commercial was removed due to insensitivities in the wake of 9/11.

Man,

The year 2001 had so many promises....

Then September of that year happened and everything went downhill after that.

And that's all I'm going to say due to wanting to suppress the lingering memories.

It's an Osborne kind of thing-The original OSBORNE Computer and the birth of a Product Killing term+Portability Galore

 Alongside the IBM 5150 PC being 45 years old now,

Of which I already did a blogpost about that particular Computer:

Happy 45th Anniversary IBM PC-The importance of the PC Compatible architecture and it's evolution to the computers we use today

There actually is a computer, also 45 years old as of this writing, that actually predates IBM's own computer by 4 months.

That computer is the OSBORNE 1

This computer is the one that predates the IBM PC by about 4 months but if you can see above, you can tell the OSBORNE had something going on that no other computer could do in the early 1980s.

BE A PORTABLE COMPUTER.

That's right.

Of course, with some reading, I've discovered that the OSBORNE-1 is not the very first computer to be considered PORTABLE.

In 1960, PACKARD BELL(The original, not the computer company we knew in the 90s)

Invented the first PORTABLE COMPUTER: The PB-250

Though while this does look like it could give today's ATX cases a run for their money, the reality is that computer shown above is from the era when COMPUTERS were still the size of a closet so that one above looks about almost the same size as a minifridge.

After the first MICROPROCESSORS from the likes of INTEL and MOTOROLA started to show up in the early 1970s,

The process of shrinking the portable computer into a more malleable BRIEFCASE style design was at hand.

Though the issue with those computers listed above were the fact that they were mostly COST-PROHIBITIVE and they had tiny screens or relied on thermal paper to show the user the info they need to type.

So OSBORNE decided to market their own portable computer....

ALL AT A LOW LOW PRICE OF US$1795.

Doesn't look portable doesn't it?

Well... It wasn't meant to be portable in the same sense as a laptop of today

The term we use nowadays for a computer like the OSBORNE-1 is LUGGABLE.

That's right.

The idea is that the computer is meant to have the facade of either a briefcase

or a portable SINGER branded SEWING MACHINE

So in essence, it's still a desktop computer but unlike certain computers like a COMMODORE VIC-20 or APPLE II to which they're technically all-in-one

To which they still need a monitor and a disk drive to fully function like a true troper of a Computer

The Monitor and the disk drives were all integrated in the portable package of the computer that the Osborne is all for.

No Monitor Cables and no Floppy Drive Cables needed in this package.

The only cable you really need is the power cable

And this made the OSBORNE a real portable genius when it launched at the low low price of US$1800 when it launched in APRIL 1981.

And what operating System does it use?

DIGITAL RESEARCH's CP/M.

Why?

Because DOS wasn't around the corner and this was the OS that was familiar to many a Computer User in the Office either at work or at home

Though not everything about the Computer is all bells and whistles.

If you want to know more about the OSBORNE in full effect, here's an embedded video from THE 8-BIT GUY talking about how the OSBORNE Computer works.:

So while the OSBORNE-1 is still a successful computer in it's own right,

The Computer did suffer greatly with limitations such as the tiny 5" Screen that even the screen in my iPhone 17 Pro MAX could easily trump over.

Another was the fact that FACTORY OSBORNES only had a SINGLE DENSITY FLOPPY DRIVE so that meant enthusiasts often swapped out the FLOPPY DRIVE so that they can use the much more malleable DOUBLE DENSITY DRIVES that other Computers used.

The other problem was KAYPRO

Once they showed up with their more INDUSTRIAL LOOKING Computers and a larger screen, they pretty much eroded OSBORNE's market for portable computers.

Even PEGGY HILL preferred KAYPRO COMPUTERS over an OSBORNE.

"And that, BOBBY, is why I paid my US$2800 for this fine KAYPRO

back in 82' just for that larger screen and industrial casing.

HOO YAH!!!!"

OSBORNE wasn't having it.

So they announced a little later this computer:

This Computer here is the OSBORNE EXECUTIVE.

And it featured every kind of upgrade you'd want.

For starters, It had a larger screen, though still a little smaller than the KAYPROs that were out there,

It also had a Cooling Fan,

And they had DUAL DOUBLE DENSITY FLOPPY DRIVES from the FACTORY.

But this came at a cost.

Customers discovered that the EXECUTIVE was a better product in everyway that in order for the customer not have BUYERS REGRET if they purchased the inferior model, 

The smartest solution, at least for them, was to Cancel their Order for the Earlier model in favor of the upgraded model.

This is often referred to as the OSBORNE EFFECT where a Company can STUPIDLY announce a newer upgraded model too quickly while the earlier product is either still yet to be released or it's already released and is starting to gain traction.

THE OSBORNE EFFECT can either make or break the Company depending on whether the newer product is CANCELED or it releases but it has very little fanfare.

OSBORNE is of the latter category where the EXECUTIVE and LATER the VIXEN Computer were released but unfortunately for them,

The Problems that were wrought from the EXECUTIVE snafu caused their profits to dwindle from cancelled orders of their earlier machines.

That alongside KAYPRO's dominance in the CP/M realm as well as the emergence of the IBM PC and it's Clones caused all sorts of headaches for OSBORNE USERS who were more impressed with the PCs having x86 CPUs and a Wholly Compatible DOS 

and when LUGGABLE IBM Clones like the COMPAQ PORTABLE showed up,

it was all over for OSBORNE due to the aftermath of the EXECUTIVE and probably because OSBRONE refused to make a PC CLONE.... well....

I did read that OSBORNE was at one point going to make a PC CLONE to counter the COMPAQ and later IBM portables

but by then it was too little too late to make a comeback.

So in 1985, OSBORNE COMPUTER CORPORATION declared CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY.

ADAM OSBORNE would go on to many other ventures such as founding a company in the early 90s that developed an early form of ARTIFICIAL INTELLENCE but that was about it.

ADAM would later move to INDIA but he suffered frequent strokes until his 2003 death.

Still, It is fascinating what the OSBORNE did for COMPUTER USERS in the 1980s before the COMPAQ PORTABLE made it's debut.

But what OSBORNE did with announcing PRODUCTS TOO EARLY is a risky venture so to say.