Ewwww! What's That Smell? Is That Your Laptop?

I thought weird-smelling technology was dropped years ago. Asus, one of the world's largest laptop manufacturers, has shattered that illusion for me.

Anyone here watch the movie Polyester in the theatres? I did. It was filmed in Odorama. When going to see it in the theatres in the early '80s, you bought your ticked and received a scratch-and-sniff card. Then, at certain times during the film, you were instructed to scratch one of the spots to enjoy the full sensory experience. So when Devine, the star, who was really a great actor/actress, took off his/her high heels and smelled them, you could enjoy the smell, too. Ewwwww. . . .

Then early this century came a device designed to transmit smells over the Web. The iSmell by Digiscents contained a cartridge with a number of chemicals which were mixed and blown out with a small fan in response to signals over the Internet.

Asus wants to try again with smelly tech. The company last week unveiled its F6V series of scented laptop PCs. That's right. Scented laptops.

The F6V laptops, recently featured at the Microsoft "Spotlight on PC Fashion" Internet cafe and media lounge, sound almost normal, with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 13.3-inch LCD, a white carbon fiber palm rest, an ATI HD 3470 graphics card, a fingerprint authentication reader, an HDMI port, and a 1.3-megapixel Web cam.

However, they also include high glossy LCD covers in pink, blue, green, and black, and come in one of four different scents that include floral, grass, ocean, and cologne.

I asked my teenage daughter, who follows all the usual trends for the usual 10 minutes that they are trends, if she would be interested in laptops that smelled like floral, grass, ocean, or cologne.

"You giving it to me for free?" she asked.

When I said no, that it probably costs about the same as any laptop, she said she hates chemical odors.

"Gross!," my daughter said. "You asked me to take frickin' cherry-flavored medicine. Now you're asking me to smell my computer."

My teenage son, who like me is as trendy as an Amish farmer, said if he wants a laptop that smells like cologne, he'd just spill some cologne on his laptop. However, keep in mind that this is something he probably will do one day anyway by accident.

Fortunately, F6V laptops are available exclusively through Amazon.com, which means I probably won't accidently smell one while talking to one of my solution provider buddies.

At least there's one good thing I can say about the scented F6V laptops: They probably smell better than those Sony VAIO laptops that have been burning their users.