I remember reading about it right when it was announced but forgot I had previously blogged about this exact idea. In April of 2006 pictures of laser etched gadgets from Nike's labs started appearing on the web, and I wrote about someone should start a company to laser etch gadgets. Then in December of 2006, word broke that Phil Torrone, an editor of Make magazine, and Limor Fried were starting a small company in New York to laser etch gadgets. No clue when they started working on this project. Best of all, they're publishing business plans to start your own gadget laser etching company. Hmm...maybe I should take my own advice and get the plans to start one up in good old St. Louis...

Adafruit Industries Laser Etching
Laser etching coming to a laptop near you - CNet.com

Well it looks like I’m not the only person eager for Apple to release high resolution laptops. BaxterBrittle, so totally fed up with waiting for Apple, has taken matters into his own hands. He has successfully retrofitted his Aluminum 1GHz PowerBook with a 15.4” WUXGA display (that’s 1920 x 1200 resolution). To accommodate the 15.4” screen, the display enclosure from a MacBook Pro was used as the original PowerBook enclosure can only handle a 15.2” display. Reportedly the laptop does close and latch properly, but the display does overhang a bit. The combination of mismatched parts, and overall beastieness, has prompted the laptop to be dubbed “Frankenbook.”

Thorough instructions have not yet been posted, and the mod hasn’t been successfully completed on a MacBook Pro. If I were BaxterBrittle, I’d offer to retrofit anyone’s PowerBook for $100 plus the price of the new display.

MacRumors discussion thread (via Gizmodo)

The pictures of various laser cut gadgets that have recently surfaced are in a word, awesome. Someone should start a little company that will laser etch people’s stuff. The service could be similar to Colorware, a company which will paint your gadgets and also offers range of already painted stuff.