Peak Phone

[RizzoTheRat]

AmitG said:

It's partly there at the moment with cloud, but the apps are all different between e.g. Apple phone and Apple desktop. One app does not run everywhere. And not everything syncs. Google has zero presence on the desktop, although they are trying to muscle in with Chrome and ChromeOS.

With Google Docs/Sheets/Slides, GMail, Google Drive, Photo/Calendar/Contacts synchronisation and Chrome Books I think Google have already got most of the components they'd need to make one device that does everything. They just need to make the device. In fact thinking about presumably with Chromecast and a Bluetooth keyboard you could already use an android phone as a low powered desktop?

[Herbs]

You can, and that is exactly what Dex offered. The next stage will be afully functioning PC so that you can play teh desktop version of Football Manager for example

[vsonix]

I love my S7, it does way more than I need it to... but the person who made the decision it should have smooth, rounded corners as well as be made of glass needs shooting. Talk about greasy weasel... can't they make a tough one out of Kevlar or something?

[Luke.]

vsonix said:

I love my S7, it does way more than I need it to... but the person who made the decision it should have smooth, rounded corners as well as be made of glass needs shooting. Talk about greasy weasel... can't they make a tough one out of Kevlar or something?

They do.

https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/phones/galaxy-s/...

[zippy3x]

Oakey said:

Kinect - dead

Windows Phone - dead

Band 2 - Lasted 11 months, dead!

Windows RT - dead

Surface - Rumours it's being killed off

Don't get me wrong, I like MS stuff but I've had my fingers burnt too many times to the point where I'm sceptical. I bought into Windows Phone then had to put up with them binning it off for Windows Phone 8 (and the hardware not being updateable) then went through it all again when I upgraded to a Windows Phone 8 handset only to later find that wouldn't be updateable to Windows Phone 10.

The Surface rumours are bullst

https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/microsoft-surface/...

Regarding the other products, they all had there chance, failed, and were killed off. don't see anything wrong with that personally, as said above, all tech companies do it.

RT was a clusterfk of the highest order, a physical representation of the height of Microsoft corporate hubris. Any idiot could see it was bound to fail, and they made $950 million worth of them.

Not sure why Microsoft get stick for the windows phone 7 to 8 and 8 to 10 incompatibility, when android devices are effectively abandoned after 18 months or so.

[vsonix]

Luke. said:

vsonix said:

I love my S7, it does way more than I need it to... but the person who made the decision it should have smooth, rounded corners as well as be made of glass needs shooting. Talk about greasy weasel... can't they make a tough one out of Kevlar or something?

They do.

https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/phones/galaxy-s/...

Evidently. First I've ever seen of one though! Wish O2 could have told me when I was replacing my S7 after it cracked itself the first time. Sods law, I managed to preserve the damn thing for a year without a scratch despite taking it travelling halfway round the world with me and using it heavily every day. Get home, and it explodes from battery swell when I was using it as a satnav. "No problem, they all do that, sir" - replacement under warranty, no quibble. I have the replacement for barely a week before it gets fumbled on the way out of my pocket due to the round corners, jumps onto a hard concrete floor and bounces a few times. Front screen cracked, rear of it looks like it's been hammered. Tiny glass fragments in my pocket fluff. Incredibly frustrating and I expect now that I've had my no quibble replacement, however I get this sorted it's going to cost me.


ETA

Hmm... BBC says: "A Samsung smartphone advertised as being water-resistant has failed a water immersion test by a leading product review site. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Active stopped working after being put in a tank that simulated the effect of being about 5ft (1.5m) underwater."

and I can't see any for sale in the UK apart from grey imports from Amazon.

Edited by vsonix on Wednesday 17th January 18:48

[272BHP]

I have mentioned before that I think glasses are the next big thing. Not like google glasses where you wear them all the time - that is stupid. I am thinking more like reading glasses; you wouldn't put them on while walking, you put them on because you have stuff to concentrate on.

The glasses will be used to interact with huge projected virtual desktops and environments - what screen could possibly compete with that for work or play purposes?

The main accessory people have for their phones is earphones something that tells everyone loud and clear that you don't want to interact as you are doing your own thing. Rightly or wrongly, glasses are probably the next evolutionary step.

Your phone would be the connecting hub that enables the above - all it needs is some kind of interface. the technology to do all this is not really there yet but another 3-4 years who knows?

[thecopster]

Aside from the things everyone else mentioned the one advancement I would love to see is... non mains charging!

Surely there’s some innovation that could change the game with kinetic or solar charging - even if it just gives back 10-20% of charge it would be awesome!

[flight147z]

I'd prefer phones to stay similar to what they are like now but get cheaper

I bought my OnePlus3 for just over £300 in May 2016 - the current OnePlus model is a lot more expensive for little extra.

I'll keep this until the end of 2018 I think - it's still fast which is the most important thing for me coming from a phone with only 2gb of RAM

Better battery lift would always be a bonus though!

[Herbs]

thecopster said:

Aside from the things everyone else mentioned the one advancement I would love to see is... non mains charging!

Surely there’s some innovation that could change the game with kinetic or solar charging - even if it just gives back 10-20% of charge it would be awesome!

This is in the works - they are trialing using WiFi/4g waves as a power source which could be a game changer.

[Teebs]

I have a Samsung S8 and I genuinely can't see how they'll improve it massively.

Big memory, quick interface and a cracking camera. I only upgraded from a S6 because I'd run out of memory (no SD slot)

Won't stop me ordering the new one when my contracts end though..

[vsonix]

Teebs said:

I have a Samsung S8 and I genuinely can't see how they'll improve it massively.

Big memory, quick interface and a cracking camera. I only upgraded from a S6 because I'd run out of memory (no SD slot)

Won't stop me ordering the new one when my contracts end though..

I wonder if the next thing will be optical zoom camera phones. AFAIK there is a Kodak one meant to come to market but I haven't heard much since the initial noises. Literally the only thing that I need/would like on my S7 is some kind of telephoto and zoom functionality.

[AmitG]

zippy3x said:

Regarding the other [Microsoft] products, they all had there chance, failed, and were killed off. don't see anything wrong with that personally, as said above, all tech companies do it.

The problem is that Microsoft is getting a bit of a reputation for:

• Releasing a half finished product
• Doing a couple of updates
• If it isn't an immediate smash hit, abandoning it without really telling anyone what's going on

There is a view (which I sympathise with) that they don't seem to have a solid product plan and don't seem willing to invest in products for the long term, like they used to. They seem to be more CFO driven these days. They seem to just throw products at the wall and see what sticks.

They have denied any intention to kill Surface, but they did the same with Windows Mobile until it was painfully obvious that it was dead. I have to say that they would be absolutely mad to kill Surface. But they have made some stupid decisions recently (IMHO).

It would be a real shame if the only company that is in a position to unite the worlds of mobile, desktop and server computing, decided to bottle it.