Why isn't my phone a computer yet?
Discussion
Many moons ago, Microsoft began the concept that was called Continuum. This allowed a Windows Lumia phone to be plugged into a dock, and it turned into a Windows PC. "This is the future!" I thought. Gone will be the company laptops, replaced with higher powered future phones that will double up as the office laptop when you get there, plugged in to an otherwise anonymous keyboard and monitor to completely replace desktop computing as we know it. A phone in the pocket, and a computer when plugged in. Brilliant!
Then Windows phone sadly died, and so seemed to the idea.
Google has sort of had a go with Android, but its burried deep in the hidden menus of old versions and doesn't seem to be actively developed any more. Samsung has made a better fist of the job with their own desktop OS on the flagship phones, but personally I can't see any longevity in that as its too niche.
Nothing substantial really from Google. Why isn't my Android phone turning into a Chromebook? Why isn't my wifes Apple iPhone becoming some kind of Mac when plugged in? Surely the transistion from the base in which they are now operating can't be that significant.
No need for a laptop for work, nor for home. Just a couple of phones that you probably have already. It could be great, corporate machines could be made more secure, and personal devices needing much less permanent desk space. Yet, it isn't here. Why?!
Then Windows phone sadly died, and so seemed to the idea.
Google has sort of had a go with Android, but its burried deep in the hidden menus of old versions and doesn't seem to be actively developed any more. Samsung has made a better fist of the job with their own desktop OS on the flagship phones, but personally I can't see any longevity in that as its too niche.
Nothing substantial really from Google. Why isn't my Android phone turning into a Chromebook? Why isn't my wifes Apple iPhone becoming some kind of Mac when plugged in? Surely the transistion from the base in which they are now operating can't be that significant.
No need for a laptop for work, nor for home. Just a couple of phones that you probably have already. It could be great, corporate machines could be made more secure, and personal devices needing much less permanent desk space. Yet, it isn't here. Why?!
AJB88 said:
Think the OP's main question is why hasn't this become more mainstream.
Probably because expectations are a little different still between handhelds and mouse/keyboard devices. What's fine on a phone is irritating on a desktop - setting aside developers having to code for two different UX's in one app, if Microsoft didnt manage to persuade folks that the touch UI was the way forward for everything, Bob in his shed probably can't either.Evoluzione said:
Mainly because of its size. Oddly enough I can't get a laptop in my pocket.
But that's mainly because your laptop also contains a decent sized screen and keyboard. 99% of the time I don't use either of those features on my laptop as it's plugged in to a docking station. Something like an Intel NUC has just as much computing power as a laptop in a package about twice the size of a packet of fags.Evoluzione said:
Phones do two thing really well, they allow us to speak with each other and text. That's what they're supposed to do.
Anything else they do is compromised.
I kind of agree, in that a modern smartphone isn't really a phone, it's a pocket computer that can also be used to make phone calls and send texts. I can't remember when I last sent a text and I probably average 1 or 2 phone calls a week, but I use my "phone" every day.Anything else they do is compromised.
Evoluzione said:
Mainly because of its size. Oddly enough I can't get a laptop in my pocket.
Phones do two thing really well, they allow us to speak with each other and text. That's what they're supposed to do.
Anything else they do is compromised.
Seriously? What sort of phone are you using? Does it date from this century?Phones do two thing really well, they allow us to speak with each other and text. That's what they're supposed to do.
Anything else they do is compromised.
I went out for dinner with friends the other night for the first time in an age. I watched some Netflix on my phone on the train up into town, used it to navigate my walk to the restaurant whilst listening to Spotify, then paid for dinner with it. How is any of that compromised?
Sure, if I'm watching Netflix at home, I do so on a 55" 4K screen, but I couldn't take that onto the train with me anyway, so my Netflix viewing would be far more compromised, and for everything else I was doing, I cannot imagine a better solution.
Kermit power said:
Evoluzione said:
Mainly because of its size. Oddly enough I can't get a laptop in my pocket.
Phones do two thing really well, they allow us to speak with each other and text. That's what they're supposed to do.
Anything else they do is compromised.
Seriously? What sort of phone are you using? Does it date from this century?Phones do two thing really well, they allow us to speak with each other and text. That's what they're supposed to do.
Anything else they do is compromised.
I went out for dinner with friends the other night for the first time in an age. I watched some Netflix on my phone on the train up into town, used it to navigate my walk to the restaurant whilst listening to Spotify, then paid for dinner with it. How is any of that compromised?
Sure, if I'm watching Netflix at home, I do so on a 55" 4K screen, but I couldn't take that onto the train with me anyway, so my Netflix viewing would be far more compromised, and for everything else I was doing, I cannot imagine a better solution.
It still does what it set out to do though - phone people.
There is no way on this earth a phone is better than a computer/laptop whatever otherwise we'd all be sat in offices with them in front of us.
RizzoTheRat said:
Evoluzione said:
Mainly because of its size. Oddly enough I can't get a laptop in my pocket.
But that's mainly because your laptop also contains a decent sized screen and keyboard. 99% of the time I don't use either of those features on my laptop as it's plugged in to a docking station. Something like an Intel NUC has just as much computing power as a laptop in a package about twice the size of a packet of fags.Evoluzione said:
Phones do two thing really well, they allow us to speak with each other and text. That's what they're supposed to do.
Anything else they do is compromised.
I kind of agree, in that a modern smartphone isn't really a phone, it's a pocket computer that can also be used to make phone calls and send texts. I can't remember when I last sent a text and I probably average 1 or 2 phone calls a week, but I use my "phone" every day.Anything else they do is compromised.
My laptop will piss all over your phone in every single way apart from phoning someone.
That's because it isn't a phone.
Edited by Evoluzione on Tuesday 18th May 11:46
A 6" phone screen is probably useless for those users who actually need to use a laptop, for business on the go, rather than as a desktop replacement that can be moved from desk/site to desk/site each day, or a media streamer.
You'd end up needing to carry a 13"+ screen, a keyboard and mouse to work on your phone on the train, in the airport lounge, on the plane, in the hotel, etc.
I'm probably one of those awkward users who ask the company IT department for a 17" laptop so that I can actually work on documents at a reasonable resolution when I'm on the go. Lucky for me that the only 17" laptop the company certified was a workstation one, so had double the RAM, SSD and discrete GPU
- everyone else wanted the 11" ultra-books (and then had to request hubs, monitors, keyboards et all to work comfortably at home when COVID forced the issue).
You'd end up needing to carry a 13"+ screen, a keyboard and mouse to work on your phone on the train, in the airport lounge, on the plane, in the hotel, etc.
I'm probably one of those awkward users who ask the company IT department for a 17" laptop so that I can actually work on documents at a reasonable resolution when I'm on the go. Lucky for me that the only 17" laptop the company certified was a workstation one, so had double the RAM, SSD and discrete GPU
- everyone else wanted the 11" ultra-books (and then had to request hubs, monitors, keyboards et all to work comfortably at home when COVID forced the issue).Evoluzione said:
No it isn't, it's a phone which does other things not very well.
My laptop will piss all over your phone in every single way apart from phoning someone.
That's because it isn't a phone.
To you, maybe, but for the majority of people the fact that a modern smartphone can make phone calls is a very small part of what it is. I actually make more phone calls on my laptop than I do on my mobile "phone" as we use VOIP for work. My laptop will piss all over your phone in every single way apart from phoning someone.
That's because it isn't a phone.
Edited by Evoluzione on Tuesday 18th May 11:19
As for a laptop pissing all over a phone for everything else, I very much doubt your laptop takes particularly good photos, or makes a decent alarm clock, or can be used as an activity tracker, or can be used for navigation in your car, or for checking the weather forecast when you're out on your bike... Modern mobile phones are multifunction device that can also make phone calls, calling it a mobile phone is really a hangover from the days when mobile phones were just phones. It's not as good a camera as as my wife's DSLR, or as good for writing e-mails as my PC, or even as good at making phone calls as a land line, but it does all of them well enough to be useful. But I still rarely use it for making calls.
Phones and tablets now have enough CPU and memory to run desktop apps, but the available screen size mean you're generally interacting with *one* app at a time, and the others can remain pretty dormant (yes, you can run background tasks on mobile operating systems, but in terms of interactivity this generally holds true).
Your desktop or laptop is geared up to run multiple interactive applications at once (and umpty dozen background processes), and is engineered to dissipate the amount of heat that generates in the processor and supporting devices - you *could* run your mobile processor and memory at levels required to run all of your desktop/laptop apps, but then you have to work out how the cool the thing down, probably with some sort of refrigerated docking station - or hobble the desktop/laptop experience your phone or tablet can generate to the point it becomes a bit Disney.
The advantage of having one device you carry everywhere would be that your data is in one place (your pocket), but the likes of Google and Apple are pushing that the main place all of your data is in in their respective clouds, and when you swap from working on your phone to your laptop everything is sync'd anyway.
Things are staring to blur a little - Apple moving to ARM processors for desktops/laptops for example, but for the time being the amount of beefy compute power you can hold in your hand is limited by how hot you're prepared for it to get.
Back to the OPs example from Microsoft - the dock was probably more costly than a generic PC from a white box supplier......
The real challenge with this is scale. Say an organisation tried to adopt it .... does everyone need a specific phone or, do you need a variety of docks to accommodate the people who have Androids, Windows, Apple phones of various ages.
You’ve then got the edge cases. I can do pretty much everything I need to on my iPhone other than edit complex spreadsheets. So I need a “normal computer” for those tasks. As does everyone else for their edge cases.
The average modern phone has more than enough grunt for desktop computing. It’s apps and form factor are optimised for being a phone, and that is where the problems start and end.
The real challenge with this is scale. Say an organisation tried to adopt it .... does everyone need a specific phone or, do you need a variety of docks to accommodate the people who have Androids, Windows, Apple phones of various ages.
You’ve then got the edge cases. I can do pretty much everything I need to on my iPhone other than edit complex spreadsheets. So I need a “normal computer” for those tasks. As does everyone else for their edge cases.
The average modern phone has more than enough grunt for desktop computing. It’s apps and form factor are optimised for being a phone, and that is where the problems start and end.
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