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The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

kickstarter.com

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Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#51

Post by surprised_dev »

Always when I see concepts like this I feel like it's a great idea but after few minutes I really can not think of a use-case for me.

First I would like to have a phone with x86 cpu so I could run the same software as on my desktop, without real desktop cpu it will be hard to use device like that as laptop replacement.

Secondly why would I like to carry something like that instead of normal laptop. I understand I can buy e.g. two devices one for work one for home but still why not just have a two laptops and sync stuff using cloud.

I think it's not a future, the future is folding device that could work as phone and unfolded as laptop. We are not there yet to combine everything in one device that would be useful for every use-case.

Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#52

Post by aj7 »

schnevets wrote: post #35

I don't understand why these products are always pitched as a consumer product when this is an enterprise dream come true. People are fickle and refuse to change their personal habits, but using my phone as a thin client sounds a lot more appealing than having separate laptops for work & play.

Agree 100%. Waiting for Apple to do this (for a long time now.)

Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#53

Post by bryanlarsen »

The idea of using your phone as your main computer definitely seems like it could be the future. You can hook it up to something like this, or a USB-C monitor with a keyboard attached, or to a TV via MHL with a bluetooth keyboard, or whatever.

And tablet software is close, but doesn't quite feel right. This sort of thing just needs to get popular enough that software makers respond with the needed tweaks.

The problem is path to market.

Normally power users are the early adopters. They're willing to try new stuff, to put up with bleeding edge hassles to get their needs met. But this isn't for power users, phones and mobile apps aren't powerful enough.

Somebody just needs to find a willing early adopter and it should take off. Maybe an industry like logistics, maybe somewhere in the third world. Chromebooks had a similar problem, but they found a niche in education and now have sufficient volume to push into mainstream.

Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#54

Post by howeyc »

jasonlfunk wrote: post #3

I think this is the future. One device that works everywhere. Ubuntu tried it unsuccessfully. I doubt this one will succeed either. But eventually someone will.

problem is the Ubuntu one was trash, when you plugin to display it's still just Ubuntu Touch. Cant run normal X apps, cant apt install anything.

Huge disappointment.

Waiting for something useful. But it looks like Windows continuem is following same fate, not actually really full normal windows in desktop mode. Just runs phone apps on larger display.

Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#55

Post by Kurtz79 »

ajiang wrote: post #31

Oh hey guys, this is us. Thanks for posting! I wasn't going to post our product in HN, since tech-specs wise this tends to be a high-end audience, but I wanted to share a little bit about what we're trying to accomplish and the reasoning behind the entry level specs. The Superbook is the attempt to prove that the concept of device convergence and the benefits of continuum are exciting enough to 1) get most people to…

Cool, I'll repost here.

I having trouble wrapping my mind around how this might possibly work.

It is mentioned that "all that it takes" is launching the application on the phone.

Then what ?

All that is shown on the video is a static screenshot.

Assuming this application is able to generate video-out through USB or communicate via USB with another CPU, without OS or the phone manufacturer's support, will this application have access to the other applications on the Android phone ? How ?

I'm not familiar with Android, but if I'm not mistaken on iOS this would be impossible. Doesn't each app run in it's own sandbox, only visible by the smartphone OS ?

Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#57

Post by solnyshok »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #37

>. Any IDE built for Android can be accessed by your Superbook. Is there any semi decent Android IDEs? I can't imagine there's a lot of people who are interested in coding on their phones.

do not forget about running any linux ide in chroot. Phones with 2gb can do. phones with 4gb of RAM are good at it. google e.g. "Linux Deploy" app on playstore

Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#58

Post by ajiang »

larrik wrote: post #38
ajiang wrote: post #31

Oh hey guys, this is us. Thanks for posting! I wasn't going to post our product in HN, since tech-specs wise this tends to be a high-end audience, but I wanted to share a little bit about what we're trying to accomplish and the reasoning behind the entry level specs. The Superbook is the attempt to prove that the concept of device convergence and the benefits of continuum are exciting enough to 1) get most people to…

Is there any way your hardware would support something like being the KVM for a headless server (or family member's computer that you are working on) or something?

So as long as you can connect the usb port on to the headless server to the Superbook, and install the correct driver first. Then yes, the Superbook can be used as KVM for Windows/OSX and some linux computers. I'll put my disclaimer here of: theoretically possible but not tested.

Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#59

Post by [deleted] »

larrik wrote: post #38
ajiang wrote: post #31

Oh hey guys, this is us. Thanks for posting! I wasn't going to post our product in HN, since tech-specs wise this tends to be a high-end audience, but I wanted to share a little bit about what we're trying to accomplish and the reasoning behind the entry level specs. The Superbook is the attempt to prove that the concept of device convergence and the benefits of continuum are exciting enough to 1) get most people to…

Is there any way your hardware would support something like being the KVM for a headless server (or family member's computer that you are working on) or something?

[deleted]

Re: The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99

#60

Post by ajiang »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #55
ajiang wrote: post #31

Oh hey guys, this is us. Thanks for posting! I wasn't going to post our product in HN, since tech-specs wise this tends to be a high-end audience, but I wanted to share a little bit about what we're trying to accomplish and the reasoning behind the entry level specs. The Superbook is the attempt to prove that the concept of device convergence and the benefits of continuum are exciting enough to 1) get most people to…

Cool, I'll repost here. I having trouble wrapping my mind around how this might possibly work. It is mentioned that "all that it takes" is launching the application on the phone. Then what ? All that is shown on the video is a static screenshot. Assuming this application is able to generate video-out through USB or communicate via USB with another CPU, without OS or the phone manufacturer's support, will this applica…

Ah so we are the makers of Andromium, an android app that provides Android in the desktop interface. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andromium....
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