Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

kickstarter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 140 posts

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

#91

Post by Artlav »

As cute as this is, it's missing the core issue - a phone lacks real OS and real software. It does not, usually, come with anything on it that is available on the regular desktop/laptop.

This would take severe hacking to work around.

Either (1) a software ecosystem should get evolved around the ARM/Android-like platform (that is, the project is a bit too early), or (2) there should be a virtual machine that is rather lightweight and transparent under Android to allow the PC software to run.

Seeing that this is ARM, i don't expect the (2) to be a real option. (1) might work if you constrain yourself to open-source Linux environment and is good at coding/admin, but as soon as your work would need anything proprietary or anything from Windows things would collapse.

TL;DR: The mobile and PC tech is converging, but we are not there yet.

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

#92

Post by mikejmoffitt »

maxxxxx wrote: post #84
0x6c6f6c wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it would.. what? Use the display of your phone? Otherwise you're literally describing a computer.

Sorry, forgot the 27 inch screen, external mouse, keyboard and USB Hub. In short, my phone contains the OS and my data and it can be used on small screens or multi-monitor setups.

You've described using a phone as a mass storage device.

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

#93

Post by lrem »

maxxxxx wrote: post #84
0x6c6f6c wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it would.. what? Use the display of your phone? Otherwise you're literally describing a computer.

Sorry, forgot the 27 inch screen, external mouse, keyboard and USB Hub. In short, my phone contains the OS and my data and it can be used on small screens or multi-monitor setups.

So, a live boot pen drive?

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

#94

Post by rcarmo »

tmzt wrote: post #41
unwiredben wrote: post #23

This reminds me a lot of the Palm Foleo, a device I worked on ten years ago. It was mini-laptop sized, designed to be a phone companion, but it worked over Bluetooth and actually ran its own applications, just using the BT connection for continual data sync. This one has a much better chance of actually shipping, and the advance of computing power has made it a lot more viable. Good luck.

Yeah, you basically invented the netbook a few months too early, and marketed it as an accessory when it was a full-fledged computer hardware-wise. By the way, did the GPL code used on that ever get released, assuming the demo units counted as distribution?

I don't see the point of asking any of these questions in this fashion...

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

#95

Post by hyperpallium »

Artlav wrote: post #91

As cute as this is, it's missing the core issue - a phone lacks real OS and real software. It does not, usually, come with anything on it that is available on the regular desktop/laptop. This would take severe hacking to work around. Either (1) a software ecosystem should get evolved around the ARM/Android-like platform (that is, the project is a bit too early), or (2) there should be a virtual machine that is rather…

http://termux.com

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

#96

Post by [deleted] »

optforfon wrote: post #78

You can get a cheap Chromebook (which, though inexpensive are actually quite nice quality wise), install crouton on the chromebook, install Lil'Debi on the phone and have an X-server connection over USB. It'd cost about the same and you'd get to have an extra usable device The way I see it, the only way I think it can really take off (as a niche product) is if the screen and keyboard are amazing (like a Pixel) and it…

[deleted]

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

#97

Post by PieterH »

kajecounterhack wrote: post #47
post_break wrote: post #45

I wish it could dock the phone behind the screen or something. I don't want to have my phone connected to this thing like some sort of tether through a USB cable.

+1 even a velcro strap that feels really solid. The side phone-holder attachment is a little flimsy looking.

Velcro strips that you cut to size are cheap and surprisingly useful as a way of anchoring your phone on e. g. your dashboard.

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

#98

Post by lrem »

zokier wrote: post #81

Statements like "incredibly powerful computer" describing a smart phone always ring false and bit silly to my ears. I'm not saying that phones haven't made great advances in the past years, but still that "incredibly powerful computer" is about as powerful as 10 year old PC.

Haven't PCs stopped getting more powerful quite a few years ago? The only exceptions I see is swapping spinning disk with ssd and ever-growing gaming GPUs. If you're not gaming, in a couple years you might be hard pressed to spot the difference in performance.

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

#99

Post by bergie »

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.

Termux gives you a decent Linux shell, including stuff like vim, git, and Node.js

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

#100

Post by FussyZeus »

Roboprog wrote: post #64
rsync wrote: post #18

I'm confused by this stretch goal: $1M - Option to upgrade to 1080p HD screen (w/ additional cost) ... which would suggest that the original screen spec is actually lower than "1080p" ? Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/732/

Re: 1080p. We lived with 480 i in our most-used display for a very long time :-) (comment written on my aging MBP with a 700-something screen, rather than 1080/retina class display)

We also lived in caves for a long time too, I don't see people lining up for that.

LCD's are so damn cheap now there's really no excuse for anything under 1080p. I've seen chromebooks with 4K displays for $300.

Post reply on HN