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

Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

androidauthority.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 430 posts

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#121

Post by ghaff »

orev wrote: post #119
ghaff wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see who is refusing to sell you a phone with various attachments that make a workable computer (especially given 3rd party providers). I just bought such with an iPad. You could do something along the same lines with an iPhone I suppose but I'd probably find it unsatisfactory. Still on the fence whether the iPad is still a fully satisfactory companion device for traveling in general.

In the Apple ecosystem, the one “refusing to sell you…” is Apple, and not only the required peripherals but also not making the software work that way. Because if they did, then you wouldn’t need to buy a Mac.

Macs are not especially relevant to Apple revenue at this point. iPad plus magnetic keyboard is getting pretty close. Still not sure that better multitasking would push me over the edge to not wanting a MacBook for serious day-to-day multitasking work.

I do think they're trending in that direction but I actually like that they're not pushing people faster than feels comfortable. I expect to see a convergence of iPads and at least MacBook Airs but we're not quite there yet.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#122

Post by orf »

hilbert42 wrote: post #115
Kirby64 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why aren't there multiple USB ports? By now why don't all phones use USB-3? Why isn't there general purpose D/A and A/D ports/outputs for instrumentation? Why don't they include a GPIB-like bus to connect to things? Why can't we use the screen as an oscilloscope with a bandwidth of say 100MHz? Because the population of people that would actually use that functionality rounds to approximately 0. There do exist phone…

"Because the population of people that would actually use that functionality rounds to approximately 0." How can you say that, where are your figures/stats/evidence? For starters I'm 1 person, so the market is not O. And I know of others, and I know I'm not alone. Clearly you don't work in test and measurement. Moreover, this article alone has raised the matter of additional features. Anyway, it's only a matter of ti…

> For starters I'm 1 person, so the market is not O. And I know of others, and I know I'm not alone

Of all the people you interacted with in any way, shape or form this year, what percentage of those would benefit from this?

It rounds to 0, assuming you’re not a shut-in

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#123

Post by tekla »

exe34 wrote: post #92
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason for throttling after battery health dips below a certain point is to prevent the SoC from creating spikes in power demand that the battery is unable to service (which becomes progressively more likely as the battery degrades) so the phone doesn’t crash at inopportune times. Back in the mid-2010s when I was broke and getting by on a worn out hand-me-down iPhone I would’ve loved to have that feature. It real…

Any idea why it only happens to iPhones? I don't think I've noticed this on Androids, where the only impact of longevity is the lack of updates from the manufacturers and then Google Play Services starts to fill up the storage with updates.

It does happen to Androids. Its just that by the time it matters, the manufacturer has abandoned it.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#124

Post by CMDBob »

It's funny, as my phone (A 2022 Moto Razr) can work as PC, if I plug it into a monitor with it's USB-C port. I can plug it into a monitor, and plug a mouse and keyboard into the monitor's inbuilt USB-C hub, and it works just fine. Has a desktop mode and everything! If the monitor doesn't have a hub in it, I can use the phone as a mouse/touchpad! Plus, if the monitor supports it, it'll even keep it charged rather than using the battery!

And I don't just use it as a gimmick, I use a HDMI/USB-C cable to use it with my TV as a streaming/light gaming setup. Nice to be able to plug it in, kick off a streaming app or Youtube, or play some Minecraft or something on my TV in bed, all comfy.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#125

Post by tanewishly »

Kirby64 wrote: post #117
hilbert42 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Because the population of people that would actually use that functionality rounds to approximately 0." How can you say that, where are your figures/stats/evidence? For starters I'm 1 person, so the market is not O. And I know of others, and I know I'm not alone. Clearly you don't work in test and measurement. Moreover, this article alone has raised the matter of additional features. Anyway, it's only a matter of ti…

> For starters I'm 1 person, so the market is not O. And I know of others, and I know I'm not alone. Clearly you don't work in test and measurement. I said approximately 0, when compared to smartphone sales… which it is. I don’t need a survey to know that, since the vast vast vast majority of people using phones don’t even know what an oscilloscope, a DAC, or an ADC is. If you think that’s untrue, I’d suggest widenin…

To expand upon that point: a new feature for smartphones that really takes off has to fall in one of two categories:

1. so incredibly convenient to always have with you, that everyone's willing to overlook shortcomings compared to dedicated equipment. Prime example: camera.

2. Offer a new type of use that is widely considered desirable. Example: mobile access to Internet.

Most use cases either cater to too few people and/or fall into the category "those who'd really care, already have dedicated equipment which is better". With flagship phones costing more and more, that equipment is probably also cheaper - or, at least, is price tag is not that outlandish.

Even replacing laptops probably won't catch on, simply because companies can easily provide a good laptop for half the price of a flagship phone (if not less). So they're not going to facilitate that. And if the boss isn't on board, would you want to use your own private phone as your primary work laptop?

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#126

Post by Nullabillity »

ghaff wrote: post #18
abraxas wrote: post #2

This and also I don't want a tumor on the back of my phone. Can we go back to flat bodies at the expense of camera quality? For some of us phone cameras are really not _that_ important.

I think for most people, better cameras are one of the selling points of a premium phone. I even know pretty serious photographers (which at one point included myself) who don't generally travel with standalone cameras for most purposes any longer.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that "serious photographers" are a pretty tiny minority of phone owners.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#127

Post by cassepipe »

ghaff wrote: post #110
cassepipe wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happy user of a Galaxy S7 from 2016. It's smaller than what you can get now and has a physical apps/home/back area which I love. I use them till I break or lose them. I never have to care about because I know I can get a second had one for less than 100 euros. Not having valuable stuff with is really liberating. Will use them until I can't no more.

Who regularly gets phones lost or stolen? I did break one once hiking with some sort of rock collision in my pocket but this isn't a regular thing over many years.

I do. One was lost watching a video in the bathtub. A wasp came very closed to my head and I dived into the water with phone in hand sadly. Another one fell off my bike phone holder while riding on old style pavement (lots of vibrations) and the car behind me rolled over it (still functional except for the screen though, I was impressed). Another was lost because I left it in a stupid place that I did not have access to later. All of this during the course of six years which means each phone last an average of 2 years. Not too bad in my opinion.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#128

Post by dragonwriter »

jmkni wrote: post #5

With USB-C, surely we are at the point where we can plug our phones into a hub with a couple of monitors attached and get a proper desktop environment?

We’ve been able to do that for quite a while, actually.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#129

Post by ajdude »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #87
jmkni wrote: post #5

With USB-C, surely we are at the point where we can plug our phones into a hub with a couple of monitors attached and get a proper desktop environment?

Im surprised Apple hasn’t done this yet. I thought about this maybe 5-6 years ago as a product idea. My thought was that you had a monitor with a wireless charging pad built into the base, drop you phone on the base and it automatically connects to the monitor and other peripherals and starts charging. You just pick up your phone and leave and it automatically disconnects. I think other commenters are right that this…

It would not be hard for them to do this, and some apps exist to emulate a desktop environment when you plug the iPhone into a dock and hook it up to a monitor, but it's pretty sad that Apple won't embrace something like this.

Despite the fact that the largest iPhone and smallest iPad are less than 2" difference, the $130 Apple Pencil will not work with an iPhone Pro Max, and both devices run different operating systems with arbitrary features.

One of the biggest complaints about their latest iPad was that it's so powerful yet limited by iPadOS. I feel the same way about my iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Apple wants you to have an iMac as your desktop, a MacBook for your mobile device, an iPad to watch videos, and an iPhone to bring with you.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#130

Post by awiesenhofer »

tetrisgm wrote: post #96

This keeps being postponed. For some reason Chrome OS isn’t being ported to Android devices. Motorola tried their take. Microsoft tried the windows phone thingy. Nokia had the N900 Linux phones. Even Android was supposed to run a Windows 11 VM just fine. Microsoft killed the Surface Neo. There was a phone shaped Windows PC called the Emporium or something, killed too. This whole space has been cursed. You can hack so…

> This keeps being postponed.

> there’s no “this phone is a PC“ offering that is really viable.

> I wish there were serious efforts.

You should really google "Samsung Dex".

Post reply on HN