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Your phone is an entire computer

medhir.com

41–50 of 329 posts

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#41

The problem is Mac. They've always locked things down citing safety or user experience, but it is profit and walled garden. Samsung Dex has been doing this for years. In before someone explains it's not "exactly" the same. Dex has shown this phone/computer ability in practice long before.

Isn’t Dex similar to connecting a monitor to an M-powered iPad? Perhaps that will one day come to iPhone.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#44
post #10

Anyone have a theory why Apple hasn't done this yet? They release an 'iBook' which is basically a wired or even wireless lapdock for your iPhone running OSX in a partition. Seems like that would decimate the entire Windows, laptop, even desktop market in short order. Everyone with an iPhone, no longer needs their laptop/desktop. Just buy a cheap iBook and there's a good chance it'll already be better than most consum…

That would also seriously hurt the sales of Macs. Even more so now that the Neo exists.

It would explode sales of Mac. OSX on iPhone, people wouldn't need the separate Windows laptops they're used to. OSX on iPhone is the gateway for consumers into the OSX ecosystem.

And when those consumers want more powerful hardware, instead of buying a more powerful Windows laptop/desktop - they buy a Mac instead.

I feel like Apple knows this as well, so I can't figure out why they haven't pulled the trigger. Anti-trust risk? lol

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#46

Is this news to anyone? of course it is! The reason that they don't let you run MacOS is absolutely arbitrary, in support of you buying another device. It also allows them to avoid the cost of supporting MacOS in another form-factor. This feels more like a facebook post that would shock my mom then a HN article...

Arbitrary is doing a lot of work. With MacOS you can use an iPad as a touchscreen external monitor. Try it and you’ll learn that it’s not a touchscreen OS. It’s not as simple as “not letting you”.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#47
There's nothing much special about phone silicon. They generally run a bit slower than their desktop/laptop counterparts because of power and heat limitations.

At the top end on a desktop power usage doubles for lower double-digit percentage gains. You can shave that off and not lose much. Laptops are a lot closer to phones than they are to desktops when it comes to power and thermal limitations*, so re-using a "phone" chip really isn't crazy.

* 100W power usage on a laptop is entering silly territory, but on a desktop that's the bottom of entry-level rigs.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#49

Is this news to anyone? of course it is! The reason that they don't let you run MacOS is absolutely arbitrary, in support of you buying another device. It also allows them to avoid the cost of supporting MacOS in another form-factor. This feels more like a facebook post that would shock my mom then a HN article...

I have long wished for a future when I could just plug my phone into a KVM and have a full desktop experience.

I don't want the phone os on a screen but the phone is powerful enough to run a full linux VM and work well-enough as a good desktop.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#50
post #34
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other reasons. A big factor in the success of the iPad and maybe just some degree the iPhone, but especially the iPad, is that it’s “unbreakable”. All out restrictions mean it’s computer people don’t worry will suddenly stop working because they clicked to the wrong link. It won’t get a weird virus from their email. That is a serious upside for a lot of consumers.

They could allow unlocking the phone by burying that option deep in the settings with scary warnings etc. Most people could use the device with the restrictions. The fact that this is not possible at all is greed.

One of the first things help desk scammers do is convince people to turn off antivirus and/or Windows Defender on their computers.
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