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

181–190 of 430 posts

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

#181

Post by dr__mario »

> When was the last time you felt your smartphone really couldn’t cope?

A couple of weeks ago using Obsidian in an iPhone SE (3rd gen). And I've switched to an iPhone 16 and it's definitely way more fluid (even for browsing).

There is clearly some kind of rat race: more raw power available, less time spent by devs in optimizations (and I guess the PRO to that CON would be less time to market). I'm not sure how to feel about all this, but there are definitely situations of phones that can't keep up.

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

#182

Post by 1propionyl »

dr__mario wrote: post #181

> When was the last time you felt your smartphone really couldn’t cope? A couple of weeks ago using Obsidian in an iPhone SE (3rd gen). And I've switched to an iPhone 16 and it's definitely way more fluid (even for browsing). There is clearly some kind of rat race: more raw power available, less time spent by devs in optimizations (and I guess the PRO to that CON would be less time to market). I'm not sure how to fee…

It's called Parkinson's Law.

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

#183

Post by maccard »

tanewishly wrote: post #125
Kirby64 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I agree with you except for one point:

> 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

You’re comparing top of the range phones to low end laptops. A low to mid range phone can be bought from a reputable manufacturer (Samsung) for about £200 and it has plenty of processing to do email, video calls, PowerPoint, and basic spreadsheets. My wife works for the government and I’m pretty sure one of those phones would be about as responsive as the hunk of junk they provide her with, and for half the price.

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

#184

Post by 1propionyl »

codedokode wrote: post #180
atoav wrote: post #171

What astounds most ist that we have now ~16 years of Android and there is still no all around decent keyboard for power users. It seems like everybody has accepted to use Android just as a consumer OS. When I started using Unexpected Keyboard the realization that I can just shift + arrow select text and ctrl + x cut it hit me like a bag of bricks. This is such a simple thing, but the existing story for marking and ed…

I think the reason is that after you got used to full-sized keyboards, typing on a tiny screen portion with any software keyboard is just a pain. I cannot type more than several words on a smartphone without getting annoyed.

As a counterpoint I type at around 90wpm on a physical keyboard (preference is for low carry), but thumb type over 130wpm on a modestly large touch screen keyboard.

The quality of the auto-correction afforded by the operating system matters quite a bit.

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

#185

Post by rjh29 »

codedokode wrote: post #180
atoav wrote: post #171

What astounds most ist that we have now ~16 years of Android and there is still no all around decent keyboard for power users. It seems like everybody has accepted to use Android just as a consumer OS. When I started using Unexpected Keyboard the realization that I can just shift + arrow select text and ctrl + x cut it hit me like a bag of bricks. This is such a simple thing, but the existing story for marking and ed…

I think the reason is that after you got used to full-sized keyboards, typing on a tiny screen portion with any software keyboard is just a pain. I cannot type more than several words on a smartphone without getting annoyed.

Have you tried swipe-based input methods? Given a bit of time to learn your style they are much higher WPM and less error-prone than trying to press non-tactile keys on a screen.

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

#186

Post by codedokode »

maccard wrote: post #178
lisp2240 wrote: post #169

A smartphone is an appliance like a washing machine or a blender. It should just work. I will gladly pay extra for appliances that perform well. I will gladly pay extra for appliances that require no maintenance and can’t be broken. If I want something unreliable I can program or hack, I will go to a real PC.

Couldn’t agree more. The locked down nature of my iPhone is something I actively desire - the curation on the App Store isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the Wild West that is the play store. I _want_ an ecosystem where developers are forced to upgrade their apps to use the latest APIs to take advantage of the new device features.

> I _want_ an ecosystem where developers are forced to upgrade their apps to use the latest APIs to take advantage of the new device features.

You want thousands of people to do useless and potentially unpaid work?

I want the opposite: that I can write the code once and it will work forever, requiring maybe only security fixes (which is not even required for many apps). I am not interested in spending my time for maintaining the code or "updating to the new API".

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

#187

Post by rjh29 »

CMDBob wrote: post #124

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…

All high end Samsung phones can do this as well (DEX).

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

#188

Post by pmontra »

atoav wrote: post #171

What astounds most ist that we have now ~16 years of Android and there is still no all around decent keyboard for power users. It seems like everybody has accepted to use Android just as a consumer OS. When I started using Unexpected Keyboard the realization that I can just shift + arrow select text and ctrl + x cut it hit me like a bag of bricks. This is such a simple thing, but the existing story for marking and ed…

I didn't know about Unexpected Keyboard. I'll give it a try.

Samsung's keyboard on my tablet does Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-X like a PC. It does more than that. I remember that holding Ctrl highlights a few keys hinting to the allowed combinations. Probably Ctrl-A is among them. It's not close to me now so I cannot check.

I'm using Hacker's keyboard on my phone in Connect Bot to be able to use the arrow keys to navigate in the shell. It does also all the other key combinations that are useful on a terminal. I also don't want my normal keyboard to remember what I'm typing in my ssh sessions.

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

#189

Post by codedokode »

1propionyl wrote: post #184
codedokode wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reason is that after you got used to full-sized keyboards, typing on a tiny screen portion with any software keyboard is just a pain. I cannot type more than several words on a smartphone without getting annoyed.

As a counterpoint I type at around 90wpm on a physical keyboard (preference is for low carry), but thumb type over 130wpm on a modestly large touch screen keyboard. The quality of the auto-correction afforded by the operating system matters quite a bit.

But auto-correction is possible with physical keyboards too, right?

Also it is hard to believe that you can bend your fingers so fast to produce 2 words per second without getting tired.

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

#190

Post by water-your-self »

CMDBob wrote: post #124

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…

What temperature does your phone reach when you do this for an hour?
Post reply on HN