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

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

#221

Post by stavros »

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.

Are you using an iPhone? iOS keyboards are terrible, to the point where I'm considering switching back to Android. SwiftKey on Android is magical, I just randomly punch keys in the vicinity of the letter I want and it figures out what I mean. I might type faster on Android than on my desktop PC.

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

#223

Post by stavros »

codedokode wrote: post #189
1propionyl wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

I don't think so, the mistakes you tend to make with physical keyboards are more on the "entirely wrong finger for this letter", rather than "pressed the key right next to it by mistake".

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

#224

Post by mmaniac »

The first smartphone I owned was a ZTE Blade 13 years ago. As a budget phone, that definitely had compromised performance.

It's been years and years since I ever felt like my phone's performance was holding back its usefulness to me. I have only ever replaced my phone because the battery could no longer hold a charge or the charging port was damaged beyond use.

It has a camera, web browser, chat apps, and receives emails. It also makes calls and texts. It doesn't lag while doing these things. That's plenty.

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

#225

Post by hilbert42 »

boomskats wrote: post #216
hilbert42 wrote: post #102

I find it highly annoying that these rather powerful handheld smartphone computers don't have decent port access for use with instrumentation, etc. A huge range of features comes to mind from Geiger counters, oscilloscopes, sound level measurement, light intensity, etc , etc. The potential to expand the smartphone capability is enormous yet no manufacturer has tackled it. Why not? Why aren't there multiple USB ports?…

I disagree. My phone supports UVC video input so I can plug my $25 standards compliant borescope into it, I can plug my standards compliant rme sound card into it for field recordings, and I have a bunch of input peripherals that just 'surprise work' with android now too. You should have a look at the GATT spec for bluetooth LE and the UART service. It has never been easier to build scientific devices that rely on yo…

"There are a _ton_ of scopes and stuff that sit in the prosumer space that leverage your phone"

Models off phones with these features integrated please?

Where can I find them on, say, GSMArena.com?

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

#226

Post by stavros »

But I do want performance :( Every phone I've owned becomes a dog after a few months, with apps taking tens of seconds to launch cold.

I don't know if iOS does better in that regard, but it has other issues that make it painful to use as a daily driver.

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

#227

Post by noselasd »

boomskats wrote: post #216
hilbert42 wrote: post #102

I find it highly annoying that these rather powerful handheld smartphone computers don't have decent port access for use with instrumentation, etc. A huge range of features comes to mind from Geiger counters, oscilloscopes, sound level measurement, light intensity, etc , etc. The potential to expand the smartphone capability is enormous yet no manufacturer has tackled it. Why not? Why aren't there multiple USB ports?…

I disagree. My phone supports UVC video input so I can plug my $25 standards compliant borescope into it, I can plug my standards compliant rme sound card into it for field recordings, and I have a bunch of input peripherals that just 'surprise work' with android now too. You should have a look at the GATT spec for bluetooth LE and the UART service. It has never been easier to build scientific devices that rely on yo…

> It has never been easier to build scientific devices that rely on your phone for compute.

I think the actual need right now is the other way around, don't build new devices and instruments, rather support existing devices.

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

#228

Post by mckirk »

onion2k wrote: post #217
Tepix wrote: post #210

Until recently, the availability of software updates was a limiting factor, especially for midrange phones. (Before that, phones were so slow and had so little RAM that software updates made them unusable eventually). The mid-range Samsung A52 5G now comes with 7 years of security updates and you can get it with 8GB of RAM for less than 300€. That's a pretty good deal! You just need to replace the battery every three…

You just need to replace the battery every three years or so. If you used it as a PC, presumably in a dock attached to a monitor, keyboard, etc, then it's be plugged in most of the time and battery wouldn't get much use.

Provided you limit the charge level to something like 80% (ideally even 60%). Keeping these batteries at 100% constantly also leads to degradation, even if you don't really 'use' them.

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

#229

Post by fauigerzigerk »

close04 wrote: post #167
llm_nerd wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is precisely why I would expect it to be the start of such a discussion. The "use your smartphone as your PC" thing has been attempted again and again for, as you said, 13 years. Generally it's a commercial failure because it turns out that isn't something most people want. That seems hugely important to such a conversation.

> Generally it's a commercial failure because it turns out that isn't something most people want. What the people definitely didn't want was the performance of 2011 smartphone for desktop. The use case didn't fail, that device failed because the limits at the time made the phone desktop impractical. And I remember it not being a stellar smartphone either. But every smartphone also failed until they didn't fail anymor…

I don't think performance is the only problem. The software is at least as much of an issue.

What kind of software environment do you expect when you connect your mouse, keyboard and 22" screen to a device where everything is geared toward touch input on a 6" screen?

It's not an unsolvable problem and I do think there is demand for it if done right. But it's not a solved problem either.

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

#230

Post by elashri »

stavros wrote: post #221
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.

Are you using an iPhone? iOS keyboards are terrible, to the point where I'm considering switching back to Android. SwiftKey on Android is magical, I just randomly punch keys in the vicinity of the letter I want and it figures out what I mean. I might type faster on Android than on my desktop PC.

Have you tried SwiftKey on iOS?

I use it mainly because it is the only keyboard app that supports arabic well and because it has better themes. I don't know how much better or worse it is compared to the android version though.

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