Live data from Hacker News

Your phone is an entire computer

medhir.com

311–320 of 329 posts

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does have a “real affordable keyboard” - any BT keyboard and mouse. My wife uses both that came from Amazon for $30 bucks each

This is clearly sub-optimal for a tablet. And worse, they are supposed to be a company that has good taste and design. I bought a knock off cantilever keyboard cover. This is clearly the way to go. Very clever design from Apple. The knockoff works almost as well for 25% of the price.

How is it “suboptimal”?

My wife has this

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4KH2GH3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_shar...

And uses a wireless keyboard and mouse. I use an Apple keyboard and mouse and have this for my MacBook

https://www.therooststand.com/

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone is designed to be a good smartphone, not a good NAS. It is silly to expect anyone to compromise the design of a mass market product to support some esoteric MacGyvering entirely unrelated to the original product. Should we all expect Toyota to design their ECUs to be used as a NAS?

It's not about "design", because the iPhone is perfectly capable of running arbitrary code, it just refuses to do so if you're not Apple. The situation is such that the legal owner of the device has less power over it, post-sale, than the company that made it. That reason alone, the imbalance of power, should be enough to support abolishing those restrictions, preferably by law. To be clear: this is something that sh…

> It's not about "design", because the iPhone is perfectly capable of running arbitrary code

It is a very intentional UX choice to mitigate malware for users who do not know how to evaluate the legitimacy of software on their own. And studies show that this is a very effective policy, both perceived (e.g. marketing) and real (actual breach statistics).

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone is designed to be a good smartphone, not a good NAS. It is silly to expect anyone to compromise the design of a mass market product to support some esoteric MacGyvering entirely unrelated to the original product. Should we all expect Toyota to design their ECUs to be used as a NAS?

A NAS is just an example, here's a better one; I love to use my old phones as wall mounted displays and controls for home assistant, or as remote music players plugged in to some speakers that I can hook into in music assistant. Some of my old phones are more than capable of this hardware wise but are locked to older versions of android and can't run anything built for a newer version, so they end up as ewaste intste…

None of those are even remotely reasonable enough to be a higher priority design criteria than preventing little old ladies from unknowingly installing malware.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#314
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone is designed to be a good smartphone, not a good NAS. It is silly to expect anyone to compromise the design of a mass market product to support some esoteric MacGyvering entirely unrelated to the original product. Should we all expect Toyota to design their ECUs to be used as a NAS?

Of course Apple doesn’t want people to use their device in a way that’s not how they designed it. They’re very anal about the user experience, they don’t want kids to install ArchLinux on their grandparents iPhones, and have the grandparents complain that their phone is shit. I get that. Conveniently, the way they designed the phone allows them to charge 30% of every transaction that happens on the device… But that’s…

I'm all for antitrust action against the financial trap that is the app store. But as someone who designs products, I think it's absolutely asinine to require security flaws in a product's primary design to support an untended repurposing.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about "design", because the iPhone is perfectly capable of running arbitrary code, it just refuses to do so if you're not Apple. The situation is such that the legal owner of the device has less power over it, post-sale, than the company that made it. That reason alone, the imbalance of power, should be enough to support abolishing those restrictions, preferably by law. To be clear: this is something that sh…

> It's not about "design", because the iPhone is perfectly capable of running arbitrary code It is a very intentional UX choice to mitigate malware for users who do not know how to evaluate the legitimacy of software on their own. And studies show that this is a very effective policy, both perceived (e.g. marketing) and real (actual breach statistics).

You can mitigate malware while still allowing for the same level of end-user control as the manufacturer. Look at Windows itself! People getting infected on up-to-date installations is a rarity nowadays, all without draconian lockdown policies.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#316
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course Apple doesn’t want people to use their device in a way that’s not how they designed it. They’re very anal about the user experience, they don’t want kids to install ArchLinux on their grandparents iPhones, and have the grandparents complain that their phone is shit. I get that. Conveniently, the way they designed the phone allows them to charge 30% of every transaction that happens on the device… But that’s…

I'm all for antitrust action against the financial trap that is the app store. But as someone who designs products, I think it's absolutely asinine to require security flaws in a product's primary design to support an untended repurposing.

I guess I don’t see how allowing some phone owners to root their devices introduces security flaws for those who don’t. Maybe there’s something I’m missing here.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#317
post #299
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you able to actually work with the VR glasses? I bought a pair of viture pro glasses thinking I could use them with my (linux) laptop / (android) phone when travelling as a large external monitor. But they were usable for coding, too difficult to read the text, too shakey. Would just give you a headache. It's a cool idea but I decided the technology wasn't there yet and ended up returning them.

You need the right ones. Xreal One glasses anchor the screen (i.e. it stays in place as you look around), have specific (and adjustable) tech for text clarity, have low chromatic distortion, and do things entirely onboard in the hardware. I've been able to use them for hours comfortably, and have gotten corrective lens inserts to avoid having to use my glasses with them. They now have a 32:9 mode for ultra wide resol…

thanks - I tried ViturePro when the came out, but felt like I was seeing monitors wearing blinders/through a slit, that wasn't quite big enough to see the whole screen.

Can you fully see the 3 monitors you're using there, And are you on mac or on windows? ie can you see kind of 1.5 monitors at a time, the middle one, and .5 of oneish?

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#319
post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all for antitrust action against the financial trap that is the app store. But as someone who designs products, I think it's absolutely asinine to require security flaws in a product's primary design to support an untended repurposing.

I guess I don’t see how allowing some phone owners to root their devices introduces security flaws for those who don’t. Maybe there’s something I’m missing here.

It is common to social engineer android users into installing malware unknowingly. Android devices have significantly higher rates of compromise

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not about "design", because the iPhone is perfectly capable of running arbitrary code It is a very intentional UX choice to mitigate malware for users who do not know how to evaluate the legitimacy of software on their own. And studies show that this is a very effective policy, both perceived (e.g. marketing) and real (actual breach statistics).

You can mitigate malware while still allowing for the same level of end-user control as the manufacturer. Look at Windows itself! People getting infected on up-to-date installations is a rarity nowadays, all without draconian lockdown policies.

It took windows many decades to get there and the reputational harm was already done by then. Android is not doing particularly well but it has improved significantly.
Post reply on HN