Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#1

Post by twillmas » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal
charlieharrington.com

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#2

Post by vbsteven » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 6:52 AM UTC

The Remarkable 2 runs Android and has a USB-C port so it might support a wired keyboard.

Although I’m not sure if the screen refresh and cpu are fast enough for comfortable typing. I already get frustrated using the onscreen keyboard for typing a 10 character notebook name.

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#3

Post by a9h74j » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 6:58 AM UTC

Agree that the freewrite looks a little massive compared to the OP's travel-oriented use-case here, and that getting a bluetooth keyboard paired to something is a great use of available items.

There is alse a Logitech keyboard (Multidevice K380, under $50 apparently) with a built-in notch in which to place a phone or tablet.[1]

[1] https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/keyboards/k480-multi...

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#4

Post by yasenn » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 6:59 AM UTC

Android - Termux - git+vimwiki Logitech k480 as a keyboard Logitech MX Ergo as a mice

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#5

Post by paraknight » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:00 AM UTC

I've been saying this for ages — the future setup is going to be phones as a singular device. When you get home, you'll dock it to be able to use your peripherals or extra monitors. Phones will become even more powerful, but even then anything heavy can be done in the cloud or at the network edge (with minimal latency thanks to 5g, see cloud gaming). OSs will become more convergent (Windows tried it, Huawei's doing it, PureOS if you're into Linux) but that won't even matter as the browser will be the de facto OS if it isn't already. Responsive web apps (through PWAs) will get native-level capabilities with the browser as a compatibility layer, and traditional OSs will simply be browser-running machines.

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#6

Post by pjmlp » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:07 AM UTC

vbsteven wrote: post #2

The Remarkable 2 runs Android and has a USB-C port so it might support a wired keyboard. Although I’m not sure if the screen refresh and cpu are fast enough for comfortable typing. I already get frustrated using the onscreen keyboard for typing a 10 character notebook name.

It is a custom Linux distribution, not Android.

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#7

Post by jhatemyjob » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:14 AM UTC

paraknight wrote: post #5

I've been saying this for ages — the future setup is going to be phones as a singular device. When you get home, you'll dock it to be able to use your peripherals or extra monitors. Phones will become even more powerful, but even then anything heavy can be done in the cloud or at the network edge (with minimal latency thanks to 5g, see cloud gaming). OSs will become more convergent (Windows tried it, Huawei's doing i…

Never gonna happen with phones. iOS / Android are too dominant in the "phone" space. It's gonna be a entirely different class of device.

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#8

Post by perryizgr8 » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:19 AM UTC

paraknight wrote: post #5

I've been saying this for ages — the future setup is going to be phones as a singular device. When you get home, you'll dock it to be able to use your peripherals or extra monitors. Phones will become even more powerful, but even then anything heavy can be done in the cloud or at the network edge (with minimal latency thanks to 5g, see cloud gaming). OSs will become more convergent (Windows tried it, Huawei's doing i…

Samsung Dex is pretty usable IMO. Unfortunately phone hardware seems to be just a bit lacking when you try to do desktop-like things. My galaxy S10 can keep up for a short time, but having lots of browser tabs open, a vs code instance, whatsapp open in the background can degrade performance after a few minutes when the phone starts getting hot.

It seems to me the CPU/GPU can burst pretty well (maybe approaching ultrabook-style laptops) but sustained performance is just not there yet.

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#9

Post by drvdevd » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:24 AM UTC

The biggest problem with using your phone as a computer is not the screen size, or app availability or anything else you might commonly think of when considering arguing about this subject.

In my opinion, today it is one and only one thing - the battery. I'm presently typing this comment on a desktop, because my phone is on the charger.

Re: Smart Phone, Dumb Terminal

#10

Post by bitwize » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:30 AM UTC

paraknight wrote: post #5

I've been saying this for ages — the future setup is going to be phones as a singular device. When you get home, you'll dock it to be able to use your peripherals or extra monitors. Phones will become even more powerful, but even then anything heavy can be done in the cloud or at the network edge (with minimal latency thanks to 5g, see cloud gaming). OSs will become more convergent (Windows tried it, Huawei's doing i…

Nope, not even.

1) This would be tolerable with some PinePhone successor, but proprietary solutions like Samsung DEX are conducive to lock-in, more difficult for developers to target, and tend to go unsupported after a few years.

2) Phones have to become more durable. I expect my primary computing device to last half a decade. My phone's USB-C port is flaky after just over 2 years of charging it and carrying it around. How is it going to last if I'm plugging and unplugging it to/from some desktop rig?

3) They have to become more repairable too. "If it's broken, throw it away and buy new" just isn't tenable for a primary PC.

4) Getting everybody on board with "live in the pod, eat the bugs, use the cloud-connected thin client" is not going to happen.