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Microsoft Says Your Phone is Your Next PC
eldavojohn writes "While other companies are marrying the obvious functionalities to cell phones (calendar, MP3 player, GPS, etc.), Microsoft is aiming for it to be your next computer. Microsoft Research chief Craig Mundie said that, "Microsoft has a research project called 'Fone+' that would allow the phone to work with a TV as a secondary display, and one that could allow video stored on the device to be played back on the television.""
Microsoft is talking....
Given their spectacular foray into the MP3 player market, and the hideous mess that is Windows Mobile, I wonder exactly what more plans they have for markets they "don't really get"....
There is nothing interesting going on at my blog
Gee, how inovative. He announces the next big thing 4 months after Steve Jobs demos one.
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
That is not fair! Microsoft finally repeats, would be more true. A lot of people have been saying that for years...
Microsoft no longer knows what the hell their next product is. How many different "the next PC will be..." announcements are they going to make?
I once had a friend who had a watch that could remote-control some tv sets.
Can that communication device/protocol be considered prior-art?
Because i think M$ has some patent litigation to resolve with [insert clock brand here]...
Just what I want.... NOT!
"Sorry, Dave, I can't let you take that call from a non-Microsoft phone. Accept or Deny?"
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
...is all going on?
I don't know cause I use Linux...
Funny, I haven't got a cell phone, but I've got lots of PCs.
I must be one of those "old, affluent" people with land lines. Sadly, I don't seem to have got that "affluent" part.
Why can't a phone just be a phone any more? I don't want a phone that's a PDA, camera, voice recorder, makes the dinner, advises me on my psychoses, and so on. I just want it to be a phone, darn it!
The Phone that runs Windows Vista: This I have to see ...
Or on second thoughts, maybe not!
with sites like Orb networks, you can already watch live TV at high FPS on your mobile phone. You can also already display your phone's view to any computer with remote display programs; it's just a matter of considering your computer as your TV, which many of us already do.
Didn't Microsoft dismiss the Apple iPhone as not being of any importance?
Apple shows 'em up again. MS steps in too late in another copycat move. Gotta reprogram all those leftover Zunes to do something useful!
Isn't that, like, a big step backwards from HD TV? I mean, what kind of video coudl a phone possibly put out? Might as well watch YouTube on your TV. :P
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
if they ever were an oracle for the tech industry that is.
.... and on and on
As mentioned, they have yet to release any product worth much this century --- say that slowly to yourself!
No matter how hard they try, and they will, MS will not get anything that can be called portable enough to be a 'phone' to also be a person's primary computer, with or without the addition of interfacing to a tv for video output. The claim of running video from it is just a bit absurd at the current level of technology. So what would be the point of saying something like that? Have you ever watched a stage magician at work? Yep, they tell you one thing to keep you distracted while they seemingly work to pull a rabbit out of a hat. We all know that what you get is not what you saw, or think you saw.
First, we have them misquoting reports to make Linux look 'illegal', then pumped up sales figures for Vista, now this? WOW, the MS spin machine will need some new bearings soon. The ones they are using will be worn out soon, if they aren't already about to fail.
The reality of the world is what they are trying to distract us from:
FireFox is gaining ground at the expense of IE
ODF is gaining ground at MS' expense
OOo is gaining ground at MS' expense
Dell is shipping Ubuntu systems at the expense of Vista
Dell is shipping XP systems at the expense of Vista
MS is being implicated in even more illegal/monopolistic dealings
MS' best friends in government are too busy right now to help them out again
BillG's foundation is getting bad press
Apple is still the tech world's stage hog
Zune is all but buried in the back pages of tech history
In fact, nothing MS has touched in recent years has ended up good for them.... and THAT is what they don't want stockholders to realize
I'm betting that some people in Redmond are looking for a new place in the Sun
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Dance monkey boy! Thank you.
And actually I think the N93 could also output to the TV... Ah well, better late than never I guess.
Wow. Mundie has moved up in the world hasn't he?
I remember a few of my research associates quitting their academic positions to go work at Microsoft. They quickly discovered that any respect they had in the field quickly evaporated. It was a tough time for them.
What I gotta wonder is, knowing that the head of the research department at Microsoft is nothin' but a marketting shill, how could expect serious academics to treat you any different?
How we know is more important than what we know.
cell phone internet costs too much and the caps are to low to use it as a pc 5gb is real small.
My guess is that they'll make vacuum cleaners next, just so they can have at least one new product that's guaranteed not to suck.
I don't know. I just bought two 20" LCDs for my PC. Somehow I don't think my phones can replace that.
What they forgot to mention is, your phone will be running Linux.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
So, Microsoft has a "research project" that would allow a wireless phone to be used like my iPod can be used now: with a TV as a secondary display, including for stored video. Hmm. A phone, that could be used the same way an iPod can be now. And that might include even more of the features one expects in a general purpose computer? Hmm. Can't think of any of Microsoft's competitors that might be ahead in that direction. Nope, this must be pure Microsoft innovation at its finest.
No. My cel phone is not my next PC. There are two main problems. The first is that nobody has figured out a reasonable UI with the screenspace that is available. The second is that Windows Mobile 5.0 is buggy, bloated, slow, and not very useful to program for.
I have a smart phone right now and it crashes about once a week with no extra software installed other than what came with the phone.
strike
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
I like my things the way they are now.
I manage to live a fairly happy life without any Microsoft toys or bling-bling.
Sorry Bill, I have no need for your products or services.
... does it come in brown?
MS direction is not set by listening to the market, but by Bill's ego. This is what happens when you have a virtual monopoly.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I for one, am not letting MS anywhere near my phone (landline) or PC (Kubuntu dapper)!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Why can't I just have a phone that lets me place and receive phone calls?
Maybe my pc is my next phone?
"Hi Mom, it's me." ....
....
....
... "Hello?"
"Yea I know this is a weird number for me to call you from but..."
"Mom can I borrow 900 dollars? I dropped my computer in the toilet at the club and I need a new one to I can write my report for the meeting Monday."
"Mom? You there? I think we got disconnected"
You can't take the sky from me.
Call me old fashioned or something, but I remember when the purpose of a cell phone was
to make and receive calls.
That's all I use mine for, just give me a phone that does that, and does it well. Anything else is a damn toy.
A plain old telephone service. As an extra benefit, it can connect you to network at about 52Kbps if the line isn't that noisy.
their job is to be interested in anything new, especially anything new that competitors are interested in, and to patent key elements to stop it ever becoming a threat to their core business.
How we know is more important than what we know.
I can't wait to *see* what the VistaPhone has to offer -file transfers at half speed due to DRM and a dualcoreCPU 1GB RAM requirements HAHAHA!!!
-I'm just sayin'
Will that have the little red squiggly line under it?
I guess after shoving Windows into the thing they'll have to drop a letter from it's spelling because they're out of space...
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Is it just me or is /. feeling more like a PR site for MS products than new news for nerds?
Why not use your tweezers as a wrench?
Why not use your oboe as a bassoon?
Why not use your sleeve as a handkerchief?
Why not use your car as a truck?
Why not use your PC as a doorstop?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Japanese have been using their phones as their primary connection to the internet for email, shopping, news, music, photos, videos, maps, weather and more for years.
After buying a Nokia N800, I don't think so. I think having the connectivity be in a separate device from the computing is a huge win, for most of the same reasons we went away (or never adopted) the all-in-one model on the desktop.
1) In a convergence device, if two parts are important and are still in active development, one part will always obsolesce faster than the other part and force replacement of both.
2) In the particular case of a cell phone/computer, you -can't- replace the phone cheaply and easily until your plan's up (yes, eBay, but that can be tricky), forcing you to use an obsolete computer for the duration.
3) The design considerations for a phone and the design considerations for a portable computer are similar, yes--you want small, thin, and simple to use for both. However, if you want any sort of real power from the portable computer, it's nearly a given that it will need to be bigger and thicker and less simple than a cell phone of the same tech level would be. It needs to do more stuff.
4) Not -all- the design considerations are the same. The portable computer probably wants a relatively large, high resolution screen, and it probably wants to have a touchscreen. A phone doesn't need the complexity or defect rates of a touchscreen, and a high resolution screen on a phone means either a large phone or a relatively high defect rate from a high-pixel-density screen.
5) You don't always want all of your functionality wherever you go. Sometimes you just need a phone. It'd be nice if you could take your 2oz phone with you, instead of your 7oz smartphone.
6) If your phone breaks, you lose your computer, and vice versa.
7) We just don't really need to do it that way, now that bluetooth lets you essentially wear modules in a jacket or nearby bag. You can make a really small phone, if you're not trying to hang a computer off it. You can make it even smaller if you position it to use a bluetooth headset as the primary mic/speaker cluster (of course, you still have built-in ones as backups, but they don't have to be super-comfortable). The classic argument against multiple devices is too much space taken, but if you can make everything as small as they possibly can be for their focused purpose, you can minimize that. Making things smaller is one thing we generally get good at as time goes on.
Sure, there's always going to be a market for phones like the Verizon V/NV or the Sidekick, that do a relatively large subset of the functions of a smartphone for people who don't need more. And eventually, the phone/modem part will hopefully end up standardizing and will be a commodity item that you don't have to chase advancements on. Maybe we'll even drop the current handcuffs model on phone plans. At that point, moving phone functionality into the portable computer makes a lot more sense.
For now though, if you really need a -smart- setup, use separate devices. It seems clunkier and more expensive at the beginning, but you'll always be able to stay at the front of the curve if you want to, and you won't have conflicting buying priorities holding you back.
> one that could allow video stored on the device to be played back on the television
Would that be without the use of DRM? Hmm, doesn't sound characteristic...
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
The Symbian OS based Nokia series already has such features.
In fact to compete with the iPhone the Nokia N80ie at almost half the price offers more freedom and is not crippled as the iPhone is crippled and I'll bet the Fone+ is criplled as well. Read the Nokia web site for features on the phone.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Didn't he just describe the already shipping Nokia N95?
Phone? Check!
Output to TV? Check!
Video playback to TV? Check!
Plus GPS, running Symbian Series 60 3rd Ed., etc...
So once again M$ comes in late. Good going...
Disclaimer: The above comment was made while under the influence of too much coding and not enough sleep.
Here: http://www.cdmatech.com/products/snapdragon.jsp
MS is actually doing 'research' on this connection to tv thing. In China the mobile phone market is full of phones that connects to TV as a secondary display to play games or watch movies. I bought a Linux phone (Haier N60) almost 2 years ago that could connect to tv (with an adapter) and watch the videos stored on my phone.
WTF, WinV is already slow enough on a dualcore desktop CPU and Microsoft wants your MS Windows based phone to be your next computer? THAT could only mean that they plan on WinCE being the base for the next version of MS Windows. ;-)
Who are these Microsoft clowns and where in the world do they keep coming up with this material?
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
The thing that was said by the AC was that "Microsoft no longer knows what the hell their next product is. How many different "the next PC will be..." announcements are they going to make?"
... in Cupertino.
A big problem with MS now a days is what I call the "disposable PC". Price competition has brought computers, especially notebooks, down to record low prices. This has enabled many people to completely replace their computers every 1-2 years. Each one of these ubercheap computers had a Windows license attached to it, allowing MS to make profits on bulk. I'll use myself as an example: over the last 7 years I have bought 7 computers. All bargain basement priced except two. All but the two expensive ones came with a version of Windows. Now that Dell is going to start selling Ubuntu computers, hopefully other big names will follow suit. Why would I want to buy a $4-500 phone running Windows, when I can buy a new notebook for $350 (which I have done in the past)? Now it looks I can get a cheap notebook without Windows with driver support under Ubuntu, I'll never have to buy another MS based tech (except maybe a new xbox version in a couple of years). Oh and btw the two expensive computers I have bought were Macs, including a recent acquisition of a new MacBook, all for my wife and to use her words "It's the most beautiful piece of technology I have ever seen." Has anyone ever said that about a MS based product?
While Microsoft announces "your phone is your next PC", thousands of companies have long been making apps for them for years.. LOL, thank you captain obviou$!!
I don't think I've ever heard of this before.
Does that mean that Microsoft innovated?
No.
It means you haven't been paying attention. For the last four years.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
"Thats the dumbest f*cking idea I've heard since I've been at /."
All your 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 are belong to us
Interestingly, Sprint is going in the other direction. Some of their new phones do not have cameras, but meet MIL-STD 810F for ruggedization. Sprint used to offer ruggedized phones only on the Nextel network, but ruggedized phones are now appearing on the Sprint side too. Ruggedized models from both Motorola and Sanyo are now available.
Most PCs are already running Windows. So if phones are becoming PCs, they'll run Windows too.
I dont think MS is doing as poorly as you think: check out here - especially the 5 year graph. A slow but steady climb for the last 5 years, with plenty of volatility.
Yep - in my neck of the woods the rate is 25% or more. However IE has been stagnant for many years. But MS react very well when under threat - which they haven't been for a while therefore they've had few enemies worth focusing on. Now they have one - firefox. So IE is now back on the menu and I think we'll see a lot of good features coming out.So consider - if 90% of the world have something as good as (or near enough to that it doesn't matter) as firefox on their desktop by default - will they install FF? Dont underestimate the power of a monopoly. I predict more IE releases and some tough competition for FF.
Well - both ODF and OOXML are a pile of doggy doo. One chap pointed out that they're both thin wrappers around binary data.This is the one place I think you have something - OOo is making some inroads, helped strongly by the insane price that MS can charge for office. Right now compatibility is the big stumbling block - a vast majority of the world wants good looking .DOC files, and OOo only
does a (barely) passible job of reading and creating them. Expect MS to make that
even harder.
Lets put these in perspective: MS sold 400,000 vita licenses per day. To put that in perspective: Now I'm the first to admit there's bound to be some channel stuffing going on here, but those are pretty persuasive numbers.Dell will undoubtedly move some Ubuntu licenses (my fav distro - the only one that really understands what non-unix-geeks want. (ducks for cover).
But remember this is Dell... so expect crap support and crapware. They can make a windows install just aweful - imagine what they'll do for ubuntu.
You forgot to also mention windows mobile. Unstable, slow, and really just a bad idea because it was (and probably still is) based on the '95 codebase.Look - its hard to create a business as good as windows/office. But some of their server products are damn good - look at windows server and SQL Server (their data mining, reporting and analysis tools are just awesome).
These stumbles are natural - apple had a few. Think: newton, Pink, AUX, the Puck and Cube. Gorgeous, innovative flops.
I could go on... but lets just not count them out yet.
my personal computer is my next phone
for real, am thinking to make my Nokia 770 uses CDMA usb modem to get online, so I can Voip software anywhere, everywhere
"Steve Jobs invented the world" -- Bill W. GATES
1.) Apple's Newton was first.
2.) The iPhone has a virtual keyboard.
3.) Apple is considering adding third-party support.
Just face facts here. Microsoft is waaay behind in 2007.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I hope you all realize that we've been following Japanese trends in cars and electronics for a long time now. In Japan, cellphones ARE their computers, and have a lot more functionality. Most kids don't have computers in their homes anymore, they have their cellphones.
I'd rather use my PC as a cheap phone.
Can you hear me, Verizon?
"Most of these exciting technologies have been on paper and in the minds of visionaries for years, even decades. Thankfully, the big boys are hard at work trying to compete over the "next big thing."
Assuming all the negativity doesn't put them off first.
--
~AC
Well, no.
1) I had a Handspring VISOR and Visorphone - now I have a bog-standard phone (Because that is what the free incomming calls cell phone vendor uses) So I've "downgraded".
2) I can't buy a Motorola A910 yet - no US phone vendor wants to sell 'em
3) No Microsoft phone interfaces with FreeBSD - so why would I buy a product that does not work with my system?
"It's a PC that is virtually without limits and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America." -- Bill Gates on Tablet PCs in 2001.
When I buy a phone, I want a no nonsense phone which I can be guaranteed will work all the time, without exception. My sony ericsson does that today, and hasn't failed me, ever. I have a few apps on it, gmail, opera mini, etc, and they all do just what they should and nothing more.
Let me see... the year 2009, Windows Vista mobile (just for example) on your shiny new phone, 800MB for the OS, 100MB for antivirus, 500MB for all the other apps, takes 15 minutes to boot, drops calls at random, reboots at random, BSOD's once in a while - you have to remove the battery to reset it, allows you to download virii to your hearts content, etc.
No thanks. I am not stupid. Microsoft will have to bomb every phone company out of existence before I think of getting a MS-based phone. Dealing with a PC running windows is bad enough.
Btw, I'm not exaggerating on some of these - my friend's O2 phone would crash, drop calls, or just freeze every now and then. They had to run through software update after update for a while before it was half way useable.
Hey, I've had three beers so maybe I'm just feeling feisty but you're clearly a fucking idiot. Zune, while not a raging success, is classic Microsoft. A decent but not great product that in this case has an innovative idea - music sharing - that wasn't quite ready for prime time. They'll stick with it and, as with XBOX vs. PS, they'll eventually get it right and be #1 or #2 in the market. Windows Mobile is already the #2 platform for smart phones in the world and quickly catching up to Symbian. As somoene who has used both platforms extensively - as well as RIM - I can tell you that Windows Mobile is in most (not all) superior. So, your definition of "hideous mess" must be more of a reflection on your life given that you have nothing more intersting or constructive to add the discourse than this drivel.
640K ought to be enough for everyone...
They're still all crap.
I want this cell phone:
I don't want bling, or a Wince/Linux/OSX/Palm/smartphuck. I want something completely functional that I can shove in my pocket and not worry about. If it doesn't enhance my ability to make phone calls from a usability standpoint, I don't want it.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
It'll never happen. Same problem that killed the pen based computers, the tablets and finally trimmed the PDA market to a mere ghost of its former self.
Data entry is a real pain. Imagine the swolen thumbs you'd get from trying to enter a 50 page theme into the phone. (Lets see, happenstance, h... 33 a...1 p...!!! never mind, I'd rather flunk out.) The mind just boggles.
Nope, this one's going to die.
Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
Apple has already told us.
In my experience, most of the people who say this about phones do so because they have difficulty imagining a phone that doesn't suck. Most people want a PDA because they want calendar entries that sync effortlessly from their PC, and they don't want to retype their address book into their phone with their thumb (or thumbs for all you RIM or Palm QWERTY users). Most people want driving/peddling/walking directions at their fingertips. Most people want to be able to look something up on the web *right now* or check their email at lunch, or send a text chat to anyone at any time from anywhere. They just don't realize they want this until they are presented with a way to do it that is easy to learn and also which works easily, reliably, and every time.
It is the same problem with the PC. Most of the non-IT, non-techie types that I know have a PC, but they barely scratch the surface of its capability.l They surf the web and check email. A few of them load pictures from their digital cameras. Very few of them take their laptop to a coffee shop because wireless on the PC is still a pain in the tuccus in 2007. The non-techie Mac users that I know, by contrast, almost universally take their laptops to coffee shops, and not only surf the web and send email but use many other features of the system as well. They know about spotlight and use it, even though most of them don't seem to know what the feature is called.
It would be difficult to design and conduct, but I'd love to see a survey about feature depth utilization of PC and Macintosh systems that explored this. My observations, annecdotal though they may be, seem to indicate that ordinary non-techie users who happen also to be Macintosh users "do more stuff" with their systems, on average. PC users also typically express fear of harming their system, which long time Macintosh users typically don't (some of the recent switchers who haven't yet lost their fear).
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
What would you bet they've got this patented already?
Who is John Galt?
How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A fish.
Will it phone home?
The iPod can ALREADY use a TV as a secondary display, and the iPhone will likely (if not in its first incarnation, then a later one) continue this. And since the iPhone is very nearly a full fledged computer (with the exception that Apple may still prevent it from running 3rd-party apps--the only thing I can see that would keep it from being considered a very small general purpose computer) Microsoft is once again acting like they're coming up with ideas that they simply stole from Apple or Sun or IBM or open source software, etc....
Slashdot has become so one-sided that there is little need for user comments. The summary and all of the comments took one part of the article and ignored everything else.
Here is one thing everyone missed...
"A Micronics portable "lab in a box" was also shown, which can take a drop of blood and perform molecular analysis to determine whether the patient is affected by a certain type of disease. The box, a product of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation healthcare grant, will be released in the "near future," Mundie said."
But it's from M$ so it must be crap.
My last pc ran windows. My current pc runs Linux.
My current phone runs Windows. I need to reboot it at least 5 times a week.
My next phone will NOT run Windows.
Horrible pile of crap.
Great, I like exciting announcements!
And it will tie in perfectly with this, my next car!
As long as I can plug a full sized keyboard and monitor into it, I might can get on board with that. Otherwise, I am pretty content for my Computer and my phone to be two separate things.
Oh, and the few devices that I have had to work with that ran Windows Mobile have been quite slow and had quite a few windows errors. The Nokia phones I have used over the years have never had any of those problems.
-- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
No way I'm going for this. I like to use my phone as a phone, and that's it. For a PC, I like a nice big case that I can put 3-4 hard disks in, a big LCD monitor, and my big Model M keyboard. I don't even really like laptops/notebooks, much less PDAs, the keyboards are too small. This is one Microsoft "innovation" I won't be interested in. I suppose I'm some sort of dinosaur.
Microsoft also says that Linux/FOSS infringes on their patents ... But I still don't believe it's true.
signature is pants
So, let me get this straight. Computers are getting smaller and cheaper, that's just a fact. Now, putting a VGA output+USB host port on a cell phone, or alternatively putting a cellular modem into a cheap portable machine with VGA output and USB host port, now counts as "research"? I suppose this great breakthrough has been patented as well?
..they are researching the Nokia N95?
I had to laugh long and loud at this one. Is Microsoft going to make it brown? Will phone calls ony be made if you pay to enable the DRM? Will Microsoft sell Office 2009 Mobile edition with a huge ribbon interface?
God, what a bunch of fucking morons.
Big deal, Microsoft.
This is all just my personal opinion.
The phone as a computer replacement idea has been going for ages. Unfortunately smartphone usage in America is so minimal that statements like this Microsoft one might seem new and even insightful. It's someone else's insight, though.
Nokia smartphones (high CPU power basically) have been called "Multimedia Computers" for a while now and the idea is exactly that there will be no real need for a personal computer for many people who get these things. Perhaps you might have a big machine at work or a games console at home but not necessarily a pc.
TV out is hardly a new feature on phones - you can buy a Nokia N93 with it right now.
This is all just my personal opinion.
I'd like to see a standard connector for computers. That is, a connector that would look mostly like a DVI-connector, carrying the following technologies:
Then units like mobile phones, portable terminals, music players can develop into real computers. In fact, I look forward to seeing complete computers the size of an iPod.
The great thing now would be a standard form factor of such computer-in-a-box. Because then there could be laptops sold without the computer itself (keyboard+display+battery+dvdunit). There can be computer connectors in internet cafes, aircrafts, TVs. You can also easily imagine a beowulf cluster of these! (with proper rack hardware).
Why would this happen? The core computer (cpu, memory, disk/solid state storage, graphics adapter, NIC, usb controller) will soon be cheaper than the rest of a laptop. It then doesnt really make sense with motherboards with multiple and expensive (price/space) connectors for cpu/memory/disk. The only connectors that will make sense are the one mentioned above (USB, DVI, Ethernet, Audio, Power). And I say this despite I am a Mac user who would like to see Firewire everywhere.
Another thing could happen instead: things can be very virtual. Maybe you just bring your virtual machine on a USB-stick or SD-card. This can happen soon - USB sticks of 16Gb are available for a decent price. Then in an aircraft/internet cafe/TV you just plug your USB-stick in, and they provide you with a virtalisation host (like QEMU or VMware player, or both).
Of course, when you are not connected the unit can still function, like a PDA, Phone, MP2-player, like Microsoft envisions.
As seen over here: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/video-spoof/boomerang+s haped-microsoft-ophone-takes-cellphone-world-by-st orm-258921.php
--AP
oops did i just fart on his big plans? the processing power required for that sort of thing is there in a small enough form factor, but not the battery power to keep it alive. yes yes it can go into a cradle when in use with the TV, but i won't by one that needs to be recharged ever 5 hours and is useless as a phone.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Microsoft will eventually release this as a patented, mostly proprietary system designed lock in consumers and hardware vendors. While consumers are lemmings, hardware vendors have more or less figured out what Microsoft's business model is about, and will avoid implementing the company's "solutions." If Microsoft decides to make their own hardware, it will come out a year after Apple, Nokia, Samsung and other companies we haven't even heard of yet have already released better and more open products.
(I should save the above paragraph in a text file on my desktop so I can paste it here regularly.)
Now MS wants to be an iPhone/computer?
"Less cool than Zunes. More expensive than a Lexus. Lame"?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
My next PC may well be my phone, but it will be running Linux.
I'm a diehard Linux fanboy, most of the time, but I have to admit, it doesn't look good.
Put simply, since the death of Palm, Windows Mobile is, quite literally, the only mobile platform out there that even compares to the PC.
Sure, there are other attempts. The iPhone, OpenMoKo, or whatever the fuck is on my stock cell phone (that shows the Java logo everytime it takes 30 seconds to boot up) are all well and good, but OpenMoko looks like the only one that could turn into a platform.
As in, right now, someone can develop a Windows Mobile app, and it's guaranteed to work pretty much the same on every Windows Mobile device (assuming the same arch, but they're all ARM now), and it's even possible to have free ones (I believe you can even get VLC for WM). OpenMoko is the closest we've got, but they only have one device. The iPhone looks to be closed to third-party developers. My current phone seems to allow third-party apps, but they nickel and dime you to death (charging $5-10 for a solitaire game, plus network charges to download it).
So, really, Microsoft has even more of a monopoly in the mobile market, and what's more, their mobile stuff actually works. And it's also the one area where they really do have a monopoly -- on the desktop, Linux and OS X are alternate platforms, whereas with mobile devices, everything but Windows seems to either be too hobbyist/clunky/expensive (OpenMoKo) or too appliance-like (my phone).
Seems to me, they'd be crazy not to press that advantage, while they have it. Last I bothered to look, mobile stuff was moving even faster than PCs.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
N95 looks nice, but Id hate the battery-life on it. Having to recharge every night is not a "mobile phone" in my book. ;)
Recharging over USB would be nice. I expect that to come in a later revision. I will have to re-evaluate it then, if I havent bought a cheaper & longer lasting phone first.
Too expensive, but probably useful for businesspeople who use the functions in an active and fun daily style of surfing and reading email on a 2" screen and with miniscule keypad. Theyd probably be just as productive on a golf-course together though
I can see it now; telemarketers soliciting cheap v|@gr4 while asking asking for to help out rich Nigerian generals.
I'm trying to parse that, and I honestly can't figure out whether he wants the iPhone to be more general purpose (like Windows Mobile is, with its ability to download 3rd-party apps) or more special-purpose (like my cell phone is -- even with all the bells and whistles, I only really have to know how to dial a number and hit "send", just like any other cell phone).
I'm assuming he's slamming the iPhone, because you said so. Maybe it makes more sense in context, but... Seriously, what the fsck? It seems like there's some law of nature that as you get higher on the corporate ladder, you must learn to make statements and speeches that:
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Yup. It will phone home using your precious 1,000 anytime minutes so fast u would get slapped with a $478.89 telephone bill next month from Cingular.
Of course, MSFT will initially deny they are responsible. Ballmer will even throw a chair at press reporters to prove his point.
1 year later and after making Cingular several million dollars richer, the AG's for NY, MA, CT and NH states would file a suit against MSFT for malpractices.
After one more year, MSFT will settle for $14.1 million. The lawyers would get the lion's share of the money, the state the remaining, and you and me would get a coupon worth $15 to be redeemed against Halo 4.
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
This pretty much guarantees that your phone will NOT be your next PC.
-Will P.
Microsoft Says Your Phone is Your Next PC
Microsoft isn't trying to put their software on smartphones. They're obviously trying to patent all sorts of smartphone software so they can sue or demand licenses from Apple and Nokia for the infringement of their patents and intellectual property! It's obvious that they're trying to patent other things as well:
A Micronics portable "lab in a box" was also shown, which can take a drop of blood and perform molecular analysis to determine whether the patient is affected by a certain type of disease
Looks like Microsoft is going to patent labs, boxes, blood pressure cuffs, and diseases. What an ingenious business model - looks like everyone who gets a disease will have to pay royalties to Microsoft!
Nope. If you use it like a mobile phone and don't make a single call on it (turn off bluetooth, make sure there's no programs running in the background etc), you might get 2 days out of if you're really lucky. If you leave bluetooth on, it's down to a matter of hours. My last phone (a Windows smartphone) lasted around a week without recharging, and that might drop to 5-6 days if I didn't turn bluetooth off.
Of course YMMV, but I've had 4 different N95s so far (yet to find one without an annoying whistle in the earpiece), and two separate batteries and got pretty much the same battery life out of all of them.
Sorry M$, just like Apple, you are way behind Europe. Nokia for example already has that kind of products out. TV out put, content sharing etc. Look at this product for example http://www.nseries.com/products/n95/index.html#l=p roducts,n95
you can "Squirt" your voice to the person next to you.
it doesn't really matter how slick the mobile OS is. the cellular service providers (i'm flipping you off cingular/att) will make the phone practically useless. unless, of course, you purchase from them. My windows mobile 5 phone is completely unable to run most 3rd party apps, opera mobile for example, because cingular has blocked that functionality on the phone...
i'm sure there's a way to 'unlock' the phone to allow me to run things, but i haven't found a method that works yet. why can they sell an essentially broken product? its not just cingular, they all love to do this crap.
They'll get there when "no one needs system administrators" and as soon as one of the non-computer business units actually suceede. Besides, it's always the *next* release of the OS that'll end viruses. (Been hearing that one since Win31 or so...)
Having Microsoft screw up the cellphone industry is something we really, really need. Viruses, more reasons to pay just to keep the phone clean, ah, yes...paying for mediocrity is the best of all worlds.
[Gimme a break!]
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
I can't wait to see how he screws this up,
just like he did at Alliant & the FX series super-computers!
Geeze, he helps drive a company out of business, then becomes a microsloth bot, and I'm gonna let this moron run my cellphone? Don't think so!
- Vista is the fastest-selling OS in history.
- Silverlight has great buzz.
- Microsoft has a collection of great game developers.
- Xbox is the new PlayStation.
- Zune is less than 1 year old and has 3% market share.
- Of 31 analysts covering MSFT, only 1 has a Sell rating.
My new next phone is Motorola F3. As far away from a PC as possible.
You can't handle the truth.
That is interesting, I have N95 and the battery life on it is better than I expected. I have bluetooth turned on (set as hidden though), and my phone synchronizes the calendar with my work computer every hour (of cource only when I'm at the office, ie. around 8h per day). Also I use bluetooth headset while driving. Sometimes I use the VideoCenter to watch news etc. And the phone is in dual mode (using 2G when 3G not available). So my usage is pretty heavy batterywise, but still I get around 3-4 days with one charge.
:). Also I have observed that the battery life increases by forcing the phone to use 2G even when the 3G signal is strong. So, if you don't need the better data transfer rates of 3G, then I would suggest that you force the phone to 2G mode (Settings -> Telephone -> Network). Also it is possible to force the phone to use only 3G, which would also eliminate the phone changing between 2G and 3G networks.
One thing that might consume a lot of battery is that if you have 3G turned on and you live in an area where the 3G signal is barely strong enough, the phone might do constant changes between 2G and 3G, so the GSM antenna is not sleeping like it should. And you might be surprised how much power that thing draws
I actually thought he described a vision more in line with the Project Oxygen H21 http://www.oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/H21.html, which proposes a hand-held device that can download software to transform itself from (A) mobile phone to (B) audio player to (C) multi-mode input device (speech, text, handwriting) while retaining the identification and authentication software and data for a particular user.
Zappy5000
I'm using my own N95 http://www.nseries.com/n95/ as:
I can install any S60 3rd edition and Java ME software on this phone. No restrictions. Also the SDK is available freely: http://forum.nokia.com/ Symbian is also fast, and supports multitasking of applications natively. I can program it even with Python (http://wiki.opensource.nokia.com/projects/PyS60) if I want.
Hot-swappable 2GB Micro SD cards work as stora
Get a Nokia CA-100 USB charger: http://europe.nokia.com/A4160308. I have one and it works great.
When N95 is used as a mobile phone, the the battery of N95 lasts about two days for me. As an all-round device, you'll have to recharge it daily. It's not the best device for those who need the longest autonomy possible, but I never go a day without being:
So recharging is not a problem for me. The supplied wall charger is tiny, so it's easy to carry around.
Pun intended, in the vein of Sync with a real computer, or to quote 'Bruce' in "Finding Nemo"...swim away,
SWIM AWAY!
One place I'd worked I got a hand-me-down Palm VII and a bit later the "cheapie" version Handspring Visor.
Supposedly they were pin-compatible and OS compatible, and in essence this is true, but the gotcha then, as
now, is upgrades. Will that memory expansion card work with later models, will the apps you know and love
work on newer, color, larger/smaller/different screens? Oh, what about the DATA you've got?
I've stuck with the Visor for several years because Palm Desktop works still (years later, just run
the exe) and if something happens to the Visor, re-syncing is a snap.
Phones are even worse, got a Moto 800 (IIRC) and have to use the 700 software/drivers...same damn phone
at its core, but the 800 gets no software love and finding a USB cable that works is hit or miss.
Insult to injury is the usb connection drains the phone's battery inside of 5 minutes! WTF?
And the direction toward all-in-one is, well short-sighted.
When I think about it, yes a phone + PDA would be nice, but I'd like something simple:
Phone would have a full sized USB connector to plug in a cable, Thumbdrive, or the PDA section.
Pda section would have a slot to attach the phone and would have simple functions; pda w/ or w/o
phone, perhaps video playback functions, clock (of course) and shared address book with phone.
Because of the USB slot, you sync with the PDA section, and then can mirror to a Thumbdrive and/or
a PC, and for added bonus wireless USB antennas that you can imprint to your phone and plug into
your phone (yeah, USB dingleberry on a phone seems silly, but WTH) and use the phone/pda seperate
but wireless, or put in in your desktop/laptop to sync/backup copy/play video and such.
IOW, Multi-function device(s) don't always mean "all-in-one". Let each device be seperate, but
still able to work together under any circumstance because your data is needed in both places, IMO.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)