Slashdot Mirror
Asus Planning Netbook With Slot-In Mobile Phone
An anonymous reader writes "Taiwanese manufacturer Asus is planning a netbook with a slot-in mobile phone that will double as a 3G communications module, according to a distributor. The arrangement is apparently meant to be an easy way to use the same SIM card and data account for both a phone and a portable computer. The phone module, from an Israeli company called Modu, is already on sale, together with an array of feature-phone shells and other devices that it's designed to slot into. There is some comparison being made with the iPhone and iPad — except that with the Modu approach, you can slot the phone into the netbook."
"The Federation Shuttle," to old Star Trek fans.
They could replace the trackpad area with a slot for the iPhone/iPod. It could server as a dockable computer you could take around to whatever machine you need.
Surely tethering is the better solution, since you could use any laptop with any phone.
Wow, if only we had some standard universal serial bus that might allow us to connect a phone to a netbook, without relying on a custom "slot" and buying both products from one company. Maybe we could use some wireless short range networking method too. And then if only there was a way for the netbook to make use of the phone's Internet connection, so you can use the same SIM and data account for both.
The modular approach addresses one of the great problems of mobile devices for both buyers and designers: you cannot, with current technology, have a device that is both large enough for comfortable extended use and small enough to carry around all the time.
The issue is exemplified by Apple's Iphone and the larger Ipad. The only way to have the advantages of both Apple devices is to buy both and synchronise data between them.
But how is this netbook and phone bundle any different to buying a phone and netbook? Is the price much better, for example?
And how does this device solve the synchronisation problem - do I magically have access to the same data on both, without synchronisation?
Which carriers will sell the Modu? Will the Modu phones be sold/subsidized by the carrier? Who will be willing to sacrifice their phone preference for this netbook feature?
BTW, the Modu website catalog is annoying as hell.
How is this an improvement over tethering? Seems like a waste of valuable real estate in the netbook.
Please help metamoderate.
This is yet another proprietary pointless gimmick that won't take off unless it is really really really well designed and constructed, and these things rarely are...
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
Haptic feedback from your touchpad, plus DS-like features. Very sexy, and the only company who could get away with it would be Apple.
Guns don't kill people, "with glowing hearts" kills people.
User: Oh hey, I'm going to cruise to Starbucks and get some work done. *meanders on to Starbucks with netbook/phone bundle, sits down, opens SSH connection* *receives phone call* User: Oh fuck... Sure hope you nohup'd that last command before you pull out your internet connection to take a call, buddy.
With the summary plus the following two paragraphs, you get all info in the full article. No need to rtfa.
Andrew Tse, head of UK distributor Purely Gadgets, said the idea is that you can change the phone shell to match your clothes or to get new features such as a camera. One shell takes the form of a photoframe that screens pictures held in the phone.
Tse, who describes himself as 'chief inspector' of Purely Gadgets - a reference to the Inspector Gadget cartoon series - said the Modu-equipped netbook is an extension of the same idea. "If you don't want to take the netbook out for the evening you just pull out the phone and take that."
As others have mentioned, why not just tether your phone so it's not vendor locked (not to mention smartphone upgrade friendly) or maybe just buy a smartbook and just use something like Skype for phone calls?
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
I don't see why they're bothering at all, especially when Android 2.2 is going to have Wireless tethering as standard. Essentially all they've done is opt for a proprietary, limited connection interface when there's at least 3 universal ones out there that could be used (USB, Wifi and Bluetoth).
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
for those that don't remember, Slashdot saw the Modu phone a while back here back in 2008. I thought the idea was intersting then, good to see it in the news again with new ideas. If I remember right, the Modu concept was thought by the same person who thought up USB thumb drives...
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
Cell phones are nearing the point where they are powerful enough to be a primary computer. All they need is a better display and keyboard, so why not put everything into the cell phone, and then sell docking stations in laptop and desktop form factors?
The connector would need a few more pins than just USB to support video (perhaps a few lanes of PCI Express), but really, we have the technology now.
Everything can live in your phone.
There's a number of issues here:
1. Tethering your 'phone, via USB or bluetooth, is a lot easier these days. Easily within the reach of those technically sophisticated enough to use/need it.
(Plus it's nice to be able to charge your phone via USB - saves a wall-wart when travelling)
2. What happens when your 'phone rings but it's plugged into your 'puter? So now you need to keep your bluetooth earpiece in?
3. Linked to the above point, can foresee some funky situations if you're using bluetooth audio...I use my PC as a handsfree / music player for my phone sometimes
4. Looks like a great way to lose/get stolen your phone along with your laptop.
I went through this whole 'integration' thing with in-car PCs;
A PC which does bluetooth phone, mp3, DVD and also sat-nav? Too complex
Tomtom that does bluetooth handsfree? Have to cut the radio when it 'rings'; crappy sound.
In the end me and my wife found the best compromise to be a car audio set that does bluetooth handfree, (cuts the music automatically when you answer a call; great sound over the car stereo speakers), but a stand-alone sat-nat device.
Sometimes too much integration is a bad thing...
My notebook has USB "slot" which can plug in my iphone 3G communications module..
Is that integration between phones, smart or otherwise, and computers is not really a technical problem at all; but a business one. Yes, there are some technical details(fiddly bluetooth profile stuff, details of USB networking, etc.); but nothing that competent engineers can't work through, and largely have.
The big issue is that carriers, for the most part, absolutely don't want phone/computer local connections to be useful. And, to the degree that they are willing to let them be, they still want to be paid for it. The real control freaks don't even want stuff like bluetooth OBEX to work, so that you have to get pictures off the phone by MMS ($.50 a pop, ka-ching!) and ringtones and things on to the phone from some walled garden store($2.99/ea, ka-ching!). Even among the more moderate, most of them want you to pay more if you are using the phone as an internet connection for a full PC, even if the phone is a smartphone with an existing data plan.
You can, already, get all kinds of useful integration between PCs and phones, with no stupid proprietary hardware bundling nonsense; but you often have to buy unsubsidized handsets(and then pair them with voice/data plans that are priced to include paying off a handset subsidy) and either pay extra or risk TOS disconnection if you do any serious data tethering.
This is reminds me of seeing stories about this device a while back. A "portable DVR" that would dock to record shows, and then be removable to watch them out and about. Incredibly stupid idea(Why would you want your DVR's capacity to be constrained by a portable form factor, when gigantic 3.5 inch drives cost nearly nothing? Why would you want a DVR that can't record shows when you are out of the house? Why tie the lifetime of a DVR, that should be able to pretty much sit there and Just Work for years, possibly with the occasional HDD upgrade/replacement to the lifespan of a delicate mobile device?). However, the simple, obvious technical solution(make the DVR networked, transfer recordings to whatever mobile device you want) is largely deemed unacceptable by DRM and control-hungry cable companies, so you get this really ugly hack. Similarly, connecting a phone to a computer using existing ubiquitous technologies should be fucking child's play. There is absolutely no need for any proprietary bundle solution, except because of carrier control freakery.
The only reason people want this is so they can use two devices on the same 3G connection. It's not as convenient as having a 3G card in each device. I would rather have a reasonably priced 'pay as you go' plan that allows me to connect as many devices as I want. Or at least a special 'unlimited' plan that allows me to connect two devices.
Why not just get a second SIM from your mobile phone provider, then put that in your notebook/netbook/whatever. The only difference is you don't get instant access to the data on your phone from your computer, but then you can still copy it across using USB, Bluetooth, or WiFi, and take calls while using your data connection.
Palm^WHP has a patent on it which is about 10-15 years old.
Is there really a market for this? This seems like overengineering. I like to still be able to use the phone when I surf the web. In fact I can do so right now. The solution? Two SIM cards tied to the same account. As an added bonus I get to surf with my phone as well. This is a much cheaper and flexible solution, not even tethering is needed. Is this not commonly possible with other carriers?
I'm glad to know I'm not the only sysadmin that has trouble typing "serve" without automatically adding an 'r' at the end.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
Agreed. I think Modu should have taken the next leap and designed modular computers. Imagine a computer smaller than half the size of a cellphone or a handheld PC of the late nineties (Psion, anyone?). You can then create "jackets" that will turn the module into the core of a variety of gadgets such as:
(a) a cellphone
(b) a tablet
(c) a netbook
(d) a PDA (do they still make these?)
(e) the onboard computer of a car (doubling as the ignition key)
(f) a toaster
(g) a Chumby
I can even imagine Intel or AMD selling not bare-bones processors but computing cores for entry-level desktop systems. Instead of slotting it into a motherboard (a beastly operation for any non-geek), just slot it into the docking station so you can use a full-size keyboard, monitor, etc.
Many cars now come with touchscreens for navigation and other system control.
How about a docking station for your iPhone in your car? A bigger screen, better oriented for driving, access to music, apps..
It's always there, it's just sometimes silent.
I could see how this would work if the PDA's screen was used as a touchpad when docked to the laptop (although the laptop would be a bit useless on its own without the phone. Perhaps as a secondary display it would be OK?
And they're traveling back in time to 2007 to announce it. They'll call it .... Foleo.
So what happens when you're on the phone and need to look up something on the MacBook? :P
You can tether over bluetooth. That is essentially the thing you just said, except with the slight bandwidth-over-wireless thing. Cheap Auto Parts
All you have to do is either plug your iPhone into your MacBook with USB or pair them over Bluetooth and the MacBook will be using the iPhone's Internet connection and both devices remain fully functional.
I can't see how your idea or the Acer solution is better.
The modu is especially nifty. It's roughly the size of an iPod nano (and it has 2gb for music). That said, I can't recommend them except as easy things to carry in case you get into a pinch. I only carry them when I don't intend to need them. Asus is right, there's lots of room for improvement. Shoving the modu into the netbook shouldn't be the priority though. The current modu doesn't even do 3G. The top 3 priorities should be:
The 7 keys suck even worse than I'd thought because I hadn't considered all the touch-tone menu systems. Their response is surely that I should put a jacket on it that has more buttons, but that's stupid because:
The netbook's controls are busted too, but not as bad.. and I don't need a manufacturers help to fix that.
Modu: I'd happily volunteer my time, coding skills, and even rudimentary amateur electronics to help. I want less phone. You can't compete with the big boys on the low-end, so fill a niche they miss: small, light, simple. Think of a woman with a tiny little clutch. Make the phone work for her, and you'll discover the other thing in that clutch: an inordinate amount of disposable money.
P.S. Make the headset jack match the standard: 3.5mm & compatible with ones with mics and controls for an iphone. Micro-usb headsets will only cost you sales.
What might be useful to me is a netbook body to plug my N900 into, to get a bigger screen, full-size keyboard, more battery power, etc. It only has a 600Mhz CPU but it does everything except playing some higher-res videos.
Actually this is something that could probably be hacked together from off-the-shelf parts. Get a small BT keyboard, an LCD and speakers with RCA inputs, a battery pack for it all that also provides power to the PDA, and have the N900 plug in so that the screen acts as a touchpad when docked, and that's all there is to it. There would probably be enough space left over for maybe an extra-large battery pack, cooling system (yeah it can get hot) or a dock for a WiFi-to-WiMAX router.
In the future I'd expect most computers to be like this - a person's computer is their PDA, and when they get home they plug it into a docking station of some sort and it becomes a laptop or desktop. Since PDAs are hard to repair and easy to lose, making backups would be essential, but it isn't rocket science for docking stations to have some storage for encrypted backups, or maybe use online encrypted backups.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
All seems MOOT if our damn providers would allow us to have more than one SIM with the same essential ID. ...
When my home phone rings, several phones ring, but I only answer one.
When I need to make a call, I pick up one phone and make a call
Why not the same with mobile phones?
Why can't my laptop have a SIM and my phone use one with the same identity and on the same plan?
The problem is not with the technology, but as usual with companies that have outdated views of how SH*T should work.
Ouch
This is rather silly. You can tether your cell phone with bluetooth anyway. i.e. if you have an unlocked phone.