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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."
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?
F@ck! Here's the correct link: Modu website.
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
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
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...
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.
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