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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."
If only we had some sort of subscriber identity module that could be easily transferred between telecommunications devices.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
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
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.