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Can the Atrix 4G Really Become Your Next PC?
GMGruman writes "The Motorola Atrix 4G got a lot of attention at CES because of its ability to dock to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse and run the full desktop Firefox browser in addition to its Android apps. Now that it is shipping, I took the Atrix 4G and its Multimedia Dock and related peripherals out this week for a test-drive to see if delivers on this 'post-PC' promise. The verdict: It's a good first half-step toward mobile devices being your primary computer. The end of the Windows hegemony is in sight."
... could have happened with MeeGo, it's a damn desktop computer in your pocket, all you need is a dock, and preferably with standard connection port, and you are there. The dock could even come from a different manufacturer in the ecosystem. But heck, with the recent turn of events, it's not going to happen anyway.
How about something more original, like docking into a tablet?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
This is my exact problem with Tablets and smartphones. Sure things will get cheaper eventually, and you'll be able to use these mobile devices as your primary computer, but it just isn't there yet. You can get a much more capable laptop that can dual boot a full windows / Linux, desktop, most of them with the power to run Windows and run Linux in a VM for less than the price of most tablets, or even a lot of smart phones on the market. Basically you end up paying quite a bit for something that only does half the job.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Exchange started out not support SMTP or even TCP out of the box. You had to buy a special enabler that came on a separate floppy. Exchange had it's own crappy protocol but now supports IMAP4, POP3, LDAP, NNTP and IRC (go figure). It used to have WebDAV but now a soap api. NTLM became kerberos. AD's LDAP started with their own schema but now includes iNetOrg. IE used to suck but now, not as much. Sony memsticks lost to MMC All cell phones will one day just use a regular USB cable
No point, the author is obviously an idiot who has no idea what he's talking about.
"When you dock the Atrix, the Firefox browser and other dock-provided services aren't running from the Atrix but instead from a stripped-down Linux PC inside the dock. A real post-PC device would run everything from the smartphone or tablet, and it would use the dock to add more processing or take advantage of peripherals."
The stripped down Linuxy interface might make it seem that way, but that's not really the case...
"Running the Atrix's native Android apps on the big screen proved disappointing. All you get is a blown-up version of the Atrix's screen in a window. Android apps such as Quickoffice don't adjust to take advantage of the bigger screen as you would expect -- unlike many iOS apps when run on an iPad [12] instead of an iPhone [13]. For the "lite" PC concept to work, native Android apps will have to take advantage of the larger screen, keyboard, and mouse. Otherwise, you're paying essentially just to have a desktop browser run off your smartphone."
Because QuickOffice and all the other Android apps were surely designed with desktop use in mind, sure... it's not like the Atrix is the first device of its kind and software makers would need a little time to catch up, huh? Not to mention that the Android apps being shown on the screen are shown by way of simple screencasting - no point in doing anything else as the touch interface isn't there anyway.
Sounds like this guy didn't really do much research before buying. All the stuff in the article was pretty much in, well, any normal review of the Atrix. I was hoping for a little more perspective as to installing a more full featured Linux ARM build as the Webtop... which is pretty much the only way I could imagine using the Atrix as a PC. Although come to think of it, custom software on a Motorola device is very unlikely... I'm sure they've locked down and encrypted the webtop in some way as well.