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Turn Your Android Phone Into a Laptop For $99 With the Superbook (techinsider.io)
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
A company called Andromium is attempting to harness the processing power of your Android smartphone and turn it into a full fledged computer. The 'Superbook' consists of a 11.6-inch laptop shell, which you connect to your phone via a USB Micro-B or Type-C cable, and run the Andromium OS application (currently in beta, but available in the Play Store)... The leader of the project and Company co-founder Gordon Zheng, previously worked at Google and pitched the idea to them... They refused so he quit his job and founded Andromium Inc.
In December 2014 the company had introduced their first product which was a dock which used the MHL standard to output to external monitor. That campaign failed, however their newest creation, the Superbook smashed their Kickstarter goal in just over 20 minutes.
And within their first 38 hours, they'd crowdfunded $500,000. In an intriguing side note, Andromium "says it'll open its SDK so developers can tailor their apps for Andromium, too, though how much support that gets remains to be seen," reports Tech Insider. But more importantly, "Andromium says its prototypes are finished, and that it hopes to ship the Superbook to backers by February 2017."
In December 2014 the company had introduced their first product which was a dock which used the MHL standard to output to external monitor. That campaign failed, however their newest creation, the Superbook smashed their Kickstarter goal in just over 20 minutes.
And within their first 38 hours, they'd crowdfunded $500,000. In an intriguing side note, Andromium "says it'll open its SDK so developers can tailor their apps for Andromium, too, though how much support that gets remains to be seen," reports Tech Insider. But more importantly, "Andromium says its prototypes are finished, and that it hopes to ship the Superbook to backers by February 2017."
I turned my laptop into a laptop, for free
Is there any reason to have highly customized hardware, which inevitably drives up the price in comparison to similarly capable products, rather than just using, say, a Chrombook? The integration seems more like a reliance when all the relevant information can simply be synched anyway.
I have a feeling at that price the display is going to be a joke. What would be the point of connecting a 2560x1440 phone to a 800x480, or even a 1280x800 display?
No doubt. I am using chromebook. I use my home desktop only for connecting to VPN to work. This will be great. The shell must have enough space inside to store some really long life batteries. Even a small glove box for cables?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I mean seriously at this point a laptop with similar levels of performance as your phone is a fraction of the price. If you are going to carry around a laptop shell you may as well make it a real laptop that won't have the shit ton of limitations that this is going to have.
the new design allows you do drop your laptops guts into the toilet. Whereas before it was fairly hard to drop your chromebook in, an android phone will slip into the porcelain bowl of doom easily.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
This reminds me of the advertisement: WOW! I could of had a V8 - Linux!
Quick fix for cracked screen phones which seems to happen to me with every phone. Now make it a touch screen too.so the phone can act a a big tablet.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Motorola did this five years ago with ATRIX. Didn't catch on then, but I though it was interesting at the time.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
So this is for people that want a laptop, are happy to carry a laptop but don't want the performance of a laptop.... WTF? lets add in that now when you lose or drop your phone you have now lost both your phone AND your laptop.
i will buy one as soon as they make them available
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
So it would be the worlds most underpowered laptop... and I couldn't use my phone while using it.
Awesome!
We now have laptop shells available to install *OUR OWN* cell phone sized SBCs in to provide laptops which aren't currently available in the market, and don't have standardized board dimensions to retrofit into to begin with. Now we DO!
That could be a huge win for those of us who no longer trust x86, but need need a laptop dimensioned device for our general purpose portable computing needs. The only issues I see are: Does it support HDMI in for the screen. And if not: What display chip is it using via USB2/3 and is it compatible with open source drivers?
Personally USB2/3+HDMI+Minijack would cover the necessary connections to make this case useful to me. If it had both hdmi/usb output to the display, even better, since I could use devices that had either or both available for screen output.
Androids cant be a X11 client to a likewise 3dhud co-processor. So does that just leave us at a series of framebuffer copies to said 3dhud co-processor.
My smartphone IS a full-fledged computer with a tiny screen. If I want to emulate a desktop with a bigger screen, all I need is a bluetooth keyboard and Chromecast/Miracast.
Plug in a Bluetooth mouse and a keyboard with a mini-USB adapter, a phone stand and a flat, oblong magnifying lens with a riser/spacer. It'll cost the same but the tools can be re-purposed for other activities.
Those sorts of low-powered laptops are already incredibly cheap and nearly disposable, so why would I want one that requires my phone?
What's going to happen Soon(tm) is your phone will be able to do a decent display projection + keyboard. The whole any-surface desktop idea. + multitouch. Then we'll be talkin'
Right now I'm just looking at getting a cheap chromebook that converts to a table and running android apps on it. Really only useful for me when traveling, so not a high priority.
The whole point of a phone is that it's compact and small. Carrying your phone and a big-ass laptop-sized thing? Well why just just carry a fucking laptop that is faster and more capable than your weak phone?!
What we want is a phone that can fold-out or project a laptop-sized screen and keyboard. Something the size of a phone but with the ability to expand to a laptop-sized device. The technology isn't there yet but this is the target design that will make billions.
Most companies have a policy where anything you develop on their time is their property. How does Mr. Zheng plan to work around this? Or is Google different?
Unoriginal design. They simply ripped-off the look of the Macbook Air.
I think for most people this will be an incredibly good deal.
The screen resolution is not great, but its good enough and will serve aging using and younger people ourside the Narrow 25-32 agre group quite well.
The point is your phone is a tether taxed, flash drive and quick access touch device. Its not a laptop.
The 'Shelltop' is a light weight cell phone "dongle" that is quick to setup, light weight, smaller than a Huge screen Retina Cinerama that weighs in like an MacBook Pro.. and it just more practical.
Its like 3.5 mm head phones, you don't have to worry about what it does and does not work with.. just plug in the USB-C or the now included USB-A full sized USB port and you instantly have a [wired and reliable] full screen display and multi-touch track pad.
You also don't have to worry about the App gap, which the MacOS, iOS, Windows and Linux continuum wannabe's try to say are not important. Their Walled gardens with payware and adware supported desktop apps.. simply the model is inverted and contained. If you want that adware supported stuff.. the app has in app purchases.. but its contained within the app.. app-walled.
Scaling is also something people forget about. Teamviewer and other web session tools will "Scale" a desktop over whatever you have.. same with this.. you can make it larger, or smaller to best ustilize your available pixels.
This is not for building a Gamers PC with a Wall of LCD monitors.. its for tanking those Hulktops that strain the straps on your undesized Backpack.
I for one would like to skip Scoliosis of the Spine.
More to the point, I hope he has called ASUS and told them he is coping an idea they have put out several times over the years, each of which was a sales flop.
Mind you, after they tried it is 2012, and 2014, perhaps being 2016 makes it 'new' somehow.
2012, Asus padfone
2014, Asus transformer book
http://www.wired.com/2012/02/meet-the-asus-padfone-the-phone-thats-a-tablet-thats-a-notebook/
https://www.engadget.com/2014/06/02/asus-transformer-book-v-hands-on-video/
but yeah, go crowdfunding!
I bet I can summarize everyone here: Why buy this and not an entire laptop?
However, if virtualization was worked into the operating system as a first class citizen, and the phone's operating system able to expand into the resources of the laptop (e.g. more cpu, memory, gpu, etc), then it would probably be a better sell. I know I would gladly do this, if only just to share the filesystem and boot load an entirely different os when docked.
One computing device - expandable resources through docking.
Give me a case for my phablet with a hardware slideout keyboard that lets me rest the screen at an appropriate angle and include a trackpoint and I'm all set.
Basically, where are the 6 inch laptops with phone capabilities?
...to keep the honest people out. They are useless against a determined thief.
Motorola LapDocks......
Several years ago (4 or 5, I think), I bought a Motorolla Atria and its laptop dock, because the idea seemed so appealing to me. After a couple weeks of the novelty, all the "laptop" part became was a luggable battery for recharging the phone when I didn't have access to an outlet.
I don't expect much different now. Well, maybe because the Android app ecosystem is bigger with apps that can take advantage of the extra screen realestate, ChromeOS is a thing, etc, but really, I don't think many people are going to want to lug around a laptop shell just so they can turn their phone into essentially a chromebook, when for the same extra weight, they could bring with them a full laptop with the programs on it that they actually use.
So, it's a screen that lets you use your phone as a Chromebook?
2560x1440 phone on 1280x720 display produces full-scene antialiasing.
How long before they big providers are able to detect if you have a larger display attached and insist you buy an extra package to be able to use the added on equipment?
They already did that with the Motorola Atrix so as to render the laptop keyboard accessory unusable.
NRRPT/RCT
http://www.intomobile.com/2013/04/25/whatever-happened-clambook/
another failed attempt