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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."
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.
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!
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!
Actually, not quite. I see this device being better for the corporate space than the consumer space. This is exactly for the people who DONT want to carry a laptop around. Have you ever had a job with a "work from home" option with a company provided laptop that you had to lug back and forth to work every single day? Now imagine if you just had a cheap device at work and a cheap device at home, and only had to port your phone back and forth, and could easily dock into both.
This thing is essentially an alternative to docking stations for laptops, only now it is a docking station for your phone.
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.
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.
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?
I smell an idiot.
People have all sorts of personal information on their phones from apps to access their banking to email from same and even resumes they send to job prospects.
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!
Not everybody is stupid enough to use a phone app for banking.
If a thief steals your card, you're protected from that. If they steal your phone with your 3rd party banking app, you're probably liable for whatever is done with your app. You should only do that with a device that you can maintain physical security. A mobile device can never guarantee physical security.
That could be a huge win for those of us who no longer trust x86
What is that supposed to mean? The words look like normal words, but it makes no sense. You stopped trusting a CPU command set? What?
The dipshit is probably referring to the system management module which is used to remotely administer hardware in pre-boot situations. For some reason, having the ability to do useful stuff with the hardware without an OS booted is a serious problem for some people.
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?
On the other hand you typically carry your phone with you everywhere and never leave it unattended. A desktop or laptop on the other hand is likely to often be left at home or in the office etc... Someone could easily break in and steal it.
A bit of vigilance with your phone and its less likely to get stolen than a laptop or desktop.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
My phone is encrypted and protected with a fairly strong password (12-digit PIN in my case). In addition, the mobile banking app is also protected with a different, fairly strong password. It has multi-factor authentication, but since that is a text to my phone that doesn't count here.
Since my life is on the phone and I use it to constantly stay in touch with family and friends, plus things like navigation, and quick look-ups of information, it is always on me. So much so that I'd sooner forget my wallet or car keys than my phone.
Finally, my phone is not only constantly backed up, it has, essentially, a GPS locator that I can use from my PC to to find it. Just enter "where's my android phone" into Google, assuming you're logged in to your Google account.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
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.
2560x1440 phone on 1280x720 display produces full-scene antialiasing.
The Windows license alone would eat much of the $99 MSRP.
I turned my laptop into a laptop, for free
i turned a few android phones into bricks, by upgrading the OS.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
They don't seem to be aware that all CPUs have microcode that actually works differently than the published command set. Their paranoia should have started 30 years ago, and they should be unwilling to use any modern CPU.
Even something simple like an 8 bit microcontroller actually works differently than the published command set. ANY modern digital IC chip could be doing "anything" if the manufacturer was part of a conspiracy to do something other than just sell chips.
People who are paranoid in this way should just stop trusting computers in the first place instead of worrying about each new chip being outside of their personal ability to verify functionality.
Those links just tell me "nobody" is going to be using libreboot in the future.
And with good reason; the GNU boot loader that people actually use is called grub, not libreboot. Libreboot is just a grub tagalong that, apparently, has as its purpose to not work very many places. Nifty! But not notable.
Having CPU code that you can't access just means it is a CPU; that is not news, or unique to the systems they whine about. Nobody sells CPUs without a "back door" if you consider code that the manufacturer can run that the user can't access to be a "backdoor." This is true because no modern CPU for decades actually operates the way the user-accessible API presents itself. For good reasons. The good news is, there is no application ecosystem making use of that, so it doesn't matter for software freedom. Everything happens on the user side according to the published APIs and CPU command sets, so software freedom isn't affected. Clue up and be more consistent, don't just be paranoid about the few details you heard of.
I agree with him that a person needs to consider this. It is true for some users; some users don't have a secure home computer, and they probably should not be banking online at all. However, I totally disagree with the idea that because a home computer might be even less safe than a phone, that that means it is safe to bank on the phone. The reality is that it is a minor convenience, it doesn't enable any significant activity or financial process; if you don't have a way to do internet banking safely, you don't really need to do it.
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