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Is Microsoft Building A Foldable 'Surface' Phone? (hothardware.com)
"This past week, Microsoft received a new patent for a foldable handset, and once again there are rumors that it is related to the long awaited, mythical Surface Phone," writes HardOCP, noting Samsung and LG are also rumored to be working on foldable phones.
An anonymous reader quotes Hot Hardware:
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it clear that he doesn't want to kick out just another run-of-the-mill smartphone that looks and functions like every other device out there, but one that is unique in some aspect... This is not the first time Microsoft has filed a patent for what could be a folding Surface Phone. Just two months ago it was discovered that Microsoft filed a patent for a "Mobile Computing Device Having a Flexible Hinge Structure"...
Microsoft's patents include curved edges "intended to draw light away from the gaps, which would create an optical illusion of one continuous image," according to the article. "In this way, Microsoft could create a folding phone with multiple active displays appearing as a single, continuous image."
Microsoft's patents include curved edges "intended to draw light away from the gaps, which would create an optical illusion of one continuous image," according to the article. "In this way, Microsoft could create a folding phone with multiple active displays appearing as a single, continuous image."
It damn well better make the "communicator sound" when you open it!
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
They've fought for years to get market share, but even with a competitive product it's still only gone down. Microsoft just isn't cool enough for people.
Where have I see this before?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
ATI?
They sold their mobile stake to Qualcomm. Adreno is an anagram of Radeon.
Dang, at this point I dunno if Microsoft releasing a holographic phone would do much considering how late to the game Windows Mobile, 10 or whatever they are putting there is.
Don't get me wrong, I had a Windows Mobile phone (Lumia 1020)... but what's the point of it if it's only going to have outdated, abandoned or replacement apps that are always going to be behind the curve when it comes to functionality?
Possible route for success, at least on the enterprise side, is keep it up with Continuum and make a phone that carries full Windows 10 that works well as a phone, but can also be used as a light desktop. They have to go a similar route Blackberry did in the past, and at this point with intrusive ads, telemetry and other crap they are shoving into Windows 10 I'm not sure Microsoft is even capable of going that route.
As a nerd who is insistent on trying out the myriad of this-and-that technologies, I had a Windows phone a couple years ago. It was a fairly high end HTC device. While the interface is unique, the more I began to use it, the more it became obfuscated. It reached a point where it went from fairly cool and useable to finding myself lost on my own phone. Here I speak of the tiles and such. One thing I have noticed over the years, is that the elderly, who expect and do much less with and from their phones than myself, seem to have become the dominate user base. And yes, I do peek over shoulders just to see what platform different demographics are using. For me, Windows phone lasted a good couple months before going back to Android. I do not regret the experiment. But whatever they are planning with this surface phone, it had better be.... different in a good way.
I will say this: I have a Windows 10 tablet. It is running a quad-core Cherry Trail with 4 gigs of ram. Quite simply, it is the best tablet experience I have ever had. It has a "tablet mode", but just using regular old Windows 10 on a tablet is pretty nice.
Disclaimer: I own several tablets and they all have their uses (security cameras, persistent weather info, etc...) but my next favorite tablet is my Amazon Fire. It is simply the best for content consumption. It plays in my shop all day. I do not expect this post to be popular.
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"Is Microsoft Building A Foldable 'Surface' Phone?"
Who gives a shit what Microsoft is dabbling in this month?
If they ever manage to launch it and it fails to penetrate the market like their last 50 attempts at a phone, they'll discontinue it, fire the teams, and move on to the next clusterfuck.
Besides, Samsung is already demoing some foldable phones that look quite interesting. If I was going to bet on Microsoft or Samsung in the phone market, I'd bet on Samsung every time. People actually use their phones.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Have gnu, will travel.
Microsoft is getting all the niggles out of a universal OS across tablets, PC's, Consoles and phones right now. Sure the phones are taking the hit at the moment and the rest of the business is taking up the slack. But, they are gambling on getting everything integrated, usable and ubiquitous before everyone else as a result. Will it work... Dunno. But it's not a stupid strategy so long as most employers still use windows machines by the time they get it right.