4 ms·

For your next trick, Steve, please invent a tablet that is a docking station for an iPhone. One device, multiple form factors. I'd love to snap my iPhone into

by dkarl 15y ago

For your next trick, Steve, please invent a tablet that is a docking station for an iPhone. One device, multiple form factors. I'd love to snap my iPhone into the back of a 10" screen so I can watch a move or read the paper. When I didn't feel like carrying the 10" screen around, I'd just take the phone out and leave the screen behind. When I felt like doing some work on the road, I could carry the 10" screen _and_ a bluetooth keyboard. At home, I'd connect my phone to a big beautiful monitor and a full-size keyboard. Concrete steps toward that vision is your best bet for keeping me buying Apple hardware now that there are good Android phones available and good Android tablets, too (if not now then soon). One device, multiple form factors. One device to manage content and applications on, one device to sync, one device to always have with me. Any form factor I want. Sounds like a perfect way to spend the dividends of Moore's Law.

avdempsey 15y ago
That's actually the whole point of iCloud. You'll have separate devices--screens with an SOC--but they'll all behave just as you describe. Each device pushes your data up to the cloud where it bounces back to the rest. Three reasons why Apple will go this way rather than your transformer approach: -The utility is exactly the same -Each device's hardware will be designed to be itself, rather than a compromisotron -Apple gets to sell more devices
- jjtheblunt 15y ago
  "compromisotron" :) well said.
- dkarl 15y ago
  Apple gets to sell more devices This is Apple's top priority, so you're probably right. It assumes way too much about having a working internet connection, though[+]. When I'm reading a book or a movie and decide to switch to a different form factor, I don't want it to take a bunch of fiddling just to get back to where I was. Nor do I want to be stuck without a wireless connection and be stuck unable to download the app or data from one device to another. Without guaranteed communication between devices, they really will be different devices, with all the inconvenience and mental overhead that entails. Apple will have to implement peer-to-peer syncing over bluetooth or over a cable instead of depending on iCloud. [+] I took a trip to Chicago over the weekend, and my 3G connection only worked a handful of times over four days. Coming from a city where AT&T provides excellent 3G service, it was a real shock to be reminded that you can't take connectivity for granted.

by dkarl 15y ago

avdempsey 15y ago

That's actually the whole point of iCloud. You'll have separate devices--screens with an SOC--but they'll all behave just as you describe. Each device pushes your data up to the cloud where it bounces back to the rest. Three reasons why Apple will go this way rather than your transformer approach: -The utility is exactly the same -Each device's hardware will be designed to be itself, rather than a compromisotron -Apple gets to sell more devices

jjtheblunt 15y ago
"compromisotron" :) well said.
dkarl 15y ago
Apple gets to sell more devices This is Apple's top priority, so you're probably right. It assumes way too much about having a working internet connection, though[+]. When I'm reading a book or a movie and decide to switch to a different form factor, I don't want it to take a bunch of fiddling just to get back to where I was. Nor do I want to be stuck without a wireless connection and be stuck unable to download the app or data from one device to another. Without guaranteed communication between devices, they really will be different devices, with all the inconvenience and mental overhead that entails. Apple will have to implement peer-to-peer syncing over bluetooth or over a cable instead of depending on iCloud. [+] I took a trip to Chicago over the weekend, and my 3G connection only worked a handful of times over four days. Coming from a city where AT&T provides excellent 3G service, it was a real shock to be reminded that you can't take connectivity for granted.