3 ms·

The tablet/phone/PC dynamic is artificial. A computer is a computer. We already see the prototypes of the computer of the future, which is a smartphone you can

The tablet/phone/PC dynamic is artificial. A computer is a computer. We already see the prototypes of the computer of the future, which is a smartphone you can plug into a dock with keyboard/mouse/screen and use as a PC.

protomyth 15y ago
I can sorta go with a tablet being a general purpose computer, but my phone has to be a phone first. I really cannot have it not work as a phone. One too many ND winters as a youth being stupid and stuck in a car waiting for someone to drive by taught me that.
- Kadin 15y ago
  I'd agree with you if you'd replace "phone" with "communications device." I'm not convinced that voice calls will remain the dominant interpersonal communication medium once we're a (human) generation into ubiquitous smartphone deployment. Anecdotally, I'm sure we all know people who just use their "phone" as an email/SMS platform, and I could easily imagine a near future where palmtop devices primarily do various forms of text messaging, and then additional addons (perhaps a headset and a voice plan) are required to make voice calls over the legacy PSTN.
justincormack 15y ago
Why? Computers are really cheap, and everything is in the cloud. Why do I need to plug a smartphone in? Any screen soon will probably have a smartphone class CPU in it. For that matter keyboards could too at little cost... Arguably a tablet is just a prototype screen with a smartphone CPU.
- lukeschlather 15y ago
  In a perfect world every device would sort of be a general-purpose GPU/CPU hybrid that you can chain via an optical link like Intel's Thunderbolt. In the real world, no two devices are going to be compatible because every manufacturer is shipping an embedded OS with a locked bootloader that doesn't run the program you need to read your data. So you have to plug your smartphone in because you have no idea what OS is running on the monitor.

protomyth 15y ago

I can sorta go with a tablet being a general purpose computer, but my phone has to be a phone first. I really cannot have it not work as a phone. One too many ND winters as a youth being stupid and stuck in a car waiting for someone to drive by taught me that.

Kadin 15y ago
I'd agree with you if you'd replace "phone" with "communications device." I'm not convinced that voice calls will remain the dominant interpersonal communication medium once we're a (human) generation into ubiquitous smartphone deployment. Anecdotally, I'm sure we all know people who just use their "phone" as an email/SMS platform, and I could easily imagine a near future where palmtop devices primarily do various forms of text messaging, and then additional addons (perhaps a headset and a voice plan) are required to make voice calls over the legacy PSTN.

justincormack 15y ago

Why? Computers are really cheap, and everything is in the cloud. Why do I need to plug a smartphone in? Any screen soon will probably have a smartphone class CPU in it. For that matter keyboards could too at little cost... Arguably a tablet is just a prototype screen with a smartphone CPU.

lukeschlather 15y ago
In a perfect world every device would sort of be a general-purpose GPU/CPU hybrid that you can chain via an optical link like Intel's Thunderbolt. In the real world, no two devices are going to be compatible because every manufacturer is shipping an embedded OS with a locked bootloader that doesn't run the program you need to read your data. So you have to plug your smartphone in because you have no idea what OS is running on the monitor.