4 ms·

I wanted to like it but it's mostly been a paperweight in the closet for two years now... My problem is ultimately that none of the smartphones I've used or tri

by Jach 2y ago

I wanted to like it but it's mostly been a paperweight in the closet for two years now... My problem is ultimately that none of the smartphones I've used or tried (a few androids and a librem) offer a desktop/laptop experience that's any good. In theory I still like the concept, upgrade a phone every N years but don't have to get a new laptop form factor, but the execution from all sides (even if mostly on the phone sides) isn't there. A few months after being disappointed I got an older Lenovo laptop from ebay that was $100 cheaper and obviously a lot more capable, being a full computer I could throw Mint onto, and have a nicer screen/keyboard as well as a better experience remoting into my home workstation. (NoMachine mostly, though it can also do games via steam's remote streaming or Moonlight/Sunshine. Natively the laptop can run some games but its limits are roughly unreal engine 4 tier on low-to-medium settings.) Since my usage is probably 90-95% on my home desktop, I really just wanted a travel laptop, and it serves that job just fine. More recently I've been impressed with my steam deck's desktop mode that's a fairly no-frills Linux distro, its use of flatpaks everywhere is kind of annoying though. When it's good enough to make a game for steam deck on the steam deck with e.g. godot and blender, it's good enough for a lot of other things. I've been chucking it in with my travel laptop for trips, but one of these times I'm going to have to try just taking it alone with just a mouse and keyboard to complement.

nicoburns 2y ago
It's a crying shame that Apple don't offer a desktop mode on iPhones. The chips are more than powerful enough to give a no-compromises experience (for most use casual use cases at least), the disks are large enough to store 2 OSs, and they have a full desktop OS sitting around ready for use. It'd make it a lot harder to sell macs, but it would be an absolutely killer device.
- jsheard 2y ago
  People have been begging for a real desktop mode on the iPad forever, if Apple won't even do it for a device which uses the same processor as their laptops and even has an official laptop-style keyboard accessory then they're certainly not going to do it for the iPhone.
  - whycome 2y ago
    They’re really going at it from a weird angle. iOS 18 features the ability to screen share your iPhone to your desktop. They seemingly want to make sure you have a main Mac desktop always. I could see Mac doing something like the Surface Book form factor. Basically an iPad MacBook hybrid with more power.
    - gumby 2y ago
      > They seemingly want to make sure you have a main Mac desktop always. I’m willing to believe in this case it’s because they want the Mac to survive. I’m sure every Mac is profitable (in accord with one of Apple’s core values) but Mac sales are pretty tiny compared to other products. Even when Apple fans say “St Stephen would be rolling in his grave if they got rid of the Mac”, he famously said he’d milk the Mac for all it was worth while doing the next thing. Separately, there’s already a ton of writing on why iPad and Mac won’t completely converge
      - 1123581321 2y ago
        Mac, iPad and Home/Wearables all bring in similar revenue. iPhone is the hardware category that dwarfs the rest. Software revenue is roughly equal to Mac/iPad/Wearables combined.
    - iterateoften 2y ago
      With any new technology with apple don’t look at how it is used now but what products it will enable in 3-4 years. The iPhone streaming to Mac is most likely much more about improving AR inthe future than anything to do with Mac. Mac is just an easy platform to get more users using it.
      - theshrike79 2y ago
        This is what people _always_ forget. Just like the new iPhone coming out this year isn't for the people who upgrade every year. It'll feel like a "spec bump". BUT it's for the people whose phone is dropping out of support after 5-7 years of major version upgrades. For them it's a massive leap of performance and features. Just imagine jumping from an iPhone XR to an iPhone 16? Same with the Vision Pro. Apple finally releases a Pro device that's just for Pro(sumer)s and people complain it's too expensive. It's the first version, they see what 3rd party devs can and want to do with it and release a new one. There's a rumoured patent about headphones with an external camera for hand tracking, which is a clear evolution of the one in the Vision Pro.
- wraptile 2y ago
  Apple will never cannibalize themselves like this. There isn't event multi user support on iPad which would be something trivial to do and everyone know ipad is a family device yet here we are.
  - sitkack 2y ago
    Apple should be forced to enable multiuser on iPad and iPhone.
    - carlosjobim 2y ago
      Or you're going to kick their asses?
      - sitkack 2y ago
        Let's do this! Next time Jon Stewart talks to Lina Khan, they discuss enabling the multiuser support in all the Apple OSes. Lina then does discovery against Apple where it turns out that product managers inside of apple have been trying to do this for years, esp in markets where a device per person doesn't work, but a shared device would. Bootlicking MBAs say that news of this would get back to high margin markets and rich families would be pissed because they just bought ipads (baby sitters) for all their children. While we are at it, once a device goes out of support, it should be fully unlocked for the user with sufficient documentation so that alternative OSes can be installed. The hardware that is my gen1 iPad still functions perfectly.
- kingkongjaffa 2y ago
  I love having different devices for different things. Macbook pro for coding and designing in figma and light gaming, web browsing iPad mini for reading, travelling, sketching with apple pencil. iPhone for doing phone things. Sure I buy 3 devices (4 if you count apple watch) but they last several years and have decent resale value.
  - diffeomorphism 2y ago
    I dislike having to charge 3 or 4 different things. Also the sync is far from seamless, e.g. to annotate a pdf from the laptop, I have to send it to the tablet, annotate, then send it back. Same reason I am not carrying a point-and-shoot, a phone, a navigation system and a pda. Same reason I use a laptop instead of multiple desktop computers. Related question: on the pixel phones you could just run full windows in a VM, but for other devices it was "coming soon". What happened to that? I don't need convergence right now, if I can just run the desktop OS in a VM.
    - moneywoes 2y ago
      When? Never heard of this
      - diffeomorphism 2y ago
        Not that hard to google, touted with android 13 e.g. https://www.xda-developers.com/android-13-dp1-google-pixel-6-kvm-virtual-machine/ https://www.xda-developers.com/android-13-dp1-google-pixel-6...
- Bluestein 2y ago
  I am thinking Apple would not want to cannibalize some lower end notebook sales ...
- beAbU 2y ago
  "Just buy an iPad/Mac" - Tim Cook probably.
rchaud 2y ago
Samsung Dex is incredible, I use it with a lapdock the way I would a real laptop. Multiple windows on screen, Kb shortcuts to navigate, plus drag and drop functionality with a mouse that is unheard of in regular Android.
akira2501 2y ago
Meanwhile my NUC fits in my back pocket.
- Hamuko 2y ago
  Those are some large back pockets. I'm thankful that my preferred model of jeans has pockets deep enough for an iPhone 14 Pro.
  - akira2501 2y ago
    4" x 4" x 1.5". Or, if it's your fancy approximately, 100mm x 100mm x 40mm.
- antifa 2y ago
  A device with the NUC's power and size that could have it's own battery (if external, not too huge) would be awesome.
  - hollerith 2y ago
    I've always wanted a small battery in my mini PC so I could move it from place to place without a reboot of the OS. If I had that, I probably wouldn't also get a battery-powered monitors, so I'd still need electricity to interact with the mini PC.
  - MrMember 2y ago
    This sort of fits the bill, even has its own screen. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807111740362.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807111740362.html It's running a painfully weak N100 though.
- 650REDHAIR 2y ago
  Which model? Would you recommend?
jeroenhd 2y ago
Has one of those Androids been capable of running Samsung Dex? I've used it on my tablet (without an external screen) with a USB dongle and I found it surprisingly competent for a lot of desktop work, if I weren't for the lack of RAM in my device.
- Jach 2y ago
  Yes, though my current phone is a red magic 8 pro, so no DeX (or other things, good and bad). I wasn't really impressed like another comment, but admittedly I didn't spend too much time trying it since it wasn't my phone that had DeX. Though I still think I got enough data. On android, the biggest issue for me is probably the android apps themselves, what's effectively a glorified launcher that's still not quite there is a side issue. I know some people have managed to root their phones and get some sort of real linux on there (emulated?) but the actual experiences when you dig into it don't sound that great (i.e. very bad performance).
  - jeroenhd 2y ago
    I see. I don't have that many problems with apps anymore now that Google is trying to push the tablet market again. Samsung used to support running real Linux instead of Dex but that project was cancelled unfortunately. I don't have many problems with modern Android Dex, though, at least not ones that I also have with Windows on laptops.
fsflover 2y ago
Depending on your typical tasks, convergence can work fine today: https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/ https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/
- Jach 2y ago
  Yeah, I'm glad some people are able to live the dream. Not for me though, the issues being terribly obsolete hardware leading to poor performance and also terrible feature parity on phone-side table stakes. I should boot and fully update my librem to see how things have progressed, it's been another paperweight in the closet. Honestly while I could rant about it, this thread's not really the place, and I'm actually not all that disappointed anyway because from the time when I pre-ordered it I convinced myself to treat it more like a donation to the cause and have zero expectations for anything personally useful to come out of it.

by Jach 2y ago

nicoburns 2y ago

It's a crying shame that Apple don't offer a desktop mode on iPhones. The chips are more than powerful enough to give a no-compromises experience (for most use casual use cases at least), the disks are large enough to store 2 OSs, and they have a full desktop OS sitting around ready for use. It'd make it a lot harder to sell macs, but it would be an absolutely killer device.

jsheard 2y ago
People have been begging for a real desktop mode on the iPad forever, if Apple won't even do it for a device which uses the same processor as their laptops and even has an official laptop-style keyboard accessory then they're certainly not going to do it for the iPhone.
- whycome 2y ago
  They’re really going at it from a weird angle. iOS 18 features the ability to screen share your iPhone to your desktop. They seemingly want to make sure you have a main Mac desktop always. I could see Mac doing something like the Surface Book form factor. Basically an iPad MacBook hybrid with more power.
  - gumby 2y ago
    > They seemingly want to make sure you have a main Mac desktop always. I’m willing to believe in this case it’s because they want the Mac to survive. I’m sure every Mac is profitable (in accord with one of Apple’s core values) but Mac sales are pretty tiny compared to other products. Even when Apple fans say “St Stephen would be rolling in his grave if they got rid of the Mac”, he famously said he’d milk the Mac for all it was worth while doing the next thing. Separately, there’s already a ton of writing on why iPad and Mac won’t completely converge
    - 1123581321 2y ago
      Mac, iPad and Home/Wearables all bring in similar revenue. iPhone is the hardware category that dwarfs the rest. Software revenue is roughly equal to Mac/iPad/Wearables combined.
  - iterateoften 2y ago
    With any new technology with apple don’t look at how it is used now but what products it will enable in 3-4 years. The iPhone streaming to Mac is most likely much more about improving AR inthe future than anything to do with Mac. Mac is just an easy platform to get more users using it.
    - theshrike79 2y ago
      This is what people _always_ forget. Just like the new iPhone coming out this year isn't for the people who upgrade every year. It'll feel like a "spec bump". BUT it's for the people whose phone is dropping out of support after 5-7 years of major version upgrades. For them it's a massive leap of performance and features. Just imagine jumping from an iPhone XR to an iPhone 16? Same with the Vision Pro. Apple finally releases a Pro device that's just for Pro(sumer)s and people complain it's too expensive. It's the first version, they see what 3rd party devs can and want to do with it and release a new one. There's a rumoured patent about headphones with an external camera for hand tracking, which is a clear evolution of the one in the Vision Pro.
wraptile 2y ago
Apple will never cannibalize themselves like this. There isn't event multi user support on iPad which would be something trivial to do and everyone know ipad is a family device yet here we are.
- sitkack 2y ago
  Apple should be forced to enable multiuser on iPad and iPhone.
  - carlosjobim 2y ago
    Or you're going to kick their asses?
    - sitkack 2y ago
      Let's do this! Next time Jon Stewart talks to Lina Khan, they discuss enabling the multiuser support in all the Apple OSes. Lina then does discovery against Apple where it turns out that product managers inside of apple have been trying to do this for years, esp in markets where a device per person doesn't work, but a shared device would. Bootlicking MBAs say that news of this would get back to high margin markets and rich families would be pissed because they just bought ipads (baby sitters) for all their children. While we are at it, once a device goes out of support, it should be fully unlocked for the user with sufficient documentation so that alternative OSes can be installed. The hardware that is my gen1 iPad still functions perfectly.
kingkongjaffa 2y ago
I love having different devices for different things. Macbook pro for coding and designing in figma and light gaming, web browsing iPad mini for reading, travelling, sketching with apple pencil. iPhone for doing phone things. Sure I buy 3 devices (4 if you count apple watch) but they last several years and have decent resale value.
- diffeomorphism 2y ago
  I dislike having to charge 3 or 4 different things. Also the sync is far from seamless, e.g. to annotate a pdf from the laptop, I have to send it to the tablet, annotate, then send it back. Same reason I am not carrying a point-and-shoot, a phone, a navigation system and a pda. Same reason I use a laptop instead of multiple desktop computers. Related question: on the pixel phones you could just run full windows in a VM, but for other devices it was "coming soon". What happened to that? I don't need convergence right now, if I can just run the desktop OS in a VM.
  - moneywoes 2y ago
    When? Never heard of this
    - diffeomorphism 2y ago
      Not that hard to google, touted with android 13 e.g. https://www.xda-developers.com/android-13-dp1-google-pixel-6-kvm-virtual-machine/ https://www.xda-developers.com/android-13-dp1-google-pixel-6...
Bluestein 2y ago
I am thinking Apple would not want to cannibalize some lower end notebook sales ...
beAbU 2y ago
"Just buy an iPad/Mac" - Tim Cook probably.

rchaud 2y ago

Samsung Dex is incredible, I use it with a lapdock the way I would a real laptop. Multiple windows on screen, Kb shortcuts to navigate, plus drag and drop functionality with a mouse that is unheard of in regular Android.

akira2501 2y ago

Meanwhile my NUC fits in my back pocket.

Hamuko 2y ago
Those are some large back pockets. I'm thankful that my preferred model of jeans has pockets deep enough for an iPhone 14 Pro.
- akira2501 2y ago
  4" x 4" x 1.5". Or, if it's your fancy approximately, 100mm x 100mm x 40mm.
antifa 2y ago
A device with the NUC's power and size that could have it's own battery (if external, not too huge) would be awesome.
- hollerith 2y ago
  I've always wanted a small battery in my mini PC so I could move it from place to place without a reboot of the OS. If I had that, I probably wouldn't also get a battery-powered monitors, so I'd still need electricity to interact with the mini PC.
- MrMember 2y ago
  This sort of fits the bill, even has its own screen. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807111740362.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807111740362.html It's running a painfully weak N100 though.
650REDHAIR 2y ago
Which model? Would you recommend?

jeroenhd 2y ago

Has one of those Androids been capable of running Samsung Dex? I've used it on my tablet (without an external screen) with a USB dongle and I found it surprisingly competent for a lot of desktop work, if I weren't for the lack of RAM in my device.

Jach 2y ago
Yes, though my current phone is a red magic 8 pro, so no DeX (or other things, good and bad). I wasn't really impressed like another comment, but admittedly I didn't spend too much time trying it since it wasn't my phone that had DeX. Though I still think I got enough data. On android, the biggest issue for me is probably the android apps themselves, what's effectively a glorified launcher that's still not quite there is a side issue. I know some people have managed to root their phones and get some sort of real linux on there (emulated?) but the actual experiences when you dig into it don't sound that great (i.e. very bad performance).
- jeroenhd 2y ago
  I see. I don't have that many problems with apps anymore now that Google is trying to push the tablet market again. Samsung used to support running real Linux instead of Dex but that project was cancelled unfortunately. I don't have many problems with modern Android Dex, though, at least not ones that I also have with Windows on laptops.

fsflover 2y ago

Depending on your typical tasks, convergence can work fine today: https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/ https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/

Jach 2y ago
Yeah, I'm glad some people are able to live the dream. Not for me though, the issues being terribly obsolete hardware leading to poor performance and also terrible feature parity on phone-side table stakes. I should boot and fully update my librem to see how things have progressed, it's been another paperweight in the closet. Honestly while I could rant about it, this thread's not really the place, and I'm actually not all that disappointed anyway because from the time when I pre-ordered it I convinced myself to treat it more like a donation to the cause and have zero expectations for anything personally useful to come out of it.