Apple gets Patent published today to Use Iphone with Macbook chassis as a computer

[Iamanerd]

I think you're missing the point. Instead of paying for 5 different computing devices, you buy one main machine (phone) and a bunch of cheap shells for different uses. And not to mention everything is stored neatly in one place, in your pocket.

Also I hope you can see where this is headed. Basically a credit card thin phone and will just slide into a laptop shell/ desktop shell/ tablet shell/tv shell.

While I agree things might be headed there in the future, it's still a long ways away, modern computing power paired with battery tech will hold this back for a long time. These phones aren't nearly powerful enough to do any heavy load work like CAD/Adobe/Gaming/Rendering etc., should be fine for simple web stuff and simple office work. Even then it still has it's limitations. Until we have a major breakthrough for battery tech and move away from silicon based CPU's.

[cubby]

Motorola and Asus have already done this, as well as a few others IIRC. Nothing special, and not nearly as useful as you might think

Why did it turn out to be not so useful? And when did they do this?

[Docturphil]

Ok, I see what you're saying. What I'm imaging is a device, call it a phone, that is YOURS. Personalized, perfect settings, blah blah. You take that device and plug it into ANY work station, and it automatically personalizes the work station for your settings, plus, it boosts your computing abilities across the board.

So, for instance, a graduate student at MIT, working on his PhD in engineering, carries around his phone for personal stuff - calls, texts, calendar, games, etc. Then he gets to his class, and he plugs into a work station, that includes a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and increased processing power and internet connectivity (better connection). Does his work, and it's all saved . . . .

Hmmmmm, this would almost have to work in conjunction with cloud computing because of data storage, wouldn't it?

Precisely. You can't make use of storage on a larger device because it's gone when you disconnect from it.

As for combining processing, graphics, and RAM that's a whole other engineering feat that hasn't been done yet AFAIK. And even if you accomplish that it's still going to cost you just as much and probably more if you want your very own device and a "computer dock". The only real advantage would be the convenience of being able to connect it to any other device without having to go through any configuration process.

I can see why people would want it, but I don't see how it's going to revolutionize anything.

[digitalskill987]

Meh who uses Apple

[cubby]

Precisely. You can't make use of storage on a larger device because it's gone when you disconnect from it.

As for combining processing, graphics, and RAM that's a whole other engineering feat that hasn't been done yet AFAIK. And even if you accomplish that it's still going to cost you just as much and probably more if you want your very own device and a "computer dock". The only real advantage would be the convenience of being able to connect it to any other device without having to go through any configuration process.

I can see why people would want it, but I don't see how it's going to revolutionize anything.

I definitely see your point now. Work with me here . . .

What if hard drive tech ramped up quickly - so you could put a 5GB hard drive in a phone?

[Sorshen]

How is it a gamechanger when Asus did this years ago?
Apple + patents = cancer.

[cubby]

Yeah, it's totally impractical to be able to compute even if you have no connection to the internet. Not to mention the phone could be used to access the same remote/cloud computing systems...

There has to be a reason Apple is going after this - either a solution we don't know about or a need we're not aware of. Something is driving this tech - otherwise it wouldn't make sense for Apple to be pursuing it.

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How is it a gamechanger when Asus did this years ago?
Apple + patents = cancer.

Perhaps because years ago it couldn't work. Now, or soon now, it might.

[Ol Scratch]

aka, just another way for Apple to try and make people only use their products. Check.

A USB port works just fine for any and all applications this could possibly be used for -- and it's not limited to one company's products.

Fuck Apple. <spit>

[Hothgor]

So basically, Apple has patented what Motorola did with the Atrix phone nearly 8 years ago...

https://www.amazon.com/AT-Laptop-Doc.../dp/B004M17D62

Looks like another 'innovation' by Apple!!

[ro9ue]

I mean, I don't have access to uninvented technology yet. Whereas the benefits of the internet were pretty obvious, this just seems like an everyday development in about the same way that branching out from smartphones to other smart devices was and not something to get too excited over.

Ok so I guess I'm just wondering why you even bothered to comment in this thread at all then?

[LilSaihah]

Yeah, it's totally impractical to be able to compute even if you have no connection to the internet.

You can even do this over local networks though. Steam in-house streaming is the most immediate example I can think of.

Not to mention the phone could be used to access the same remote/cloud computing systems...

Do you mean communicating on a network which phones are already capable of doing?
Or are you using the phone as a dongle, which they're also already capable of doing?

[cubby]

Less storage in a larger package than a $3 flash drive.

Good thing the larger package does more than a flash drive, eh?

[Docturphil]

I definitely see your point now. Work with me here . . .

What if hard drive tech ramped up quickly - so you could put a 5GB hard drive in a phone?

I'm going to assume you mean 500GB...

Anyways, right now the way storage, processing power, RAM and all that computer shit becomes more powerful is basically by them making it smaller so that they can fit more "switches" in a smaller space. It gets quite a bit more complicated than just that, but that's the gist of it.

With that in mind the only way we'll see a massive jump in computer power in a short time is if they come up with some revolutionary way of computing. Like if they created a quantum transistor or something like that capable of expressing more variables than just off/on.

So let's assume quantum computing becomes a thing. If that happens we're probably looking at being able to store the entire internet on an object the size of an SD card and still have 99% remaining disk space. So yeah, if that happens then the size of the device becomes irrelevant and it'll come down to how big you want your screen to be.

[cubby]

Do you mean communicating on a network which phones are already capable of doing?
Or are you using the phone as a dongle, which they're also already capable of doing?

I believe the idea is to use it far more than a dongle. It would actually be the computer, to some extent, and then a booting device for a larger work station.

[LaserChild9]

This is just another apple gimmick, not a game changer. How does this change anything? So your iphone is now a track pad, awesome, what else does it do that a normal mac book does not? You can connect your phone to a computer as it is with a usb cable or wifi, why would you pay the extortionate price tag that I am sure they will attach to this when you can pay a small amount for a usb cable. Then there's the one where you can put your ipad into it as a screen, there's already an ipad keyboard, why would this even be a thing?

[Machismo]

It's not anything I would want in its current form. I've never been a big fan of Apple products to start, and this doesn't seem to add enough functionality to justify it. In it's current form, it would appear that the iPhone isn't even in a case, which would be problematic. If the laptop becomes nothing more than a modified docking station, then you will possibly be losing performance. If the goal is to trim weight, it may reduce it by a couple ounces, but that would depend on what hardware is actually on the laptop. Would it still maintain system memory, or would both the CPU and on-board memory on the phone be the entire driving force of the laptop. Now, there would almost certainly have to be a GPU on the laptop, which means battery consumption.

[Allybeboba]

The A9 chip is plenty powerful enough to run a desktop OS and there has been speculation that they (Apple) has a version of OSX running on it behind closed doors already. So not a major surprise, but could be interesting.

How "powerful" compared to a PC intel chip? Just curious...

[cubby]

I'm going to assume you mean 500GB...

Anyways, right now the way storage, processing power, RAM and all that computer shit becomes more powerful is basically by them making it smaller so that they can fit more "switches" in a smaller space. It gets quite a bit more complicated than just that, but that's the gist of it.

With that in mind the only way we'll see a massive jump in computer power in a short time is if they come up with some revolutionary way of computing. Like if they created a quantum transistor or something like that capable of expressing more variables than just off/on.

So let's assume quantum computing becomes a thing. If that happens we're probably looking at being able to store the entire internet on an object the size of an SD card and still have 99% remaining disk space. So yeah, if that happens then the size of the device becomes irrelevant and it'll come down to how big you want your screen to be.

Heh, I did - 500GB. Lol.

They are already making solid state hard drives with TB capacity. I imagine those will increase, dramatically, at least for a little while, despite the twilight years of Moore's Law.

Thinking out loud here . . .

Actually, it won't be cloud computing, because huge amounts of data that would have to travel over the interwebs. But then cloud computing would just have all that data and processing power at the other end of the cloud, with your phone accessing it at a work station, right? So maybe it will be personalized devices usable at any work station, with large data available . . .

But that's already a problem with current computers. Any really large amount of data isn't stored on anyone's computer. It's all cloud. So how you access a work station wouldn't affect where the data is kept or accessed, right? If you don't need big data for your work, then the device/work-station is perfect, no cloud needed.

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And less than the devices I already own or have access to, which will work with the $3 flash drive.

Now you're talking about spending less money for the same basic functionality. I'm sure Apple is hoping most others do not.

[LilSaihah]

I believe the idea is to use it far more than a dongle. It would actually be the computer, to some extent, and then a booting device for a larger work station.

I feel this is really vague, big-box sort of stuff. I'm trying to think of a specific circumstance in which you need this and precisely this system in order to use a device that would not be better served used another set of technologies.

The main thing that I can particularly think of is using a specific specialized piece of hardware (not a workstation) which you usually leave unpowered to conserve energy; particularly, I'm thinking of a printer or of a partially-powered device which requires field programming & additional power to perform that field programming. But how are these functions better served by directly attaching the iPhone, rather than using power-by-USB?

Which might imply a dongle. You might want to use this technology because you want to ensure that only iPhones, or a specific iPhone can interact with a specific piece of hardware. The first item is the lazy, easy answer: Apple wants to develop this technology because they want to sucker their customers into buying a bunch of addons that can only be used with an iPhone as a key. The second one could be extremely interesting, but I don't know whether an iPhone operating in such a capacity would be a meaningful improvement over standing security measures.

Yes, I mean phones are already capable of doing the things he describes meaning you could use those same capabilities when docked in a laptop case. And there are times when you don't have local networks. Like when you're on a plane. Or in a car. Or on some trains. Or even if you're out and about in some locations you could be without reception. It's nice to not need a connection to be able to do things with the device.

There are times when you don't have local connections, but these times are still covered by power-by-USB. Unless you're using a retarded proprietary device which can only be charged by a specific means

[cubby]

I feel this is really vague, big-box sort of stuff. I'm trying to think of a specific circumstance in which you need this and precisely this system in order to use a device that would not be better served used another set of technologies.

The main thing that I can particularly think of is using a specific specialized piece of hardware (not a workstation) which you usually leave unpowered to conserve energy; particularly, I'm thinking of a printer or of a partially-powered device which requires field programming & additional power to perform that field programming. But how are these functions better served by directly attaching the iPhone, rather than using power-by-USB?

Which might imply a dongle. You might want to use this technology because you want to ensure that only iPhones, or a specific iPhone can interact with a specific piece of hardware. The first item is the lazy, easy answer: Apple wants to develop this technology because they want to sucker their customers into buying a bunch of addons that can only be used with an iPhone as a key. The second one could be extremely interesting, but I don't know whether an iPhone operating in such a capacity would be a meaningful improvement over standing security measures.

Don't think of the solution as a perfectly technical one. Think of it as a fluidly beautiful one, that also solves the tech and makes Apple a shit-ton of proprietary cash.

This is just one instance - but in an office setting, you log onto your computer, sometimes every time you leave it, and your settings are saved. Your personal settings, along with all the saved sites, your short-cuts, everything that makes that computer yours. Now, if yours breaks, IT gives you another one, and it's fucked. Wrong settings, no saved tabs, blah blah.

The phone-docking-workstation would fix that. Instead of logging in, you would insert your phone. Automatically syncing your personalized settings, everything, and boom, you're good to go.

The power-by-USB doesn't do this, it merely gives you access to your phone while plugged into another device. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, which is entirely possible.