

NexPhone: One device to rule them all - tapan_pandita
http://www.indiegogo.com/nexphone

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brittohalloran
Do _not_ sink your money into this vaporware (it's a flexible funding
campaign, so he gets _any_ money that is pledged, even if he doesn't hit the
goal). There's a reason why the Apples / Samsungs / Motorolas / Sonys of the
world have hundreds of people working on new phones. This single dude doesn't
have a prayer in the world of pulling this off.

The two red flags:

    
    
        1. No functional device. Just some renders and a physical block of aluminum with glass over it.
        2. No "here's my team of 50 people with loads of experience"

~~~
mitchellhislop
3\. Motorola tried this EXACT play with the Atrix, and it was a disaster.

~~~
MartinCron
It's too say that this _concept_ is flawed, because the Atrix execution was
messed up on so many levels.

Personally, I think that any "problem" this tries to solve will be better
handled in software. With iCloud, you can already work with (some) data
seamlessly on multiple devices, that experience will only get better.

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potatolicious
Every time I see a project like this I'm inspired to create a Kickstarter to
bring cold fusion to the world.

Seriously guys, I'm an experienced software engineer with "a strong team in
various backgrounds", this totally means I can pull off cold fusion, right?

My experience in the software services space certainly increases my
credibility in the massive-power-generation-hardware space.

Sigh.

I think there should be a new de facto rule: at least half of your
Kickstarter/Indiegogo/whatever page needs to be about you, your team, and why
you think you can pull this off, and why we should regard you as anything
other than ambitious, clueless, inexperienced, and tackling someone _way_
above your level.

~~~
brittohalloran
OR -- have an actual working prototype where you just need money for
production tooling

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vesky
Sooo... basically the Asus Padfone but without the comfort of being made by a
renowned hardware manufacturer and the nice feeling you have knowing it
actually exists and you can buy it.

I see a bright future for this product[idea] indeed!... /s

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jiggy2011
This has all the trappings of something that sounds like a good idea in theory
but will most likely falter in the marketplace.

Considering how cheap you can get a laptop or tablet these days with a much
faster CPU, more memory etc than a smartphone.

Also considering that it's going to be a pain in the ass to go around
hooking/unhooking your phone from every device that you want to use. The
software for each device is likely to need to be different too or provide a
farily sub-par experience, leading to a lot of confusion.

Also , if you lose your phone you're not just losing your phone but also the
brains behind all your other devices.

~~~
MartinCron
It reminds me of the Amphicar. It was both a car and a boat! What a great
idea! Only it wasn't a very good car, and it wasn't a very good boat.

This project seems to want to be a car + boat + airplane + truck.

~~~
jiggy2011
It's probably worse than that. It's more like saying "hey, you have a
motorcycle, here's a trailer that adds a row of seats so you can use it as a
car. And here's another trailer that you can add to turn it into a haulage
vehicle."

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mikemoka
This will never work well because of a very simple fact, the phone experience,
still one of the main aspect considered nowadays when purchasing a phone,
would be seriously diminished when the phone is docked because you would have
to use a bluetooth headset to answer the calls and it would be impossible to
see who is calling you if you move away from the docked phone for a minute,
because you won't probably carry a laptop around or because you probably won't
take the time to remove the phone from the dock to light up a cigarette.

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elboru
I'm not sure if this will be the best solution for the problem. But I do
belive that in some point we'll have a sort of device like this one.

Must of us (pragmatic programmers, hackers, entrepreneurs) are always looking
for resource efficiency, we're always looking for DRY. The way we manage our
devices is broken, why do I need to install 4 times every single app in my
ipad, android phone, PC and laptop? Why do I need 4 different processors, why
do I need RAM distributed through all my devices?

I think this is a great idea, and we hackers would love it. But this solution
may have some downsides though. I think there must be a single OS for both PC
and Mobile, it just should change its interface, and I'm not sure if the power
of my phone would be enough for a PC experience yet, anyways I hope this idea
come to reality soon!

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mdonahoe
Even if this guy was legit and the product worked as advertised, I still think
it is a terrible idea.

Having multiple devices is useful. If they need to shared data, do it
wireslessly, or through the cloud.

Otherwise I have these empty husks lying around my house that are useless
without my phone.

The motorola atrix "lapdock" is a similar product idea. It is 78% on sale on
amazon. I hated it the moment I saw it.

[http://www.amazon.com/AT-Laptop-Dock-Motorola-
ATRIX/dp/B004M...](http://www.amazon.com/AT-Laptop-Dock-Motorola-
ATRIX/dp/B004M17D62)

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eitally
The only thing interesting about this to me is that they are going to finally
try and force Canonical's hand at making Ubuntu for Android a reality. It's
already tempting to leave the laptop at home when traveling for business, but
there are always a couple of times when I'd be dead in the water if all I had
was Android itself. Theoretically I could RDC/SSH into a remote PC, but that's
a pita when all you need to do is make a couple of edits on a document or
perform a similarly minor function.

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MattBearman
I'm concerned about the laptop mounting design. If you were using the laptop
in a public place, what's to stop someone swiping the phone from the back of
the screen and running?

~~~
mediocregopher
When you prop up an ipad on it's corrugated cover-case thing and use a
bluetooth keyboard with it, what's to stop the same?

(Not hating on ipads, just saying this is not a problem that's been "figured
out")

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kiallmacinnes
Have all the specs been left out or am I missing something? .. Anyway -
ignoring that!

Interestingly the Perks/Rewards for this are a departure from what other
KickStarter and Indiegogo campaigns have offered... Even the highest level
($10,000) doesn't seem to "buy" you a phone..

~~~
bbayer
Agreed. I also didn't see any planned release date.

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jsz0
I think they should ditch the idea of docking devices and just focus on making
good low power / inexpensive computers. If you're already paying for the
screen, battery, enclosure, etc why not just throw in the cheap SoC and make
it a standalone device?

~~~
tapsboy
I would like to see it taken a step further. While devices could have SoC to
act standalone, Operating Systems should be able to utilize both the SoCs (the
one on host Device and one on the docked device) to expand its computing
power, besides sharing state and data

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egknight
I can't imagine it costs less than $1 million to bring this concept to reality
with all these options. How much did Apple spend on development of the first
iPhone?

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IanDrake
The wrong edges are rounded :(

~~~
freehunter
Also the screen sticks out of the front of the phone in a design that looks
ready to snag everything: the inside of your pocket, the corner of your ear,
the webbing between your fingers. That looks seriously painful, and I can see
the screen getting hit from the side and shattering/chipping.

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tvon
What if you get a phone call while you're on the computer?

~~~
MartinCron
Presumably you answer it via speakerphone? I would expect (in a real product,
not this) that the laptop and monitor shells would have speakers and
microphones so the whole setup could be a phone.

It's not that different from your iPhone ringing during a game of Plants vs.
Zombies.

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rjv
I have no issues with syncing my stuff across devices. Works quite well,
actually.

And "NexPhone"? Really? Nexus + iPhone. Quite original.

~~~
imperialWicket
It's still not original, but one might assume that a native English speaker
elected to combine "Next" and "Phone" - two somewhat common-place terms that
appropriately define his concept.

But you are right, Apple would probably sue him for use of their term
"[i]Phone".

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programminggeek
This is not a terrible idea, but it feels like a hugely niche product.
Motorola has tried this already with the Atrix and it has yet to take off.
Maybe Ubuntu will fix that, but I am not so sure. If this is a good phone
experience and a crappy PC experience, nobody is going to care. This needs to
be both a great phone and a great PC. Otherwise it's just a phone.

Also, why is this not using Kickstarter? It seems like Kickstarter is "the
place" to raise money for something like this, so it's likely that it won't
raise as much money as it could just because of the site they're using.

~~~
SoapSeller

      Flexible Funding campaign
      This campaign will receive all of the funds contributed by Sat Nov 10 at 11:59PM PT.
    

Also, Kickstarter seems to work best when you offer the actual product as a
perk.

I don't believe that there is even a remote possibility of this being more
than a vaporware. Even if they get to their goal. The amount of money isn't
enough for producing a smartphone in today's situation(patents & all that
jazz).

