
Maru turns Android smartphones into portable PCs - dmitrygr
http://maruos.com/#/
======
bjackman
This is a great idea, and well pitched, but it's not the first time I've seen
it. Therefore it all comes down to _execution_. Since there's no real
technical info or even an explaination of who's making it and why (is it a
commercial thing? What's the business angle?), it feels pretty pointless.

If it ever does appear as more than a product pitch, I'll be really keen to
find out more. But for now it just seems like someone's put the cart (a
beautiful website) in front of the horse (an actual product)!

~~~
Netcob
Under "Features":

> If you can dream it, you can do it.

Yes, the website has giant images and minimalism and everything that's all the
rage recently, but in the end all it does is make me scroll endlessly and hunt
for the tiniest bits of information. There are multiple full-screen-spaces
that only show fancy monitors and marketing speak.

I really like the idea of this small computing device that basically turns
into whatever you need it to be, but I'm still not sure about what's the use
case exactly with phones that turn into desktop PCs. I could have a big screen
and bluetooth peripherals at home, fine. But when I'm traveling there's no way
to know where I'll be able to switch to "desktop mode" again. At the hotel,
hoping I can attach my HDMI cable to the wall-mounted TV? At a friend's house
- and then what, maybe they only have a laptop or they'd rather not have me
rip out their cables and use their monitor. At work where I don't get to use
my own hardware?

I think that ASUS Transformer concept makes more sense on the hardware side. I
remember this one device where you'd have a phone, put it into a tablet, and
then attach a keyboard effectively turning it into a laptop.

The only interesting thing about this is exactly what you said, the execution.
It's a custom Android (with Debian added to it somehow... containerized
maybe?) so they'll either need to make their own hardware or partner up with
someone. Or maybe it's just someone's Android custom ROM project.

~~~
ekianjo
The upcoming Pyra Handheld is addressing some of these issues. It runs Desktop
Linux by default, and can connect to an HDMI display to benefit from larger
screens. At the same time, you should be able to boot ANdroid on it if you
prefer an OS made for a small form factor. All in a single device equipped
with a keyboard. It's certainly not perfect, but it's getting close to what I
want to do when I am on the move.

------
ytjohn
This looks like a concept based around Debian Chroot. There are several apps
on the app store that will install a copy of debian in a chroot inside of
android, and then when it boots, you can connect to the desktop via vnc.

Here's one app called "Complete Linux Installer" (looks outdated) that does
this: [https://goo.gl/5ryu5x](https://goo.gl/5ryu5x)

It certainly works, though there has definitely been limitations caused by the
speed of the hardware and the latency that vnc introduces. I've never tried
this on an external monitor and external input devices. There's also a gap
because you need a separate vnc client.

Maru, if it exists, seems to work off the same concept, but with some polish.
They have an install of Debian that can run on your phone. The Maru app will
run in the background and detect when an external display is connected. This
tells it to spin up the debian OS. Then it must do something to connect to
debian's desktop (vnc, nomachine, or proprietary solution), and output that
solely to the secondary screen.

This last bit seems the most magical to me (and probably device dependent),
but then again, my experience with android and secondary displays is somewhat
limited to the mirroring that happens when you attach a monitor. Alternatively
is the chromecast concept where your app turns into a control and the content
is sent to the chromecast. Maybe the concept of running an app entirely on a
second display is a native android concept these days.

~~~
ferbivore
Looks like there's a Presentation class [1] for activities meant to run on a
second display. Also see [2], a presentation about it that mentions HDMI
displays explicitly.

[1]:
[http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Presentat...](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Presentation.html)

[2]: [http://www.slideshare.net/ph0b/develop-for-miracast-on-
andro...](http://www.slideshare.net/ph0b/develop-for-miracast-on-android)

------
m0dest
The key innovation in Windows Phone's "Continuum" feature is that the desktop
is just another view into the phone. You can access the same exact apps and
user data - browser, mail, calendar, messaging, etc. - and switch back and
forth without losing state. In that world, a phone with KVM support doesn't
just save you from owning a PC; it saves you from having to keep track of a
different set of installed apps, setting up accounts, preferences, and state
(currently open tabs, documents, etc.)

I'd welcome something like that for Android, especially as Google is
experimenting with support for windowed Android apps with mouse support.

Unfortunately, Maru is not that. It appears to only run X11 apps on the
desktop, and only Android apps on the phone. I don't think there's enough
value in that. It has the inconveniences of needing to dock/undock your phone
_plus_ all of the hassle of having to maintain 2 separate sets of apps,
settings, and state.

~~~
gnarbarian
That is pretty strange considering it would be trivial to set up an android
emulator in the pc app and run everything the phone can.

~~~
iwwr
But very very slowly.

~~~
gnarbarian
Slowly is infinitely faster than not at all.

------
BHSPitMonkey
This looks like what Ubuntu had set out to do several years ago but never
delivered on. The screenshots seem to be showing actual desktop Linux
applications, so I guess there's an X (or Wayland) server being fired up,
which is pretty sweet; I dig the idea of having access to "real" tools without
having my own PC or booting to USB.

Oddly though, despite this being a distribution of Linux and Android, it seems
like it's aiming for a commercial/closed-source release. I wonder how that's
going to work?

~~~
stcredzero
_This looks like what Ubuntu had set out to do several years ago but never
delivered on._

Also looks like something that OQO had in mind over a decade and a half ago.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO)

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
looks like what Motorola delivered on 5 years ago:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Atrix_4G#Webtop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Atrix_4G#Webtop)

(despite negative reviews, I had one when it came out and plugged it into hdmi
monitor or webtop to use like a computer quite often...although primarily
useful for watching netflix on big screen and browsing internet.)

~~~
frozenport
It cost more then a Netbook. What the heck were they thinking!

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
you don't have to have to buy the webtop inorder to use the hdmi output, which
will convert into a desktop (I think I had to use a custom rom, though). I
can't blame them for trying to make money and being innovative.

Although, I would have liked a generic standardized keyboardscreen interface
so could use any hdmi+usb cellphone with any keyboardscreen.

------
dengnan
Here is a similar product from Motorola several years ago:

[http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Android-
Phone/dp/B00...](http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Android-
Phone/dp/B004KZP4BQ)

And there's a laptop dock sold separately

[http://www.amazon.com/AT-Laptop-Motorola-Retail-
Packaging/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/AT-Laptop-Motorola-Retail-
Packaging/dp/B004M17D62)

I had the phone but had never used the dock. Not sure about the experience,
but it's a cool idea to me.

~~~
ccozan
I had the Atrix , stiil have, is running great ( but slow ) with the lapdock.

Idea is absolutelly great, HW reall OK, but in software was never completly
done. It felt like was more like a PoC.

I was pretty dissapointed by Motorola not following this idea. It was kind of
ahead of time.

Like others commented, very few phones have a HDMI interface.

------
tonydiv
What type of user would want this?

It could be interesting in a school setting or maybe in the developing world.
However, the product seems a bit paradoxical: use your phone as your main/only
device, but meanwhile, you have a monitor available to use.

Most people who only own phones probably don't own monitors, right? A mini
projector seems more inline with the "mobile only" use case since monitors
aren't portable.

~~~
pedalpete
My guess is that one-day, everybody. Today, not so much.

What is the difference between your laptop, desktop and phone? Mostly it's
screen resolution and the apps that run on them.

I'm sure at one point somebody was asking "why would I want to plug my laptop
into a monitor?"

Eventually, the technology disappears and it just becomes different I/O.

All your apps, all your contacts, all your content in one place. No matter
what monitor you sit in front of, it is YOUR computer. Not signing in under
this account or that account, it just goes with you.

I believe the technology still has a way to go. This is for early adopters
now.

~~~
203993
It's largely thermal limits. I use a docking station connected to two monitors
for my laptop at work. It's mobile when I need it to be mobile. It's
stationary when I need it to be stationary. But it's not powerful (CPU
performance) when I need it to be powerful unless I sacrifice mobility
entirely like a desktop.

~~~
eb0la
There are also some problems with the battery. If you run enough apps on an
android phone, it won't be able to charge the battery. Also people doesn't
like their mobile phone to be hot.

~~~
pedalpete
I'd suggest it is likely that most peripherals that you connect your phone to
will have their own power source which charges your phone, rather than using
your phone as the power source.

------
canthonytucci
I like this idea, but the pedant in me is annoyed that they chose an apple LED
Cinema/Thunderbolt Display lookalike for their promo images.

This display is one of the few mainstream monitors one can not just plug an
HDMI cable into.

It is easy to go MiniDP/DP/Thunderbolt -> HDMI but not the other way around.

Using anything but a display port source on it requires an expensive adapter.

------
opus
Download and try: [http://maruos.com/#/hardware](http://maruos.com/#/hardware)

~~~
e12e
From the front page it says python and gcc is included, but I don't see
anything about the gcc (or python, but python isn't gpl) source on their legal
page:

[http://maruos.com/#/legal](http://maruos.com/#/legal)

Did anyone have a look? Do they distribute the kernel, or run on top of
Android? At a glance it _appears_ they're playing a bit loose with the
licenses - but maybe they have a link/offer of source in the download?

~~~
pritambaral
Desktop software are unmodified, and can be access via `apt-get source` on the
desktop.

That's what they say on thei rlegal page.

------
KirinDave
So... I know not a lot of people know about this but... Microsoft is already
doing this really, really well. And their execution of it, while early, is at
least competitive with most Ubuntu mobile efforts I've seen.

I mean, I know there is an open source argument and I get that, but...
Continuum is a really neat feature and if nothing else deserves at least a
little recognition).

------
osipovas
What cable do I buy to connect my Nexus 5 to an HDMI port? I feel that should
be mentioned on the website. Will this do it:

[http://www.amazon.com/Fosmon-Slimport-Micro-Female-
Adapter/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Fosmon-Slimport-Micro-Female-
Adapter/dp/B00GU4QUWC)

~~~
pdsouza
Any slimport adapter should work. This one works well
[http://amzn.com/B00HFYLR4M](http://amzn.com/B00HFYLR4M)

------
anonbanker
About damn time this happened. I've been wanting to have my users ditch PC's
for a while. Getting them to Dock a phone into a keyboard/monitor will make my
life tons easier.

Anyone know if you can wipe debian and stick another distro on it? I have a
fetish for gentoo, but chromiumOS would be cool too.

------
ninguem2
Does it actually exist?

------
nashashmi
I was thinking about this the other day. Sure Maru is a version of Microsoft
continuum for android, but I wish there was a different implementation of this
concept.

I wish that when I plug in my Android to my computer using a usb cable, I get
a popup on my computer for the desktop version of the Android operating
system.

Had MS implemented this, Continuum would have been far more relevant. Because
as of now, you need far too much new hardware to make it work. Maru is also
the same thing.

------
sargas
This is a great idea to be exploring even though, as a developer, I think this
just some fancy tech that has almost no use. Like already noted in a another
comment, if you are on the go the phone can't replace a laptop.

However, it becomes more exciting to experiment different things with a
versatile phone running Maru or something similar.

What would really like to see are tablets running non-Android linux, and iPads
with OSX instead of iOS.

------
contingencies
Regular compute-heavy desktop/server software is generally unsuited to mobile
execution. Power efficiency and are speed greatly improved by offloading to
GPUs. If one of these projects does take off at some point, I wouldn't be
surprised to see a greater portion of the FOSS software stack being adapted
for GPU-based execution.

------
norea-armozel
Am I the only one that thinks the real solution may be to divorce the data
itself from the device? I'm not saying make it all remote terminal but at
least make the contents (data) the thing which is in a fully standardized
format that can be easily shared and synced.

------
m3mnoch
personally, i'd rather see it combined with something like the casetop.
basically, an all-in-one monitor, keyboard, and battery charger.

[http://livi-design.ca/](http://livi-design.ca/)

...but, with much better industrial design.

------
abrowne
I like the idea of one personal computer, so as not to have to deal with
syncing, but for this to work for me they'd need to offer a laptop dock, since
I don't even have a desk at home to put a monitor on, not to mention the
monitor itself!

------
Ezhik
The problem is the absolute disconnect between the 'desktop' and 'phone'
parts. Maybe if this was more akin to Remix OS in that it used tablet apps, it
could have been a better experience.

------
valdiorn
Ok, can someone please explain to me how I connect an hdmi monitor to my
phone? Because they sort of glossed over that part where no phone I've ever
seen has an hdmi connector.

~~~
obsurveyor
Some devices have a connector that supports SlimPort(aka MyDP) cables which
allow you to connect to an HDMI display. You can see a list as well as get
more info here:

[http://www.slimportconnect.com/slimport-supported-
devices/](http://www.slimportconnect.com/slimport-supported-devices/)

------
idle_zealot
Doesn't Ubuntu Mobile do this? Though I suppose it's app environment on the
mobile side of things leaves much to be desired.

------
uberstuber
Can you charge while plugged in to a monitor?

~~~
mikepavone
MyDP/Slimport adapters typically have a Micro-USB port to allow you to connect
a charger, so yes.

------
m52go
Isn't this the same concept as Microsoft's Continuum?

As it's been noted, there are a handful of other projects like this, so I
don't mean to say it isn't special. But a big criticism for Continuum is that
it's practically not very useful...when are you ever going to have your phone,
monitor, and keyboard available but _not_ a laptop?

What's a practical use for these things?

~~~
girvo
> _What 's a practical use for these things? _

While it doesn't seem aimed at this market: there are a gigantic amount of
people in developing countries that have a smartphone, and no computer. It
_is_ their computer. Peripherals are available, but computers themselves are
far too expensive, this idea works with the concept of "smartphone as your
primary computing environment".

~~~
melted
They also have no monitor though. And I challenge the notion that most people
even _need_ a computer outside work.

------
keyle
Is this closed source?

------
rdiddly
Yeah but why would I switch over to this? I don't understand what it gives me
that I don't already have. Either I'm an idiot or...

------
tempodox
Is there anything like it for iOS?

