

Seamless Computing: Your Mobile as a Desktop - aroman
http://community.arm.com/groups/android-community/blog/2015/02/09/seamless-computing-your-mobile-as-a-desktop

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bikamonki
Ubuntu is clearly taking the lead in this race. However, I am not sure this is
the right approach to mobile/ubiquitous computing b/c phones brake, discharge
or are lost/stolen. The best approach in my personal experience is to have
terminals that connect to cloud computing services. The phone too can connect
to the cloud in case a quick on the go edit/reply/action is needed. In this
regard, current services already fill such need, Android and Google web apps
for example. In other words, if you need to add all peripherals (screen,
mouse, kb) and you most likely will also use the local LAN/WiFi (lower cost+
higher speed), then might as well add another CPU to that mix and don't depend
on the phone.

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drdaeman
There is another side to this. With "cloud" you trust remote party to process
the data for you. With the mobile, you trust the local device. Even if the
cloud means "an audited software, which you run on hardware you physically
own, located at your housing" (which is rarely the case) I think it's still
less safe than a device that does everything right in your hands.

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harel
I've been yammering about something like that for ages: I want to arrive at my
desk, place the phone by the screen and start working as I would on my laptop.
However, I want this with my Linux desktop loaded up, not my Android one.
Ubuntu did almost nail with the initial videos of Ubuntu phone but I never
seen it take off.

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cmsj
This sort of thing seems like it has interesting uses, but I doubt it will
become mainstream.

Assuming your mobile device has adequate horsepower to run your desktop, the
marginal cost of adding equivalent CPU, RAM and storage to the monitor you'd
need on your desk, trends lower and lower every year, and is already pretty
low.

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PopePompous
I've had something close to this for years with my N900 (circa 2009). It
detects when I am at home or work (via WIFI), and mounts its file systems on
my laptops via sshfs. I can run Debian apps on my N900, and have the laptop
display the UI via X11. I'm hoping this will work even more smoothly when I
get my neo900.

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mappu
Is there anything stopping you doing this on current Android devices? You can
run a debian userland without any trouble, and there's an X11 server available
in the Play store (`x.org.server`).

I suppose the usability leaves something to be desired in the general case,
but even all-in-one apks like `org.gimp.inkscape` go a long way to addressing
this.

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djloche
Blackberry's OS10 phones do a solid job providing this feature. HDMI out to a
larger screen, bluetooth connected keyboard and mouse. They also have their
Blend software for Windows/OSX which is somewhat the reverse, use your phone
without actually using your phone.

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anarchitect
A few years back, someone (I can't recall the source) was prophesying Apple
making a "laptop" that behaves like this, leveraging your iPhone's CPU.
Basically a MacBook Air without the "computer".

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mark_l_watson
I would love to buy this, as a polished product.

