Mobile Phone as PC, Again
Philip Greenspun wanted a cell phone PC a few months ago, and I suggested a variation of it at Mobile Phone as PC. Now Microsoft is suggesting it, with the variation that it will connect to a TV. To repeat what I said
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| In my ideal cell phone computer, Wi-Fi will be built-in to the phone for network connectivity. It will also have a USB/Bluetooth based interface, so it can connect to and external display/keyboard/mouse which I will call “the display device”. USB can also double up as a charger.The display device will be ubiquitous, and will go for under $100 in volume. We can imagine this everywhere, homes, offices, Starbucks, … Whereever there is Wi-Fi, these devices will be present. Just plug-in the cell phone to the USB port, and start computing. The entire work, including the network part, is done in the cell phone. Only the user interface is outside. This dramatically reduces security concerns. Secure networking is upto the software in the phone; so if it has a VPN tunnel (Google Wifi!), unencrypted Wi-Fi links are OK. |
I hope I can buy this device some time soon. I am not a fan of all these less-than-PC mobile devices. I will wait for a cell phone to USB/Bluetooth to LCD display combination.