Beware Neuralink despite the tragic monkey test results…
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15 years, 20 years. whatever. Heres something more specific. This was my phone back in 2005-ish
It had a 2-megapixel Camera with a flip camcorder mode, a 2x optical zoom, it had a built in web browser, and the front display and buttons looked to make it a great MP3 player at the time.
Camera quality was garbage. It by no means replaced a dedicated Camera. And the 2X optical Zoom didn’t have any image stabilization so virtually every pic using the 2X zoom came out super blurry.
Using it for its camera…it would be charitable to call it a Goofy experience.
It had a web browser that was nightmare to use since there wasn’t a touch screen. Yeah I could open up a web page, but again, charitable to call that a goofy experience.
And the MP3 Player function…crippled because it didn’t have a 3.5 mm headphone jack. You needed a smaller 2mm headphone adapter that was big/cumbersome/ and not easy to get.
In 2005 I looked at the phone as the future of phones since it replaced so many devices, but everything it did, it did so poorly, the phone itself was not the future.
Is this the case now in 2022? heck no. With most every modern device…all those grievances I had are grievances of the past.
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I think the next big thing needs to be an entirely new paradigm for passwords.
Today, I had to log into a website I haven’t used in over two years.
So of course, I have no idea what the password is, and it’s because:
- it threatened to lock my account after a few unsuccessful login attempts
- so I took the easy way out, by requesting a new password via email
- and of course, it remembers what I’ve used, so it won’t let me change the password to something I’ve used before
- so, now, I have to make up an entirely new unfamiliar password with symbols, uppercase, etc
- which totally explains why I can’t figure out the initial login, because I’m forced to use an unfamiliar password having burned all my usual passwords
It now it just adds to being buried with loads of passwords for all the websites you deal with in life.
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Good news everyone!
Still have to read up on this, but apparently this is the plan by some of the big guys.
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Definitely a significant step in the right direction but we’ve also heard that it has more than a bit of 2fa to it in that initial reception is positive, but use is not sustained.
My hope is that someone somewhere is again rethinking the idea of a personal computer. There are lots of bits of tech and software already scattered across multiple devices and platforms, but right now we are still constrained by the dominant “norms” of tablet, laptop, and candybar smartphone.
I think the Duo and Fold are tentative steps in the right direction, but actually the more innovative device in that realm is the Samsung Flip.
And of course the Neo has some interesting potential if it ever sees the light of day.
But IMHO smartphones have reached or exceeded the limits of what’s comfortable and practical to carry, laptops are still too tightly bound to the clamshell design and tablets are still 2nd or 3rd class citizens for most business productivity applications.
Surely some bright engineer has thought of a “fourth way”?
I’m telling you - MacPad old friend…
No , developers starting with MS need to get serious about tablets as a platform. There is no reason now with the M1/M2 or for that matter the Snapdragon 8Cx that we can’t have the functional equivalents of for example MS desktop office apps on both IOS and Android.
Same with many of Adobe’s apps. Apple is often accused , frequently, including here of not wanting to cut off the revenue stream of the Mac/iPad/iPhone triumvirate, and there may be some truth to that, but MS for example with Office is just as guilty IMHO. Or for that matter making meaningful and obvious improvements to the tablet UI of both Windows and their Office apps (publisher is a particularly egregious offender IMHO)
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One of my top pet peeves. There is indeed no longer a good justification for modern tablets getting “lite” versions of apps.
Fortunately it appears to be slowly changing, at least on the Apple side among indie/small developers. The last two writing-related apps I’ve downloaded on my iPP are every bit as capable as their Mac counterparts. And because of that I was willing to fork over the $30/yr subscription on one of them.
Happy New Years gang!
OK, I’ll take the bait @Desertlap because it plays into my tech New Years’ resolution - no more whining and begging for a MacPad or WinPad. They are already here.
I agree with BOTH of you. Now that Apple (iPadOS 16+) and MS (WOA 2.0) both have mobile OS’s capable of giving me iPad 11"/Go size devices that deliver a desktop experience it is on ME to make the transition to the new paradigm.
But that really does need the developers to up their game and users to PAY for that. I am one of the worst offenders because I equate tablet apps with cheap prices; to this day a double digit purchase seems TOO HIGH for a tablet. If I want Office 365 performance I need to pay for it.
Maybe it is time for a serious dive into WOA IF MS can deliver a Surface Pro Go size 5g device…
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Let’s go back to the topic at hand, the post-smartphone apocalypse…
I keep reading articles about everything will be in nearly normal looking glasses in five more years (I’d give it 10) but where is the power source for 6g 4k quality communication in the glass form factor?
It’s kind of like the 80’s scifi future that the keyboard will be a think of the past, but here I am pounding away on my SP8 just like I did my IBM PC Jr…
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I think the ‘simplicity’ of tablet and phone apps invites simplified apps.
And to Microsoft’s credit, they have tried more tablet focussed UIs with Office. People don’t seem to have liked it on the whole. Now, part of that is that they haven’t brought many of the features across, but it doesn’t help when there are issues with simply using a mouse at an OS level.
I can’t blame Microsoft not wanting to support competing OSes too much either.
Of course, it can be done. Blackmagic and Affinity have ported over almost complete apps, and there are native ones like Procreate and Lumafusion that can do so much. All of those companies unquestionably benefit from being on multiple platforms though (and often simply don’t have a choice if they want to stay in business).
Windows works perfectly fine on anything 8" or larger as well, to be honest.
Dex on the 11" Samsung Tab s8 has entered the chat
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The power will come from your smartphone. :vb-idea:
Previous speculation on my part aside, I don’t think the smartphone is going anywhere anytime soon. It’ll get variations (e.g. - folding, scrolling, etc.) but it’s not being replaced. The question should be: “What’s The Next Big Thing To Compliment The Smartphone?”
Smartwatches haven’t caught on like some predicted. On the other hand, they’re not going away, either. They’re excellent complimentary devices for the smartphone. VR/AR will be, too, once they mature. And so on.
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Stumbling and wheezing a bit 
Seriously though DEX by itself is pretty solid, but the app situation is just pitiful to this day IMHO. MS own office apps feature wise are multiple iterations behind even IOS versions.
Not to mention most of the streaming apps such as Netflix or Hulu which seem to be a dice role as to if/how they function under DEX.
And it’s truly unfortunate as the Tab S8 Plus is a first class piece of hardware exceeding even the iPad Pro 12.9 in some areas such as pen performance and IMHO comfort when handheld.
And it’s not for lack of trying on Samsung’s part, but until Google gets genuinely serious about tablets again, I don’t see that changing anytime soon though possibly with the arrival of the Pixel tablet later this year I still have hope.
PS: I like Samsung’s keyboard trackpad folio better as well
I’m going to disagree about the stumbling and wheezing bit. It all depends on whether or not your personal needs are covered by the available apps and ecosystem. I don’t think it’s on Google to get serious about tablets, but on developers to get serious about Android as a platform. LumaFusion put their full pro editing app on the Play store, but it’s still in Early Access. Until big software is putting out full featured versions of their apps on Android (at the same time they put them out on iPadOS), Dex will remain a solution for a smaller portion of the market. Then it’s the chicken and the egg - smaller market = smaller development investment = apps not good enough = fewer people whose needs are met by the platform.
With all the excitement and long threads about stage manager, it always seems to end with everyone agreeing that it’s not ready for prime time yet. So, even if apple has the apps, they don’t have the environment. MH got an 11" M1 Pro that I keep meaning to plug into my desktop setup to see what the hype is all about.
It feels weird to say it, but at this point, Windows lacks the apps I need. So, while it has the environment, it lacks the apps.
I don’t stream much. I believe you that it doesn’t work, but it’s not a dealbreaker for me in the same way that the lack of certain apps on windows is. I’m frustrated by the lack of print to OneNote on Android but there are other ways to accomplish the same thing. I’m sometimes frustrated by the flow of moving files around, or managing larger OneNote notebooks. There are handful of things I have to use real, full on, desktop OneNote for. But those things are infrequent enough that it’s not part of my regular workflow and can generally wait.
It’s increasingly funny to me to read thread after thread about the state of WOA, or Stage Manager, or the desire for a MacPad, or how nothing out there is doing this thing, while I’m just over here happily daily driving Dex. It may not have the apps you personally need, but they’re over here, doing the thing, and have been for years. I got my first nexdock 3 years ago. I used it to file my taxes that spring.
Didn’t we just have a thread about the problem of universalizing personal experiences and the problem with “if it doesn’t work for me it can’t possibly work for anyone else”?
And if you made it this far, here’s a fun story: My brother was visiting over the holidays with his 11" iPad Pro which is his only personal device (he has nearly unlimited Thinkpad access thanks to his job and had one of those with him as well). We got on the subject of using tablets as second screens, so I plugged my Tab S8 into my windows laptop and turned it on, showed him how it showed up as another display in settings and he was very impressed, only commenting “I wish you hadn’t shown me that.” As in, he had no idea it was that easy or worked that well and now had to rethink some things.
Now, watch me try MH’s iPad Pro docked to my monitor/keyboard/mouse and have to change all of my thinking.
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The zen of satisfaction with what you have and use - a gift I have yet to receive. Instead of juggling platforms, operating systems, devices, I could focus on the outcomes and the processes to get them…that’s a lot to think about on this New Years Day!
It also works because I have a closet full of classic thinkpads I can use to scratch the novelty itch. One runs Chrome OS Flex. One runs Mint. I can’t seem to let go of my 10.6" Galaxy book, but everytime I think a Surface Go might be fun, I use that for a bit and then nope back over to my Tab S8.
I did plug the 11" iPad Pro into my setup and wow, either it’s still very partially baked or working on a very different paradigm with a steep re-learning curve to multitask the way apple wants me to multitask. It was confusing to even get it going and while the dot pointer is neat and I guess makes sense with the way it changes to arrows near the edge of a window for resizing, it also feels a little different for the sake of being different. I can see that they’re trying to rethink multitasking on a big screen, but it was frustrating. A lot.
I’m glad you are happy with what you have and more importantly that it works for you. I constantly remind my engineers that what doesn’t work for you might be perfect for someone else.
That being said, there is no argument you can make that will dissuade me from the fact that MS and Adobe apps which is where I and most of my customers spend our days, absolutely suck compared to the desktop versions and even the IOS ones and that’s totally on MS and Adobe.
And I also disagree that Google can’t do anything, but it’s that they won’t. Love them or hate them (or both in my case) Apple’s my way or the highway approach does benefit users in many cases.
As to 2nd screen, again great that it works in your case, but it’s far from universal, just ask recent dell XPS owners…
So true - I get that they are trying to thread the needle between a touch first device and windowing environment, but I just don’t get the resistance to a more Mac/Windows like windowing environment instead of forced placement, sizing, and “front focused” window placement.
Over the last six months of beta testing Stage Manager, flopping back and forth between Windows and MacOS, and extensive use of my SP8, I have come to realize it is NOT the Apple UI/systems that I envy, but the quality of their services (Messages, FaceTime, News+, Photos) and the interoperability across devices. If I ignore these services, there’s nothing my SP8 can’t do as well, and sometimes better (window and file management) than iPadOS/MacOS.
If MS brought their iPadOS Office apps up to 80% of the Windows UI and feature set, and Apple (or MS) gave us TRUE file management on at least the Finder level, I would jump to the 2023 M2/M3 iPad Pro 11 and not look back, because then I would have my cake (productivity), icing (Apple services), and eat it too…
BUT I no longer expect either MS or Apple to help me in this way, so I’ve recently turned to using just my SP8 and iPhone 13 Pro, while eyeing stepping up to a 14 Max or 15 Ultra to give me more canvas for the Apple services I am so glued to…
I say this all in the interest of furthering the discussion but also because I’m feeling a bit pedantic.
I never tried to make the argument that MS and Adobe apps don’t suck on Android. In fact, I’m quite critical of OneNote. I was responding to your universal argument that “the app situation is pitiful.” I could take the half dozen or so mobile only apps I rely on day to day and look at the fact that they don’t exist on Windows at all and say the app situation on Windows is pitiful. But that’s why I started the whole thing by saying “It’s all about whether or not your personal needs are covered by the available apps.” Yes, I realize I’m probably just arguing semantics to an extent.
I’m not sure what Google could do to make Adobe and MS apps not suck. They could bring out their own desktop option (which is currently experimentally half-baked into android I think) which might encourage developers to invest in the platform on more of a productivity/desktop level. But Android apps already have the advantage of needing to run on many different size/aspect ratio/resolution screens, so adapting to freeform windows should (I imagine) be easier than adapting an app that has expected to be full screen 4:3 all the time no matter what forever and ever until apple went just slightly taller.
In all fairness, I was using second screen on a Samsung tablet to extend from a Samsung laptop. I think my pro pen will even copy/paste between devices in samsung land. I don’t know if it’s apple level interoperability, but it’s easy.
My main point in all of this is that I think it’s worth including Dex in these discussion of mobile device to primary device convergence. It seems to be either overlooked (fair, here I am using it, not jumping in to discussions) or dimissed out of hand because of specific apps.
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