Smartphones to replace computers soon
- Thread starter SaltyDawg
- Start date
Marty McFly
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I'd rather wait and have REAL 4G done right which doesn't suck my battery down like crazy than get the "Sprint 4G" (which nobody I with an Evo know even uses) a year earlier.
Chad Feldheimer
Well-Known Member
Congress killed net neutrality for wireless internet. Expect your phone plans to be similar to your cable tv plans.
And to think all this time I thought it was
"Sent from my HTC Emo using Tapatalk"
I guess Salty is not Emo, and all this time I thought he was.
I should learn more about these newfangled fones.
SaltyDawg
Well-Known Member
Wimax (what Sprint uses) is real 4G. Not as fast as LTE, but still real 4G and comparable to home cable or dsl.
If you know people that have the Evo and don't use 4G, then no offense but you know some morons. Sprint's 4G is way faster than 3G, and you have to pay extra for the Evo plan because of the 4G (whether you use it or not). Plus, it lets you use voice and data at the same time.
So they have awesome 4G data, they pay extra for it every month, and they don't use it?
Let me guess, they also bought Cadillacs that just sit in the garage?
While you would rather wait for LTE, I'd rather get Wimax a year earlier, use the heck out of it, and then get LTE when it hits SLC if it is that much better. Plus Sprint 4G data plans are actually unlimited. There is no extra charge for using more than my plan allows (Verizon has already announced a $10 per gig overage fee for their 4G plans).
There is no law that says I can't get a Bionic (or whatever) when SLC gets LTE in a year just because I got an Evo 6 months ago.
There is always something better on the horizon. If you are waiting for a final device/service that will never be topped, then you will be waiting forever.
BTW, T-Mobile already has their fake 4G in SLC and have announced they will double the speed in early 2011. That means it will be faster than Verizon's LTE before Verizon even launches the service in SLC.
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk.
SaltyDawg
Well-Known Member
Technically the FCC killed it, thanks to Google and Verizon dictating the new rules and the FCC bending over for them.
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk.
Chad Feldheimer
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Republicans have promised to squash the bill but who knows.
LogGrad98
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Phones are so far away from replace computers it isn't even funny. Current processing power is climbing faster than they thought. The constraints now are literally the space available on the chip, heat, and the impedance limitations in the chip architecture. That means they have almost gotten chips to operate at such high speed of the flow of electrons themselves is too slow, and now it has reached a point that simply using a bigger cache or higher clock-speed won't necessarily compensate. 6-core processors are available from all major manufacturers (that is in essence 6 last-gen processors linked together). Hyperthreading technology is just ramping up. My video cards are more powerful than the top-end machine I had 5 years ago. I am using my video card extra processing power for the Standford protein folding project.
https://folding.stanford.edu/
And who wants to carry a phone around with a big enough screen to play CoD or online FPS or empire building games. Another factor is the age of the population. It tends to be the older generation (45 years old +) that has the money, since they are established in their careers and at their peak earning potential. So it would have to me marketed to a group with failing eyesight, among other things.
https://www.eyedoctorguide.com/eye_problems/aging_vision_changes.html
I know my parents started wearing glasses to read after about age 42 or so. My wife, who is now 42 is getting her first pair of reading glasses and she is actually looking for a new phone since her samsung is too small and wit the font big enough to comfortably read you can't fit much on the screen. I told her about th iPad or Playbook that will have cell connectivity and she just doesn't want to carry around what is in essence a hardcover book to use as a phone.
I do a lot of video editing and flash animation as a hobby. I have turned out some pretty decent DVD's for myself and friends and relatives. I cannot ever imagine using a screen smaller than my 25" HP. The detail would be completely lost to get the entire program and images on the screen at the same time.
If you talk basic computing, I generate a lot of documents at work that I send home for extra work on weekends with some regularity, Word, Excel, Access, etc. I love my 25" because I can have 2 documents at the same time side by side on the screen, or even just 2 full pages of the same document. This makes editing so much easier. You will never in your life be able to do that on a smartphone.
If you are talking about using it as a CPU and attaching it to a monitor, I say you are still up in the night. Software companies write software to take advantage of the most recent technologies. Current software packages, if they stopped writing for PC and started exclusively writing for smartphones, would never work on a smartphone. My blackberry Torch has mobile Office on it, but the Word and Excel functionality is barely beyond minor editing. Even on a bigger screen it wouldn't do what I needed to do. And forget video editing. I have an intel core i7 extreme (for gaming) and some of the video editing software I use is pushing that chip-set pretty good. Plus I am one of those that have many windows open at the same time. To handle the load I upgraded my machine to 12 gig of Corsair DDR4 ram. Good luck getting that much ram in a smartphone. If you think miniaturization will get us there keep in mind that space on a chip is becoming a limiting factor in processing. That is why multi-core chips are being used. Also keep in mind the heat factor. That much processing creates a LOT of heat. I have 3 heat-sinks in my computer, the one for the processor is copper with liquid-cooling and my case has 12 fans. Even then I use a heat monitor for some stuff I like to do.
The next gen of processing is possibly quantum computers or biological computers. These have, at this point in time anyway, nearly insurmountable challenges to make them viable. They have also been looking at supercooled superconductor-based technology with some limited success, but who wants liquid nitrogen circulating inside their machines. One leak and that would be fun, freezing all other components into uselessness.
https://www.physorg.com/news171705608.html
Phones replacing computers is sci-fi for any time in the foreseeable future. With some emerging technologies we can see smaller more powerful processors on the horizon, but without some major breakthroughs they are far out of reach of the consumer.
https://folding.stanford.edu/
And who wants to carry a phone around with a big enough screen to play CoD or online FPS or empire building games. Another factor is the age of the population. It tends to be the older generation (45 years old +) that has the money, since they are established in their careers and at their peak earning potential. So it would have to me marketed to a group with failing eyesight, among other things.
https://www.eyedoctorguide.com/eye_problems/aging_vision_changes.html
I know my parents started wearing glasses to read after about age 42 or so. My wife, who is now 42 is getting her first pair of reading glasses and she is actually looking for a new phone since her samsung is too small and wit the font big enough to comfortably read you can't fit much on the screen. I told her about th iPad or Playbook that will have cell connectivity and she just doesn't want to carry around what is in essence a hardcover book to use as a phone.
I do a lot of video editing and flash animation as a hobby. I have turned out some pretty decent DVD's for myself and friends and relatives. I cannot ever imagine using a screen smaller than my 25" HP. The detail would be completely lost to get the entire program and images on the screen at the same time.
If you talk basic computing, I generate a lot of documents at work that I send home for extra work on weekends with some regularity, Word, Excel, Access, etc. I love my 25" because I can have 2 documents at the same time side by side on the screen, or even just 2 full pages of the same document. This makes editing so much easier. You will never in your life be able to do that on a smartphone.
If you are talking about using it as a CPU and attaching it to a monitor, I say you are still up in the night. Software companies write software to take advantage of the most recent technologies. Current software packages, if they stopped writing for PC and started exclusively writing for smartphones, would never work on a smartphone. My blackberry Torch has mobile Office on it, but the Word and Excel functionality is barely beyond minor editing. Even on a bigger screen it wouldn't do what I needed to do. And forget video editing. I have an intel core i7 extreme (for gaming) and some of the video editing software I use is pushing that chip-set pretty good. Plus I am one of those that have many windows open at the same time. To handle the load I upgraded my machine to 12 gig of Corsair DDR4 ram. Good luck getting that much ram in a smartphone. If you think miniaturization will get us there keep in mind that space on a chip is becoming a limiting factor in processing. That is why multi-core chips are being used. Also keep in mind the heat factor. That much processing creates a LOT of heat. I have 3 heat-sinks in my computer, the one for the processor is copper with liquid-cooling and my case has 12 fans. Even then I use a heat monitor for some stuff I like to do.
The next gen of processing is possibly quantum computers or biological computers. These have, at this point in time anyway, nearly insurmountable challenges to make them viable. They have also been looking at supercooled superconductor-based technology with some limited success, but who wants liquid nitrogen circulating inside their machines. One leak and that would be fun, freezing all other components into uselessness.
https://www.physorg.com/news171705608.html
Phones replacing computers is sci-fi for any time in the foreseeable future. With some emerging technologies we can see smaller more powerful processors on the horizon, but without some major breakthroughs they are far out of reach of the consumer.
Salty, my argument still stands... There is a docking station for a reason...to get the feel of a computer that a stand alone cell phone does not give. Maybe we just weren't understanding each other. When you say "replace" I take it you mean, completely. And not just the CPU.
Vinyl said:
You good sirs are either clowns or morons. You'll have to ask Salty which definition best suits you as he is clearly the expert here and you guys are clearly talking out your asses!
Sent from my cave using two cans hooked together with string
SaltyDawg
Well-Known Member
I do mean completely. I think the average person would rather spend $200 for that phone, and $300-$400 for docking stations, instead of $50 on a phone, $400 on a laptop, and another $300-$400 on a desktop.
The advantages (besides the obvious immediate lower cost) are you always have the phone with you, when you buy a new phone in a couple years it's cheaper than upgrading upgrading a phone, laptop, and desktop (the docks will almost certainly work on future phones), all of the files and data on your desktop, laptop, and phone will be identical, and the OS will be the same on your phone, desktop, and laptop so it's easier to learn/use.
I agree there will be the abnormal case where someone needs a super powerful desktop for pro video production, video games that are better than current gen consoles, etc. But for average computing- email, web, word, excel, music, photos, home videos, current gen console quality gaming, skype, etc, these phones will be more than enough.
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk.
SaltyDawg
Well-Known Member
Lograd clearly didn't view the links in the first post. If he did, he'd know the issues raised in his post are obsolete.
The phone has a desktop style dock that he could connect his 23" monitor (as they had one in the video), full size keyboard and mouse, etc.
And there is a separate laptop dock that turns the phone into laptop.
And the next generation will run full blown Windows 8.
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk.
The phone has a desktop style dock that he could connect his 23" monitor (as they had one in the video), full size keyboard and mouse, etc.
And there is a separate laptop dock that turns the phone into laptop.
And the next generation will run full blown Windows 8.
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk.
SaltyDawg
Well-Known Member
Verizon Android LTE phones will be available first quarter 2011, the iPhone will also be available first quarter and will be LTE capable, and several first gen LTE phones are dual core.
All of that is subject to change, but that is how things sit at this moment.
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk.
LogGrad98
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You stll ignore things such as form factor, usability, target audience, tasks performed, multi-tasking, etc. All of these point to needing something larger and more powerful than a phone can be. I am not talking about gaming PC's, I am talking about my father's Pentium 4 computer (8 years old or so) that he still uses. He like the screen size because his eyes can't read such a small screen, and even with a docking station to get a bigger screen he still uses programs like CorelDRAW and Word and Excel, whcih cannot run in full functionality on a cell phone, even what is projected for processing power. And even being that old that pentium 4 is still more powerful than the best smartphone chipset yet.
Fully functional Excel and Word require more processing power than a phone can provide at this point in time. When was the last time you had Word, Excel, and Explorer open all at the same time on your phone? You would be surprised how much you really need for a fully functioning PC just for basic programs people use with regularity and for multi-tasking. My father is anything but a computer nerd but even he at over 70 usually has a couple windows open at one time. Phones just cannot support that.
Maybe all you ever do is browse the internet, but that is still ancillary to the computing that most people need a computer for. It won't happend any time soon, I would dare say any time in our lifetimes, but you never know when that next jump of a breakthrough will be. But until then, phones are just phones. Cool, fun, functional sure. but I could never do what I need to for business or pleasure on a phone alone.
Fully functional Excel and Word require more processing power than a phone can provide at this point in time. When was the last time you had Word, Excel, and Explorer open all at the same time on your phone? You would be surprised how much you really need for a fully functioning PC just for basic programs people use with regularity and for multi-tasking. My father is anything but a computer nerd but even he at over 70 usually has a couple windows open at one time. Phones just cannot support that.
Maybe all you ever do is browse the internet, but that is still ancillary to the computing that most people need a computer for. It won't happend any time soon, I would dare say any time in our lifetimes, but you never know when that next jump of a breakthrough will be. But until then, phones are just phones. Cool, fun, functional sure. but I could never do what I need to for business or pleasure on a phone alone.
SaltyDawg
Well-Known Member
I couldn't make it through more than about half of the first paragraph.
Go read the links in the first post. Watch the video too.
You will see, the phone is exactly the same as a desktop computer, exactly the same as a laptop computer, running an office suite, multitasking, simple to use, etc. Basically everything you said is shown to be totally false in the first post.
And the next gen will be running full blown windows with the same office suite your parents are running on their windows computer right now.
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk.
The only time I use 4G is at Jazz games, because the 3G signal gets overloaded or something sometimes. It doesn't mean I'm a moron though, it simply means I'm not on my phone all damn day long and when I am on my phone I don't mind waiting the extra 2 seconds it takes to load a page using 3G vs. 4G. Sprint's 3G is pretty damn fast. I love having the 4G option for when I actually need to do something important on my phone, but it simply isn't necessary for most of what I do...check scores, check forums, tweeter, heck even music and videos stream well most of the time if I forget to flip on the 4G before watching. Oh yeah, and I got a discount on my plan which makes it cheaper than paying for AT&T's or Verizon's 3G limited data plans. But alas, I'm an idiot.
David Stern
Well-Known Member
I have an Evo that is rooted, so I use it to tether. Sprint's 4G is more consistent than my old comcast was, so i'm pretty happy with it. But tethering is the only time that I really use the 4G, everything else is more than fast enough on 3G like honz said.
Thanks for the info.