Not a real pocket PC...
Unless you can hack ATMs or unlock Cyberdyne doors with it.
Acer will release the "Jade Primo" PC Phone later this year, running Windows and taking advantage of Microsoft's Continuum feature to behave like a PC when connected to an external display, keyboard and mouse. "The goal is to extend the Windows experience from mobility to desktop. It is an important step towards the vision of …
Yep. Up to the point it became clear this was a Snapdragon processor, I was thinking that finally Microsoft might have come up with a way of selling Windows phones.
Though, actually, when you think about it, unless you could conveniently answer the phone and continue to use it in PC mode at the same time, you'd want to have the functions separate anyway.
"Arm processor so it will only run modern app crap. Like Windows RT and we know how popular that was."
Knowing how quickly Microsoft dropped the Surface RT, why would Acer attempt this? Might not a total loss, if Ubuntu Next works on it, or even some current or future Plasma implementation.
At least they're trying to innovate though.
Frankly, these attempts to confuse "Windows RT" with Windows are annoying to say the least. Windows RT is not a PC OS, dammit.
How do you make a phone that can run PC software? Easy: redefine "PC software" to mean "smartphone apps," then downgrade every PC in the world to that level.
"Some Pocket PC devices featured a clamshell design with a keyboard"
Looking at available phones these days, seems there is less innovation in form that there used to be ten years ago. From bricks, clamshells and slide-outs to slabs,slabs,slabs.
But running Debian. Not evil Win10 (win XP or Win7 would have been OK) paywalled iOS or Goggle spyware Android/Chrome.
If it's Windows on ARM, it's nearly pointless. Edit: It's Snapdragon, so fine for Debian, Android etc and POINTLESS for Windows as it can't replace an x86 laptop
I can hook my Sony Z1 Android phone to a USB hub and then USB mouse + keyboard, and plug it into HDMI monitor. But it's a kludge. A Win10 ARM with nice dock won't run x86-64 code etc, so is just a gimmick if you need a real x86-64 Windows workstation.
They could have put an Atom x86 chip on this thing to make it into a true PC in a pocket that can run universal and desktop apps. After all, Asus Zenfones have shown that Atom on mobile is a viable choice. My cheap Windows 10 tablet does a decent job running old Win32 programs and can even run Linux virtual machines, imagine having the same capability in a phone.
Because (and this is a guess), W10 doesn't have the capacity to make phone calls and WM10 won't run W32 applications.
If the Universal Platform thing takes off, however, you won't need W32 applications. And this thing (and others like it) is the best possible reason for the Universal Platform to become popular because MDM can lock down a smartphone like nothing on earth with basically zero administration (cost saving), phones are comparatively dirt cheap (cost saving) and there are a gazillion office drones out there who only use MS Office every day (which is already a Universal app) so... big fat cost saving.
Short version - it isn't aimed at us. It's aimed at the kind of corporate that orders 500 shitty HP desktop boxes at a time.
It's funny that Android runs perfectly fine on Atom x86 but WinPhone doesn't. Windows 10 Mobile should technically have no issues running on either ARM or x86 architectures because the underlying kernel and system libs are from Windows 10.
Anyway, Ubuntu tried making a desktop-capable superphone but couldn't get the funding. Maybe Microsoft are doing it from another angle - those Universal apps don't care about the underlying architecture and if most office drone types don't use desktop programs, then Mobile Office is all they'll need.
Some Pocket PC devices featured a clamshell design with a keyboard. Despite these attractions, the limited capabilities and general usability failings of these devices means they are remembered with little affection.
I get really tired of this retroactive dissing of Pocket PC (a.k.a. Windows Mobile). I owned several Pocket PCs, including the early HP Jornada and the later iPAQ. For their time, these were absolutely fantastic devices. Yes, the UI was a little clunky, but the open Windows-like OS was perfectly amenable to add-ons akin to today's Classic Desktop.
The point is, you could do anything with a Pocket PC, just as you could with a desktop. It multitasked nicely when nothing else did, and had a great ecosystem of applications - not 'apps,' real applications. Including both excellent free stuff and high-quality commercial products.
Pocket PC was a brilliant attempt at putting a PC in your pocket. Win10 is a half-assed attempt at turning every desktop PC into a smartphone.