Samsung’s new phone-as-desktop is slick, fast and ready for splash-down ... somewhere I’m typing this story on a phone – a Galaxy S9+ to be precise, lodged in Samsung’s new “DeX Pad” not-a-dock that turns its high-end handsets into passable desktops when connected to a monitor or tellie over HDMI. Samsung introduced the Dex with 2017’s Galaxy S8 and then updated it this year with a smaller dock that puts the …
Although I think Menu is probably the original out of Xerox, back in the day we always knew it as Mouse. That's not a duplication of Pointer since we had various forms of pointer before the mouse to move them*.
*Including a horrendously large graphics terminal that used two wheels to move a cross-hair cursor, a bit like a giant Etch-A-Sketch. It even needed wiping and refreshing periodically.
Glen
tek4010 had a relatively small screen (~11" diagonal IIRC), so I would not call that "horrendously large", although it was normally set on it's on floor-standing pedestal. It's more capable cousin, the 4014 was larger.
It was a storage scope, so the screen 'remembered' what had been drawn without the screen processor redrawing it (unlike on a raster CRT monitor, which has continually to repaint the screen). Over the course of a minute or two, the image started to degrade, and the image could not be scrolled. You had to clear the screen and draw the next one.
I used to use it to do work in APL, as it could draw all of the over-struck greek characters, and I actually wrote a 4010 graphics emulator (it was a very simple protocol) in BBC basic, which was fast enough to keep up on a 9600 baud serial link.
UNIX troff (a text formatter) had a post-processor that would allow di-troff output to be drawn on the screen of a 4014 for proof reading before the days of high definition terminal screens. I believe it's still there in groff in GNU/Linux, even it's not needed anymore.
Ditroff was a complete re-write of troff. Troff was tightly, and very cleverly, written but could only output to one very specific typesetter (CAT). When UC Berkeley set out to replace their CAT phototypesetters (they had two of them), the original troff programmer was dead and no one could figure out how to remove the device dependencies, so they wrote Device Independent Troff so that they could use their new--APS5 -phototypesetter.
The APS had to go into production earlier than planned because an operator on the CAT, failed to tighten the wingnut holding the glass font wheel and that CAT was suddenly full of very small glass shards.
I mentioned DEX to a friend and he said it sounded great for his shed - for office tasks, web browsing and watching video. Many of us here have an older but still but serviceable monitor, mouse and keyboard kicking around the house. DEX works with 3rd party docks for around £20, I've heard - I'm sure someone here with post a comment confirming that in a bit.
Problem with older monitors is they don't tend to have HMDI.
I had a Lumia 950 XL - did the same as DEX, but with Windows Phone. I have the unopened converter box (freebie) in a cupboard. Always seemed like a good idea except for the lack of support for anything other then HDMI.
Hopeless as a portable solution too - by the time you carried all the necessary cables, it was easier to just carry a small laptop.
Developers?
And Dex isn't just about Android, is it?
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/10/linux_on_galaxy_video_demo/
Ubuntu and Eclipse. That could be perfect for a developer, web designer, etc. on the move as well as one who needs to test their results on mobile.
And the price is reasonable, much more than I would expect to be honest, but I can't afford the Samsung phone to go with it, so maybe that's why.
But I think I'd quite happily consider running Ubuntu off my phone as an emergency/portable desktop, if I was a salesman, developer, IT contractor, etc. Much more so than an iPad. Hell, I'd do it and just keep the Dex bit on me for the "just-in-case" of needing a laptop and not having one, or a presentation (plug phone into Dex into HDMI projector). You can also get a mini-projector for peanuts nowadays. You could have a full Linux desktop setup on an airplane seat with things that you can slip into your pocket.
It seems to me to have a lot of uses, it's just a shame that the phones to do it are so expensive (and even my old S4 Mini / S5 Mini could probably be a serviceable desktop with the right OS).
More or less. Unity was an attempt to have the UI component of applications / apps so written that they would adjust to the display size and Human Input methods present at the time - I believe it started out during the netbook era ( 7" - 10" screens, mouse, keyboard).
Samsung only need to have a few key apps ( Pareto analysis, we use 20% of apps 80% of the time) such as browser and Office to adjust to big display mouse keyboard tlfor this to be viable for some users.
A few years back Apple took a different route: rather than plug your phone into a display you could continue working on the same document across iOS and OSX, with the document (and where in the document you were currently working) being zapped between phone and Mac over WiFi. However, the popularity of iOS over MacOS means that Apple are now giving developers tools and guidelines so that an iOS app can potentially present a decent user interface when run on a Mac.
I stated a few years back that my personal opinion about Ubunto and DeX (and whatever Microsoft called their efforts) like solutions was that by the time you've found a spare monitor, mouse, keyboard and carried cables around, you might as well carry a little headless ARM PC with you. After all, they're not pricey, give you reduncy should you lose your phone, and don't tie up your phone in cables (so you can telephone a colleague whilst looking at a spreadsheet).
by the time you've found a spare monitor, mouse, keyboard and carried cables around,
You're assuming a truly portable situation - clearly something like a laptop/netbook/ultrabook is still better for the occasions where you might need a screen and keyboard in a convenient bundle anywhere.
I think most people, most of the time, are only using full desktop mode in a few predictable locations a lot of the time home - office, in between these locations, a smartphone style access might be acceptable.
KDE are prepping for adjustable display-size apps with Kirigami as well.
Thing is, for modular computing to work, you need the monitor, keyboard and mouse in your transport and at your destination, else you may as well pack a laptop or Chromebook. If car, airplane and train seat backs had a built in HDMI/USB-C/TB3 ready 14" or so display and a pop out full size keyboard, Bob's your trans auntie, you're sorted and can travel light. I pack a Note 8 and it would be great if it was the ONLY device I had to carry with me, but alas, I need a keyboard and larger screen pretty much anywhere I sit down, so I keep one of these in my backpack...
https://picosm.com/993919352790
(The machine Apple should have made.)
...that when back at desk, is docked with my 4K 32" monitor via one of these...
https://picosm.com/991256800705
If Samsung can get transport companies and hotels to build screens and keyboards into seats, hotel rooms and coffee shop tables, then DeX will work, but you won't need the dock really, just plug the phone into the USB-C port. (MHL used to allow you to do that, I could plug my Note 4 and S5 into HDMI monitors directly.)
The Gemini can run Linux, so potentially more broadly useful - however, if you're running it in Android mode you have to restart it into Linux. The Register said that Libre Office worked okay on the Gemini, but there was a bit of input lag - though they did note that they were using an early model and drivers.
I don't know if you can get the DeX optimised versions of MS Office for the Gemini's Android mode.
If I were to get a Gemini, it would be an accompaniment to my existing smartphone, not a replacement ( so it might likely stay in Linux mode all the time).
If I were to get a Gemini, it would be an accompaniment to my existing smartphone, not a replacement ( so it might likely stay in Linux mode all the time).
I have one and that's precisely how it feels at its best and how I use it permanently. I've squeezed down the Android partition to minimum and it stays in Sailfish. MY fingers are crossed that when Sailfish 3 appears for Gemini at the end of 2018 I will be able to get rid of the Android partition completely.
Once this makes its way onto lower end devices then isn't there a place for it in a world where people can't afford a phone and a PC? Might be a viable like that in corporate environments as well. Just give everyone a smartphone and set some hot desks up with these docks.
Vast numbers of users just need telecoms, a browser (for their business apps), email and office. Could knock a significant percentage off corporate IT budgets.
it wont replace because most of the apps wont work properly. I played with DEX on an s8 and it is a gimmick. most wont resize and look stupid in a tiny window on a large screen. The was an issue accessing non secure SD cards too. DEX is very niche and whilst the principle is sound you can carry an intel NUC around (the same size as the DEX dock) that will run full fat linux/windows and be far more powerful.
it will also be cheaper (and more flexible) to get a huawei plus NUC than s9 and DEX
Define a standard interface for Android docking, integrate some things with Chrome and google apps, use these things to create a combination phone/computer office workstation against a price point that is impossible to beat, so companies can save substantial money when migrating away from MS/Azure.
The equipment will be standard, like x86 PC's, be produced by many against an economic price.
As a side-effect, millenials are used to to everything with their phone, making it a future proof solution.
It isn’t innovative to try to invent one device that does everything. It’s stupid*. I wouldn’t want my car to double up as my bicycle or an aeroplane, and I wouldn’t want a bed which doubled up as a bath and a dining table. Sometimes it’s okay to have more than one thing, if your things perform different functions.
You know the old aphorism - Jack of all trades, Master of none.
* In the interests of total disclosure, I also thought that the iPod was stupid, that screens with resolutions greater than 640*480 were unnecessary, that the GUI itself was stupid, HD video unworkable and that tablets wouldn’t go anywhere. I might not be the best judge of what will succeed and what won’t in the computer of the future.
@Alister
;-D
Honestly? No. I like having a really good car, one that I can enjoy driving (as opposed to the sort of gadget that drives you around until it crashes - and then it crashes), and I’d like to have a really good aeroplane (but whilst I can afford the former, I can’t afford the latter).
Flying cars, or roadable aeroplanes, are compromised in either environment. Perhaps I’m unwise, but I’m also uncompromising.
"I wouldn’t want my car to double up as my bicycle"
This analogy is the wrong way round, if the car is the PC and the bicycle is the mobile. And people do add trailers, extra seats etc. to their bicycles sometimes to get a subset of the functionality of a car.
"or an aeroplane,"
If my car could cut out the pain of common air travel as it is, I would be more than happy.
"and I wouldn’t want a bed which doubled up as a bath and a dining table."
You've never owned a camper van then.
You might not want this in your house, just as in your house you are happy to have a laptop/desktop, tablet, phone etc. for different things. But I think the target here is like the camper van, travelling. Not having to cart around a car and a house.
"* In the interests of total disclosure, I also thought that the iPod was stupid, that screens with resolutions greater than 640*480 were unnecessary, that the GUI itself was stupid, HD video unworkable and that tablets wouldn’t go anywhere."
... and 640k RAM ought to be enough for anyone, right?
"I might not be the best judge of what will succeed and what won’t in the computer of the future."
Hi Bill. Welcome to the Reg.
It appears that Rolls Royce and Aston Martin say they agree with you:
Farnborough Airshow: Aston Martin unveils sports car for the skies
Carl Bourne, Rolls-Royce's strategy and business development head, said the consortium rejected plans to build a flying car. "You'd end up with a bad aircraft, and a bad car."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44879378
Then they seem to partially recant:
The aircraft would, he said, "be a sports car for the skies".
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