Why Microsoft's New $99 Display Dock Could Be A Game Changer (Opinion)

[voodoobunny]

Plays 1080p video on the big screen? Hook up a little multimedia wireless keyboard and your TV and you have a hundred-dollar media device for when you want to watch Netflix or Amazon, or use Plex or Kodi, and you also get to play games... or do your budget ... or Skype with someone (if you prop your phone up)... or browse your photos on a big screen.... or anything else that anyone can write a Universal / Continuum app for.

This could end up being a *huge* change to how we use our phones.

 

[beshonk]

what i'd really like to see is a phone running a lower power intel mobile chip and the full 64 bit windows 10.

 

[InvalidError]

I think it's a good half step. The Lumina's still won't run normal windows programs (what the hell is the technical term for those), only the universal apps from the app store. I would imagine for office work though it would still be good for many people.

The technical term is Win32 apps.

No, the technical term is native or legacy x86 applications which can be 16, 32 or 64 bits.

Microsoft's portable run-anywhere applications use MSIL distribution which gets JIT-recompiled to whatever the device's CPU requires, just like Android (which is itself derived from Java) does with its Dalvik JIT compiler (before L/5.0) and ART (5.x/6) install-time recompiler.

 

[atheus]

your phone can't replace your PC. And it never will.

Uh...ever heard the phrase "never say never?" I'm shocked that a tech website of all places would say that a phone will never replace a PC where that is basically inevitable and simply a matter of time. People seem to forget that the capabilities of a desktop are often far beyond what the average user needs to browse facebook and watch videos, along with the occasional email and word processing.

You missed the first part of that sentence: "Your phone can't do all the things your PC can -- even if that PC is a lightweight ultrabook -- and in that sense, no, your phone can't replace your PC. And it never will."

That is to say, because of physics, however powerful your phone hardware can be, the capabilities of full systems, such as laptops or desktops, will always be a step ahead.

A lot of people are going to squeal, "It can replace your PC entirely OMG!!" But it can't, not entirely, and I was just trying to emphasize that point, lest anyone think I was trying to say that it could.

No, the fellow is correct. The "PC" serves a certain purpose, and only requires a certain amount of computing power. If the amount of performance and flexibility required by the home user can be contained within a phone, then yes, the phone will indeed replace the PC. If software that's popular among home users can't be run on a phone, then yes, the PC will continue to exist, but as he said, it's basically inevitable that eventually a compact device like a phone will have all the power needed for home computing.

That's not to say that the threshold will be crossed simultaneously for all users. Non-gamers will be able to switch to a phone sized device much sooner than gamers, for example, but we'll all get there eventually.

 

[InvalidError]

Non-gamers will be able to switch to a phone sized device much sooner than gamers, for example, but we'll all get there eventually.

Both of my sisters and their boyfriends do practically all of their computing on their iPhones. Their newest PC or laptop is about 10 years old and serve little purpose beyond dumping images off their iPhones to USB drives or DVDs. I bet my older sister has not powered her desktop PC in several months and the only person using my younger sister's laptop is my father when he goes to babysit.

In places like THG though, most readers think primarily about professionals, high-end gamers and enthusiasts. They forget the other 80-90% of the market (basic home/office PCs, HTPCs, laptops, terminals and other applications with low CPU/GPU requirements) which isn't them.

Sales of highish-end PCs might be rising but sales of PCs as a whole are dropping. I take it as a sign that people who still depend on PCs want beefier PCs while people who do not need conventional PCs for any specific reason are dropping PCs in favor of mobile devices.

 

[dgingeri]

Non-gamers will be able to switch to a phone sized device much sooner than gamers, for example, but we'll all get there eventually.

Both of my sisters and their boyfriends do practically all of their computing on their iPhones. Their newest PC or laptop is about 10 years old and serve little purpose beyond dumping images off their iPhones to USB drives or DVDs. I bet my older sister has not powered her desktop PC in several months and the only person using my younger sister's laptop is my father when he goes to babysit.

In places like THG though, most readers think primarily about professionals, high-end gamers and enthusiasts. They forget the other 80-90% of the market (basic home/office PCs, HTPCs, laptops, terminals and other applications with low CPU/GPU requirements) which isn't them.

Sales of highish-end PCs might be rising but sales of PCs as a whole are dropping. I take it as a sign that people who still depend on PCs want beefier PCs while people who do not need conventional PCs for any specific reason are dropping PCs in favor of mobile devices.

Those kids will also be drastically nearsighted because of the constant reading at such close distances. They're going to seriously hurt their vision. A dock like this should help prevent that and give them a little more flexibility.

In my work, most of what I do is either email or web based anyway. I'd do fine with a phone with a dock like this. I can do all my email tasks through a web interface, I can manage my VMWare vCenter through a web interface, I do all the component purchasing through a web interface for Oracle. This looks like a great idea to me, as long as they can get enterprise level device control working properly.

 

[InvalidError]

Those kids will also be drastically nearsighted because of the constant reading at such close distances. They're going to seriously hurt their vision.

I have been doing nearly all of my reading on my N7-2012 since the day I got it and I do not feel like it had any impact on my eyesight. I'd even say it reduces my eyestrain for long reading sessions since the higher pixel density produces smoother-looking text and it also enables me to read without glasses.

 

[dgingeri]

Those kids will also be drastically nearsighted because of the constant reading at such close distances. They're going to seriously hurt their vision.

I have been doing nearly all of my reading on my N7-2012 since the day I got it and I do not feel like it had any impact on my eyesight. I'd even say it reduces my eyestrain for long reading sessions since the higher pixel density produces smoother-looking text and it also enables me to read without glasses.

Repetitive Stress Injury isn't lust limited to your joints or muscles.

http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-problems/glossary-of-eye-and-vision-conditions/myopia?sso=y

"People who do an excessive amount of near vision work may experience a false or “pseudo” myopia. Their blurred distance vision is caused by over use of the eyes’ focusing mechanism. After long periods of near work, their eyes are unable to refocus to see clearly in the distance. The symptoms are usually temporary and clear distance vision may return after resting the eyes. However, over time constant visual stress may lead to a permanent reduction in distance vision."

Also, at about 40, the lens crystallizes and hardens, which leads to a fixation of the person's vision at the range they use most. The more extreme effect, such as focusing at about 12-18 inches or primarily focusing at extremely long distances, the more severe the fixation effect and the earlier it develops.

In other words, web surfing on your phone for extended periods is really bad for your eyes.

 

[InvalidError]

In other words, web surfing on your phone for extended periods is really bad for your eyes.

What you need to worry about is the resting point of vergeance - the distance at which eyes focus at when resting. That distance can be anywhere from 10" to 50" and will change when wearing corrective lenses. At that distance, whatever it is, it is no worse than sleeping.

 

[dgingeri]

In other words, web surfing on your phone for extended periods is really bad for your eyes.

What you need to worry about is the resting point of vergeance - the distance at which eyes focus at when resting. That distance can be anywhere from 10" to 50" and will change when wearing corrective lenses. At that distance, whatever it is, it is no worse than sleeping.

I'm 43, and I've been in IT for almost 20 years, plus I've been a PC gamer for almost 30 years. I do a LOT of extended reading at monitor distances, about 3 feet away. It has created some problems with my eyesight so that I can no longer see the mountains around here clearly until about a day after I stop reading things at monitor distance. I used to love driving around in the mountains on weekends, but I can't anymore because of the problems with my eyesight. My eye muscles now have to work much harder to pull my lens flatter to focus on things more than about 20 feet away. I actually feel the eye strain from it. I've actually begun taking time out from it to try to reduce further damage.

Reading things at a phone distance is a lot closer, at most 24 inches, usually around 12 inches, and your eyes have to work at it a lot harder. It will affect your eyes a lot more than my monitor reading.

 

[littleleo]

This is a cool idea I'd like to see more brands offer a similar product.

 

[why_wolf]

I hope Microsoft has finally figured out they should be pushing their phones towards the enterprise market. I'm thinking of legions of employees who only have laptops so they can make simple excel spreadsheets and power point presentations while also having iphones. If their requirement is so low than a phone with a dock would be an ideal replacement. Integration into existing IT infrastructure without nonsense work arounds would also be nice.

Trying to take on iPhone or Android head on in the consumer market was always a bad idea. But trying to take over Blackberry old spot can still net them some serious money.

 

[scolaner]

Those kids will also be drastically nearsighted because of the constant reading at such close distances. They're going to seriously hurt their vision.

I have been doing nearly all of my reading on my N7-2012 since the day I got it and I do not feel like it had any impact on my eyesight. I'd even say it reduces my eyestrain for long reading sessions since the higher pixel density produces smoother-looking text and it also enables me to read without glasses.

Repetitive Stress Injury isn't lust limited to your joints or muscles.

http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-problems/glossary-of-eye-and-vision-conditions/myopia?sso=y

"People who do an excessive amount of near vision work may experience a false or “pseudo” myopia. Their blurred distance vision is caused by over use of the eyes’ focusing mechanism. After long periods of near work, their eyes are unable to refocus to see clearly in the distance. The symptoms are usually temporary and clear distance vision may return after resting the eyes. However, over time constant visual stress may lead to a permanent reduction in distance vision."

Also, at about 40, the lens crystallizes and hardens, which leads to a fixation of the person's vision at the range they use most. The more extreme effect, such as focusing at about 12-18 inches or primarily focusing at extremely long distances, the more severe the fixation effect and the earlier it develops.

In other words, web surfing on your phone for extended periods is really bad for your eyes.

I'm dating myself a bit here, but I STILL blame the original Gameboy for my terrible nearsightedness.

 

[RedJaron]

To everyone asking why they didn't make it a dock, it's because docks have to be designed around phone cases. A type-C cable can be connected to any phone, regardless of manufacturer. This way the dock can work with any supported Windows 10 phone, not just the Lumia right now ( and possibly even with future Lumia phones ).

 

[scolaner]

your phone can't replace your PC. And it never will.

Uh...ever heard the phrase "never say never?" I'm shocked that a tech website of all places would say that a phone will never replace a PC where that is basically inevitable and simply a matter of time. People seem to forget that the capabilities of a desktop are often far beyond what the average user needs to browse facebook and watch videos, along with the occasional email and word processing.

You missed the first part of that sentence: "Your phone can't do all the things your PC can -- even if that PC is a lightweight ultrabook -- and in that sense, no, your phone can't replace your PC. And it never will."

That is to say, because of physics, however powerful your phone hardware can be, the capabilities of full systems, such as laptops or desktops, will always be a step ahead.

A lot of people are going to squeal, "It can replace your PC entirely OMG!!" But it can't, not entirely, and I was just trying to emphasize that point, lest anyone think I was trying to say that it could.

No, the fellow is correct. The "PC" serves a certain purpose, and only requires a certain amount of computing power. If the amount of performance and flexibility required by the home user can be contained within a phone, then yes, the phone will indeed replace the PC. If software that's popular among home users can't be run on a phone, then yes, the PC will continue to exist, but as he said, it's basically inevitable that eventually a compact device like a phone will have all the power needed for home computing.

That's not to say that the threshold will be crossed simultaneously for all users. Non-gamers will be able to switch to a phone sized device much sooner than gamers, for example, but we'll all get there eventually.

Let's agree that my original wording was insufficiently clear. Because atheus, your response is perfect. And I completely agree with you. Well said.

 

[fudoka711]

It's not quite clear, does it charge the phone too? If not then I'd probably have to interrupt my work day to plug my phone into a charger at some point!?

I think it does charge your device, or at least, I would assume so.

The Dock has a 3000mAh charger input and 2000mAh charger output. The phone couldn't reliably power the monitor so the dock has to be supplying some power and we know power can be transferred over usb.

 

[alextheblue]

Microsoft's portable run-anywhere applications use MSIL distribution which gets JIT-recompiled to whatever the device's CPU requires, just like Android (which is itself derived from Java) does with its Dalvik JIT compiler (before L/5.0) and ART (5.x/6) install-time recompiler.

There's also now the option for native C++ and C# .NET apps. It compiles in the cloud ahead of time for all compatible targets. So the devices don't need to compile locally and they still get the benefits of native code. Meanwhile the code can still be recompiled for new targets presumably without developer intervention (since they have the most recently submitted source code in the cloud already).

 

[__Miguel_]

-- Can my phone be my PC? -- has been asked repeatedly since Apple created the smartphone market with the iPhone.

Excuse me? I've personally been asking that exact question since my first PDA, when the iPhone was still a pipe dream, at least 15 years ago... I've always wanted a personal device capable of both call/messaging and data managing as well as connection to my bigger home hardware for years. And I'm not even a pioneer on that front, I'm sure, loads of people have been asking that question for much longer than myself.

There are two things interesting to note about this announcement, though:

1) That dock should be universal, since it's USB-C enabled. Meaning that it could be used on anything else that has a USB-C connector. Say, like one of the new Chromebooks. Or the port-less Macbook.

2) Even more importantly, you're not limited to this particular dock, again because of USB-C. You'll be able to use any (read: cheaper) dock you want, and have the same capabilities.

I still maintain they're going at this the wrong way, but oh well... What I've been waiting for is for a full x86-based Windows PC with full GSM/4G (voice, texting, and data) capabilities that I can do whatever I want with, connecting to one of those docks. And it might or might not come in a smartphone format, I'd be fine either way. Heck, a "stick PC" like that would still be sweet, though honestly something like a Zenphone 2 (with an USB-C port with video out capabilities) running a full Windows 10 installation would be amazing.

One can dream, right?

 

[zodiacfml]

This cries for an x86 chip with the x86 Windows.

 

[RedJaron]

This cries for an x86 chip with the x86 Windows.

Yeah, me and others have been dreaming about this for years. I think this is what keeps spawning the rumors of a Surface Phone.

 

[RedJaron]

-- Can my phone be my PC? -- has been asked repeatedly since Apple created the smartphone market with the iPhone.

Excuse me? I've personally been asking that exact question since my first PDA, when the iPhone was still a pipe dream, at least 15 years ago... I've always wanted a personal device capable of both call/messaging and data managing as well as connection to my bigger home hardware for years. And I'm not even a pioneer on that front, I'm sure, loads of people have been asking that question for much longer than myself.

Yeah, I've never understood why people claim the iPhone created the smartphone market. Windows Mobile had been around prior. I had a Treo in 2004 as well. I remember my brother having some kind of B&W touchscreen phone on Sprint back around 2003 as well.

1) That dock should be universal, since it's USB-C enabled. Meaning that it could be used on anything else that has a USB-C connector. Say, like one of the new Chromebooks. Or the port-less Macbook.

I'm not sure on this. The phone itself has to support the dock through software. Just because a phone or device has a type-C connector doesn't mean it has all the software to do this. MS could even restrict the dock to work with W10 phones ( I don't think they'd restrict it to just Lumia devices ).

 

[aldaia]

your phone can't replace your PC. And it never will.

Uh...ever heard the phrase "never say never?" I'm shocked that a tech website of all places would say that a phone will never replace a PC where that is basically inevitable and simply a matter of time. People seem to forget that the capabilities of a desktop are often far beyond what the average user needs to browse facebook and watch videos, along with the occasional email and word processing.

You missed the first part of that sentence: "Your phone can't do all the things your PC can -- even if that PC is a lightweight ultrabook -- and in that sense, no, your phone can't replace your PC. And it never will."

That is to say, because of physics, however powerful your phone hardware can be, the capabilities of full systems, such as laptops or desktops, will always be a step ahead.

A lot of people are going to squeal, "It can replace your PC entirely OMG!!" But it can't, not entirely, and I was just trying to emphasize that point, lest anyone think I was trying to say that it could.

Still, "Never" is a very very long time, And time tends to prove such predictions wrong:
“I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers.”(Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM, circa 1943)
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”(Ken Olson, President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977) (ironically DEC was bought in 1998 by Compaq, a pc company)

Now a small history lesson:
Mainframes* where replaced by (less capable at the time) minicomputers.
Minicomputers where replaced by (less capable at the time) PCs.
And, no doubt, PCs will be replaced by (less capable right now) smartphones, the question is when, and "Never" is the wrong answer ;-)

* Actually mainframens have never been fully replaced by minicomputers/PCs, IBM is still selling them, but they represent a niche market (for legacy applications) in a world where the PC is the dominant computing platform. The same way that PCs will probably not be fully replaced, but they will represent a legacy niche market where the dominant computing platform will be the smarphone.

 

[InvalidError]

I'm not sure on this. The phone itself has to support the dock through software.

What modern mobile OS does not have full support for USB hubs and other basic devices baked into its USB driver stack? Not having to re-invent all the basic driver and software stacks required to run a modern OS to manage the generic functionality expected out of modern devices is one of the main reasons so many devices are using Android or other mobile OSes as their foundation. This dock is nothing more than a hub with a Type-C host port, so at least that much of its functionality should be universal. Most companies do not bother going out of their way to rip support for generic USB devices out of their firmware - that requires extra effort over using the stock OS which already includes all of it.

 

[scolaner]

-- Can my phone be my PC? -- has been asked repeatedly since Apple created the smartphone market with the iPhone.

Excuse me? I've personally been asking that exact question since my first PDA, when the iPhone was still a pipe dream, at least 15 years ago... I've always wanted a personal device capable of both call/messaging and data managing as well as connection to my bigger home hardware for years. And I'm not even a pioneer on that front, I'm sure, loads of people have been asking that question for much longer than myself.

Yeah, I've never understood why people claim the iPhone created the smartphone market. Windows Mobile had been around prior. I had a Treo in 2004 as well. I remember my brother having some kind of B&W touchscreen phone on Sprint back around 2003 as well.

Yes, I remember Microsoft's early "smartphones." I remember being in awe that they crammed Windows onto a handheld device. And I also remember what a terrible user experience it was. I'm not really criticizing Microsoft on that-I mean, the fact they did it at all was really cool. But you really can't argue much about the iPhone establishing the smartphone market.

With the original iPhone, Apple took everything that Microsoft, and everyone else, was *trying* to do, and did it really, really well. It set the paradigm for what a smartphone would be, and how it would acquire and run apps, etc. Look at any smartphone on the market today: They all have that same basic DNA that Apple invented with the iPhone and iOS.

It is true that the Apple Hype Machine has gone haywire since then (and curse you for making me sound like an Apple apologist before I've even had my coffee!), but you can't deny the iPhone's influence. I consider the release of the original iPhone to be the true birth of the smartphone market.

 

[waynes]

Didn't Motorola do something like this years ago. Ubuntu on android showed off desktop mode years ago, doesnt Ubuntu on.mobile still have it. What is the difference in witelessly transmitting your display from your phone to a TV and using a cheap usb3 powered hub. What was MS doing that's revolutionary?