You were looking for a laugh to start your Columbus Day / Canadian Thanksgiving Day / etc. off, weren't you? Consider yourself lucky. OLO Computer is reportedly thinking of bringing to market a netbook-styled device that would actually enable (require?) users to plop their iPhone / iPhone 3G into the palm rest; from there, the handset would act as the brains of the operation and double as a trackpad. At the present time, there are no real specifications to speak of -- just a zany teaser page and lots of speculation. We shouldn't have to remind you what an epic failure the whole "cellphone companion" sector has been, as one look at Palm's
axed Foleo and the
deeply discounted Celio REDFLY should be explanation enough. Hey, we're not trying to discourage you from giving this a go, OLO, but we'd probably have a backup plan ready to roll in case Apple itself drops a netbook on the world
in the next 48 hours.
[Via
Liliputing]
Read - Official teaser page
Read - Netbook-style clamshell for iPhone is coming
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
italiansm0ke @ Oct 13th 2008 11:40AM
It's not a horrible idea, honestly. The iPhone is more than equipped for access to organized music libraries, viewing pictures/documents, SMS, touch mouse/navigation recognition and a bunch other features. Not a bad way to add more functionality and phone to computer integration. Even though it might be a bad case of viral marketing at the moment. It might even help lower the cost of the lappies a smidge.
And if that don't sell ya, hopefully the laptop comes equipped with a copy/paste *feature*. //gets down on knee and grips hands// Please?
christexaport @ Oct 13th 2008 2:11PM
I like the general idea, but not with an iPhone! Right now, I can buy a $400 netbook that supports multiple media formats, multitasks, supports Flash and Silverlight, bluetooth file transfer, and outperforms the computing features of the iPhone.
Why would I want an $800 featurephone to run as a laptop? Wouldn't a device that shows the capability to be a laptop replacement be a better choice? Maybe a high end touch-enabled S60, Maemo, WinMo or Android device would be a better idea. I'd bet no one wants an iPhone laptop if it works like an iPhone. But add something with N95-2 power, maybe that 800MHz processor packing Asus smartphone, or a Touch HD/WiMax.
I had a similar idea back when Celio came out, but with a combining a dock for your N95 or N810 that adds a large high resolution screen, QWERTY keyboard, and external USB and eSATA storage support. The screen as touchpad is smart, though.
Unknown @ Oct 13th 2008 12:55PM
Apart from the large screen, what the OLO brings to the party is a real keyboard, which is good because, let's face it, pecking away at the on-screen keyboard like a demented chicken is just not as efficient and speedy as using a real keyboard.
What Apple should do (please!) is simply enable keyboard support in the iPhone's bluetooth stack, and then you could use the svelte Apple wireless keyboard, which will be a lot smaller, lighter and cheaper than the OLO.
christexaport @ Oct 13th 2008 2:30PM
I could be wrong, but I don't think this will just add a keyboard, but possible extra storage and higher resolution screen.
If you want a keyboard, why not just buy a smartphone equipped with one? Why'd you choose the iPhone if text entry was important to you? The iPhone's main purpose is making calls and connecting the user to the iTunes interface and store. It has other apps, but since they aren't freely created and distributed, don't work simultaneously, and its not a true smartphone, you may be asking a limited device to do too much. There are more capable, less expensive devices that would be a better option like the E90, Touch Pro The iPhone is ok, but is neither a business tool, smartphone, nor a PC substitute.
You probably would be happier using a Nokia Eseries or Nseries model, or even a WinMo or Android device with a built in keyboard. Apple needs to mature alot more to be in a laptop league, as the N95 8gb, E90 and Touch Pro are. If these devices are too complex, maybe you can beg Apple to include a simple sliding QWERTY board.
The hardware is decent, but the OS is another issue. A laptop is a productivity tool. Apple's iPhone OS is all glitter and glamour, with no go. We don't need a laptop like that. Vista has that market already.
badqat @ Oct 13th 2008 7:23PM
Not three days ago my 12 year old suggested this idea, which I poo-poo-ed as being silly. We were looking a netbooks, and he honestly said "hey, why doesn't Apple release a netbook that you plop your iPhone into and acts as the brains of the operation?"
Hmm...
michael.s.underwood @ Oct 14th 2008 12:02PM
I think this would be awesome. If you could surf the web using the much larger screen but piggyback on the iPhone 3g/wifi connection. Also movie watching on a larger screen is always better and it would have to at least triple battery life.