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James Saull's Blog

The ethical slacker

Windows Mobile and Cloud Computing - will it erode laptop and *books?

Looking at some of the latest Smart/PDA phones they have pretty reasonable processors, fairly significant amounts of memory, WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, VGA screens, audio, video, voice, camera etc.

Do I really need my laptop anymore?

Most development work on most of our projects are performed using Virtual Machines running on VMWare or Hyper-V clusters. I just RDP (Remote Desktop) to them. A large amount of applications are web based applications - even the mighty Outlook/Exchange. Word, Excel, PowerPoint - that's a bit sticky, but if Google have their way most of that stuff too will be web based (even though that doesn't escape the need for reasonable local compute resources).

Assuming that the mobile device has got enough "grunt" to run those applications, then all it really needs is a nice big screen, ergonomic keyboard and mouse. We can't be far away from docking our mobiles on arrival in the offices, just like you might do with your laptop. If I really need a laptop form factor then surely it can't be a leap to design a laptop that just hosts the docking mobile. I can already see the iPhone sliding into a very slight Mac, or a HTC into a Dell. This host could provide additional battery power to cover the large bright screen and extended use running applications at higher clock speeds.

In the short term it won't satisfy the power users, but there is a large majority for whom that would work very well. Of course, when you couple this with Cloud Computing for data storage and application virtualisation it could all be very easy. I should just be able to walk around with my second brain - docking it to extend/enhance its capabilities.

Mobiles will become smarter at detecting their context and adapting to exploit it. In mobile mode it behaves as you'd expect, and when docked it will step the processor speed up, switch resolution and prioritise network usage towards a fixed local network / WiFi over 3G etc.

Device 0. It will shrink and shrink. Soon it will just be a chip in a key fob. I could insert Device 0 into a mobile phone style device giving it networking, a display and keyboard which I could further dock in a laptop or just slap on top of a Surface Computer.

Eventually, embedded in my person, Device 0 will wirelessly detect nearby resources: adopting and adapting to them them. I walk up to a Microsoft Surface and I am off... If you take this to the extreme, Device 0 is just my secure identity. The environment will provide all the resources and the cloud will extend this.

Published 22 September 2008 12:41 by James.Saull

Comments

 

Solmn said:

I am approaching the cloud from the end-user perspective, where its all foggy up there, and all that matters is how easy it is to interact with my own personal data on the smallest footprint of a device.

I'm an anticipated fan of the CherryPal C100, which is being touted as a cloud computer. The CherryPal™ C100 desktop is about the size of a paperback book with the performance you would expect from a full-size desktop computer. It has Freescale’s triple-core mobileGT processor for multimedia performance and feature-rich user interfaces, while only consuming as much power as a clock radio. CherryPal uses 80 percent fewer components than a traditional PC, and because it has no moving parts, it operates without making a sound and will last 10 years or more. I am excited about how the CherryPal can bridge barriers to people who have not had access to computers or the internet because of money, fear, education or other challenges. I will be commenting on my experience of using it on my blog as soon as I get my own CherryPal C100! http://cherrypal.blogspot.com CherryPal 4Every1 (CPFE) is the number one CherryPal fan site with info on CP discounts, gigs, sitings, buyings and cloud computing and green computing raves...Use CODE CPP206 for $10 off a CherryPal C100 desktop. Subscribe at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?previewfeed=424285

September 23, 2008 16:06
 

jamie.thomson said:

Maybe this is in the direction you're espousing:

Redfly: A Netbook Entirely Powered By Your Windows Mobile Phone

http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Redfly-A-Netbook-Entirely-Powered-By-Your-Windows-Mobile-Phone/

-Jamie

October 24, 2008 09:40
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