Smartphones will replace ultra mobile notebooks

Perhaps within months instead of years

[IanKelley]

I've been patiently waiting for a mobile device that can replace the notebook for almost a decade. Currently I'm settling for an ultra thin and light notebook, which is nice, but it's still a lot to carry around. And who wants to juggle data between a home/work PC, a notebook and their phone?

Now with things like the HDMI out port on the Droid X and Motorola's plan to release a 2ghz smartphone by the end of 2010, it's becoming a reality.

At 2ghz, running a lightweight mobile OS, there aren't any vital business or development apps you won't be able to run (minus high end media editing of course).

Add in the ability to port the display to any convenient monitor or HD TV and there's no longer a reason to carry a notebook around.

For rare Luddite locations that don't have HDMI compatible TV's you'd need bring along a flat panel screen of your own. No doubt companies will be manufacturing them specifically for use with HDMI compatible smartphones by next year at the latest. Alternatively you could bring a miniature projector instead.

For those occasions when the (impressive) state of speech to text technology isn't good enough there are bluetooth keyboards.

And this is just 2010. In the next year or two who knows how far the rapidly growing smartphone market will have pushed mobile technology.

[incrediBILL]

why would I lug around a case with all that stuff in it, just for the "convenience" of having my phone as my computer?

You wouldn't need to with laser keyboards, projectors and/or the video goggles.

Take a look at the new Samsung Beam i8520: Android-powered projector phone [crave.cnet.co.uk] for an example of what's coming and here's a shot of the projector itself [crave.cnet.co.uk].

Unfortunately, just like with the HDMI port on the EVO, it's only capable of playing videos, not being used as the phones video screen according to the description.

No clue why they aren't getting jiggy with the concept but all the pieces are in place.

Combine that projector with this bluetooth laser keyboard [amazon.com], about the size of a cigarette lighter, and you have your "docking station" in your pocket.

Buddy of mine has one of those laser keyboards and it's pretty cool, I can probably type about 2/3 speed on it, but it gobbles batteries like crazy.

If you're an attention hound like my buddy is, those laser keyboards displayed on a table will get anyone's attention, even pretty girls :)

Now figure out how to combine that laser keyboard inside that Samsung Beam phone as one complete device and we've got a winner.

... and the new see through video goggles [lumus-optical.com] simply rock.

[IanKelley]

and the phone merely works as the CPU and storage space

Exactly. Smartphones now have all the processing many people need, why not use it?

"productivity stations" for smartphones seem like a long way in the future to me

That's why the HDMI out was interesting to me. Nearly every hotel room I've been in recently has a HD TV. Many cars and SUVS now have TVs built in. So there are your productivity stations.

Or use a pair of the aforementioned glasses, or a projector, or whatever comes next.

Personally I think I'd throw a thin, travel-centric, screen with a protective cover in my bag.

The more I think about Kinect [xbox.com ] the more I think that a keyboard or other input device may not be necessary.

If all you need, now, to accurately capture motion and body position is a camera... Smartphones have already got those, newer ones have two. Making any flat surface potentially both a keyboard and a touch/point interface.

That part of it isn't going to happen right away, most likely, but someone mentioned laser projection keyboards earlier. I've never tried one of those but I have seen flat rubbery keyboards that can roll/fold up and take up a tiny amount of space.

And as I was saying voice recognition is getting really good. Not quite good enough for coding at a reasonable pace, but at the speed it's improving it won't be long.

[IanKelley]

Unfortunately, just like with the HDMI port on the EVO, it's only capable of playing videos, not being used as the phones video screen according to the description.

I didn't realize this. It seems it's a driver/software issue, though, so there's hope for a future update. Or you could just root.

[buckworks]

When I'm away from my desk I prefer to be unplugged, period.

I have a not-very-smart cell phone, and I sometimes go weeks without even turning it on. A smart phone would be appealing if I lived in an urban area, but the region where I live has such spotty coverage there's not much point.

[incrediBILL]

And as I was saying voice recognition is getting really good. Not quite good enough for coding at a reasonable pace, but at the speed it's improving it won't be long

Not quite.

The voice recognition isn't actually done in the phone, it's a voice packet shipped off to the cloud for processing, then shipped back to your phone as text.

4G may speed up the process but until voice processing is actually done in the phone, like it is on a laptop or netbook, it'll never be fast enough.

Plus voice has lots of issues like someone walks up behind you and says something and VOILA! there it is on your screen, and forget noisy places...

... unless you're using the Jawbone microphone [jawbone.com].