This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
last thing I want is an android pc. well maybe not the last but nope
I found these kind of features really useful. I had to submit some documents that I needed to do some work on before they got sent off. Everything was local, and with a keyboard/monitor/mouse I could have a browser, my email, and the document I was editing on the screen at the same time. So much faster typing and clicking.
I use my Steamdeck for that more often now if I just want a desktop while i am traveling if I don't want to bring the laptop. I just mount the phone as a folder, so even that is easy.
I mean I get it kinda. I just have never really went for the smartphone thing. The laptop is basically my end all be all of technology. I too though love my steamdeck. I actually bought it as kinda of indulgence that I justified with the idea it would become my new laptop but I really like having gaming on a different device and just not worrying about it on my laptop.
yay, locked down unrepairable computers owned by a us company that aids in war and surveillance!
We are talking about Android, not Apple.
Android phones can be user repaired and repaired by third parties without Googles permission.
It's either Linux phone or fighting in the trenches a losing battle against one the most powerful companies in history. Android offering a desktop mode is good if taken in the context of running an open source software on hardware you own.
locked down
How? They allow users to install 3rd party ROMs and GrapheneOS
unrepairable
They're not the best, but far from the worst. I've done multiple repairs on mine without much issue. There are first party parts and guides available on iFixit.
us company
I guess?
aids in war and surveillance!
You'd be hard pressed to find a manufacturer that doesn't
This feature is a positive change. Enabling people to minimize the number of devices they need has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of ewaste people generate, and makes desktop features more accessible to people who can't afford multiple devices.
android is pretty locked down, and being locked down further this year to allow only google-sanctioned software. following this trend will see actually unlocked and repairable computers replaced by locked phones. pixels are better than average but not available everywhere.
are the ifixit guides gonna help me replace the busted storage chip that renders my phone unbootable? i can just replace it for cheap on my laptop.
I guess?
Enabling people to minimize the number of devices they need
this is literally the biggest issue here. relying on a country that doles out sanctions and bombings like it's parking tickets.
and increasing reliance on google and the aforementioned empire for underpowered computing is not a positive at all.
So sort of like the Continuum mode that Windows Phones had, like, ten years ago?
Like desktop mode on Librem5 in 2020, convergence on PinePhone from 2021, or Samsung Dex from a few years ago, too.
And every Ubuntu Touch device with support for external monitors for the last ten years or so. Here's a demonstration running on a Fairphone 4.
Oh the Motorola Atrix from like, 2014? I still have the lapdock. Used it with an original RPi for a while to make a terrible laptop.
Literally every Samsung Android phone has come with their Dex desktop for like 10 years too.
I fucking hate Google at this point. They're just an even shittier version of apple now. Locking down their shit for no reason, and claiming decades old innovations are actually new and theirs.
Anyone know if this works with GrapheneOS? I haven’t tested this in a very long time and then I was on stock. Android.
It does in fact work with GOS. I don't believe this build has been released yet though so you likely still need to toggle it on in the dev settings.
I last tried out the beta version of it on Graphene a couple of months back and it was rough. In fairness though, I was mostly using it to figure out how to use it to install a full fat Linux distro, which is probably a niche use.
My phone's just updated, so I'll give it another spin when I get home tonight and report back.
It works fine enough. It's not going to replace my desktop PC any time soon but it helps a lot for anything involving word processing/documents, as well as gaming on TVs and monitors.
Yes, although it will be a full ANDROID PC.
I have a 9a running Graphene and with a "usb C laptop dock" I can use it in "desktop mode", but I would warn that it is still EXTREMELY buggy and finnicky.
Still neat though.
It works okay, but not great for me. I toss my phone on one of my old laptops docking station at work, but some apps like to force a shit resolution. It is pretty neat having them in moveable windows though.
It didn't already do this? Why did I have phones and tablets that could do this already?
And are there apps for normal desktop office work?
I'm surely not gonna use Google docs or Microsoft's cloud clobber.
