[lord_hibiskus]

So, I'm not sure what you're saying. You'd like to carry around a tv/monitor, mouse, and keyboard, along with your phone?

No, but i am fine carrying some smaller BT keyboard with touchpad and hdmi cable. I guess i have monitor/tv wherever i need it: home, office, hotel room. Where else should i need it?

[qwerty4ever]

Different users have different wants. I, will never go for that kind of solution such as a chromebook being the interface, or when there is no connection or poor connection, it becomes a really expensive paperweight.

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I agree that the ChromeBook is too Google-centric. I was referring to cloud services from a variety of services providers; the best of breed so to speak.

The BlackBerry PlayBook allows me to participate in academic courses including watching lectures, communicating with other students in discussion forums, complete coursework, take assessments, etc. I can use data analysis tools such as R and Octave, develop software using cloud services providing an integrated development environment (IDE), application deployment, source code repository, and even command-line Unix environment accessible anywhere thanks to WiFi and Internet connectivity via BlackBerry Bridge and mobile hotspot. I'm able to write research papers and articles using LaTeX with the benefit of easy output to portable document format (PDF) and presentations using Beamer. Email support via an IMAP account (personal) and hosted Microsoft Exchange Online and/or BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (professional). Documents can be stored on the media card in my BlackBerry Z10 which is accessible via the native file manager which is possible due to BlackBerry Bridge. Remote access to servers and workstations running a Unix operating system or Microsoft Windows facilitates administration and management. The BlackBerry Leather Executive Case with Bluetooth Mini-Keyboard and support for an external Bluetooth mouse and an HDMI port to connect to a larger screen...although proper high resolution output would be much nicer. BlackBerry management really never appreciated the full potential of the BlackBerry PlayBook nor BlackBerry Bridge functionality after the introduction of BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The BlackBerry Q5 with fully functional BlackBerry Bridge like we had with BlackBerry OS 5/6/7 smartphones would be very useful too.

Posted via CB10 from the BlackBerry Z10

[badiyee]

I agree that the ChromeBook is too Google-centric. I was referring to cloud services from a variety of services providers; the best of breed so to speak.

The BlackBerry PlayBook allows me to participate in academic courses including watching lectures, communicating with other students in discussion forums, complete coursework, take assessments, etc. I can use data analysis tools such as R and Octave, develop software using cloud services providing an integrated development environment (IDE), application deployment, source code repository, and even command-line Unix environment accessible anywhere thanks to WiFi and Internet connectivity via BlackBerry Bridge and mobile hotspot. I'm able to write research papers and articles using LaTeX with the benefit of easy output to portable document format (PDF) and presentations using Beamer. Email support via an IMAP account (personal) and hosted Microsoft Exchange Online and/or BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (professional). Documents can be stored on the media card in my BlackBerry Z10 which is accessible via the native file manager which is possible due to BlackBerry Bridge. Remote access to servers and workstations running a Unix operating system or Microsoft Windows facilitates administration and management. The BlackBerry Leather Executive Case with Bluetooth Mini-Keyboard and support for an external Bluetooth mouse and an HDMI port to connect to a larger screen...although proper high resolution output would be much nicer. BlackBerry management really never appreciated the full potential of the BlackBerry PlayBook nor BlackBerry Bridge functionality after the introduction of BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The BlackBerry Q5 with fully functional BlackBerry Bridge like we had with BlackBerry OS 5/6/7 smartphones would be very useful too.

Posted via CB10 from the BlackBerry Z10

If you ask me, I still think a tablet + portable dock is probably the closest thing to a mobile computing device we can get. That said the new office 365 from microsoft quenches the need for a proper office app, but the subscription is kinda heavy on my side (we're thinking as an educational organization how to get it at a much lower cost), and the PlayBook does well on that aspect (not that my AcerA500 doesn't, as well, but since its running on a custom 4.x, its getting a little cranky, especially when official support only goes up to 4.0, after so long).

I still think there are 2 "latches" to the whole idea of mobile computing. I think that while the industry still finds means to reach the holy grail of "putting a pc in a handheld device", users should allow themselves to look at a different latch, for example using a thin client, (gaming is almost out of this, too much bandwidth streaming used), or a slew of really ultra-portable devices. Like I said, I still think a 2/3-in one tablet+dock combo is a really good way to go. For somebody like me who really moves a lot, getting myself a desktop is pointless, but a lot of today's solutions aren't GPU intensive enough to warrant a "i must get it!" response. Asus transformer book trio nearly nails this, but falls short on the specs and the correct specs on the dock. I hope they will release something like a MS Surface Pro 2 with Intel iris pro / HD 5200, then a dock where a HDD, discrete GPU, more battery, and some of the usual ports like usb 3.0, and one of those bolt connectors.

The way I see it, here's how I think the picture looks like:

a) heavy back-end community server (rented, or given access to limited entities, such as company employees, etc. This requires a very good, stable internet connection on the go. If you're on a building I suppose that's taken care of.
b) a mobile / ultraportable mini-pc, tablet, or mobile phone, etc.
c) a heavy duty dock, as an alternative when A is not available, and B is not powerful enough <----- this part isn't something that manufacturers are keen upon


There are some weird interpretations to that, like how certain AIO pc companies are now making "fully upgrade-able/customizeable" AIOs, but until they can shrink the size and weight I don't think its getting there yet. The idea is there though.

[rthonpm]

With cloud services some businesses are already moving away from the traditional desktop and notebook computers. Tablets and smartphones have been proving themselves viable in these situations.

Posted via CB10 from the BlackBerry Z10

In other words, we're moving back to the older traditional mainframe/terminal model? This has been done before but for many businesses, at least the ones I deal with on a regular basis, cloud storage still has too many questions in terms of ownership and liability of the data offloaded to them.

No matter what, our expectations and wants will always outstrip what the current hardware can deliver.

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