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Re:Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smart... by kybernetikos on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @04:51PM (#10699843)
I've been able to (and have done so) plug my android phone into a usb hub with mouse and keyboard and into a 1080p screen for quite a few years now.

Of course, there's relatively little that truly takes advantage of that set up, and making the user experience more pleasant would make a huge difference, but android understands mouse and keyboard input just fine. Microsoft may be somewhat further along on this front, but I don't think it's as much as you think - the apps that can run in this way are not full windows applications, and there are relatively few of them at present.

Re:Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smart... by nivla on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @06:00PM (#10700428)
>Microsoft may be somewhat further along on this front, but I don't think it's as much as you think - the apps that can run in this way are not full windows applications.

But that is going to soon change as MS is working with Intel to launch Intel powered phones (x86). [1]

Regardless of whether Windows phone succeeds or not, I believe the path they are taking will eventually be where all the OSes will end up. The saying "The best camera is the one that is with you" may hold true for computers in the future.

Imagine hotels & coffee shops offering a dock for rooms/tables and the only thing you need is your phone. Plug it in and voila!, your personalized desktop with all its settings and data. This might even be secure, cost effective and more efficient method for portable desktop.

[1] http://news.softpedia.com/news/microsoft-launching-intel-pow...

Re:Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smart... by nitrogen on Wednesday December 09, 2015 @03:11AM (#10702522)
I like the docking concept, but you really can't trust input devices you don't own.
Re:Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smart... by pjmlp on Wednesday December 09, 2015 @07:45AM (#10703273)
Same applies to FxOS, not the whole stack was open.

Plus people keep forgetting that there aren't any open options for the radio OS.

Re:Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smart... by MawNicker on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @06:00PM (#10700427)
It's not just the raw capabilities that are important. This is something Apple has understood for a long time. Microsoft is figuring it out.
Re:Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smart... by MarkyC4 on Wednesday December 09, 2015 @05:30PM (#10707246)
The Motorola Atrix had an optional attachment that turned it into a "webtop" (basically a laptop case that used your phone as the CPU): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Atrix_4G