Continuum on Phone - detailed information!

[EMINENT 1]

I can't wait for a Surface phone that has a low cost Surface tablet shell accessory that's just a miracast touch display and a huge, honking battery.

Bye bye ipads and gtabs. GAME CHANGER!

 

[Kodiak12]

Remember the KT Spider Phone from 2011?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNw26_A7EDE

MS has nothing unique here but if you combine this with faster phone innards, wireless monitors and universal apps we're much closer now. I still see Continuum as mainly "on-the-fly" usage for Enterprise users rather than a replacement for anything.

 

[anon(9435020)]

When I travel, I often have to bring my laptop with me or even my small form factor desktop. And tons of wires, and keyboard and mice etc. All this in case I get a job while on the road. With this, and the development of a Universal app for translators, I can just bring my phone, keyboard, mouse and an HDMI-cable. Awesome.

 

[TechFreak1]

Another thing to take out from this is that since the Xbox 1 will support Miracast, you perhaps could use that as a Miracast receiver and do your work. When done, switch over to some relaxing entertainment on Netflix or smashing mutants on Sunset Overdrive .

All they need to do now is figure out a way to stream xbox 1 games to phones without the need for additional hardware (*Cough* Playstation TV). Thus making the Xbox 1 THE console to get over the PS4.

Continuum has many uses but if your going to run full desktop apps such as Visual Studio, your better off with a tablet :winktongue:.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Am I the only one not giving a damn about this?

You are not alone. There are undoubtedly many thousands of people who don't care. So basically a small minority. My recommendation would be for you to not use it or buy a new phone just because it would let you.

Personally I may get rid of all but one PC in the house because of this since the others are never used for anything that wouldn't be handled as well as a phone with Continuum. Just keep a monitor and keyboards. Of course that's only if its as good as they say.

 

[donkiluminate]

You are not alone. There are undoubtedly many thousands of people who don't care. So basically a small minority. My recommendation would be for you to not use it or buy a new phone just because it would let you.

Personally I may get rid of all but one PC in the house because of this since the others are never used for anything that wouldn't be handled as well as a phone with Continuum. Just keep a monitor and keyboards. Of course that's only if its as good as they say.

The thing for me is that I want to care, because who here doesn't like to play with new technology but I'm having a hard time thinking about how this would work my own personal use case. I've been waiting years to have an actual PC in my pocket and universal apps might just do that for me.
Seeing as how I turn my laptop on on average once a month I don't think continuum will have that much of an impact in my life.

However, I'm sure once the new phones come out and yous guys start showing all of the cool stuff you are doing with it I might just change my mind.

 

[HeyCori]

I think the cost of entry will have a huge impact on the usefulness of Continuum for Windows Phone. For the sake of argument, let's say that you already have a Continuum capable phone.

First you'll need a spare monitor, likely one that has a HDMI port since you'll need some way to connect a cord or wireless adapter. In the U.S. that's almost a $100 minimum for a HDMI equipped monitor. Perhaps you could use your current desktop monitor but at that point you're already using a full blown PC thus defeating the point.

Then of course you'll need a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Go cheap and (sans a sale) you can get both for $30 bucks. Now you're at $130 for three separate pieces of hardware. That's not an insane amount of money but I could see why someone would rather invest that $130 into a new laptop, especially when companies like HP are selling new laptops for $200. And let's not get into the logistics of trying to backup files onto an external drive.

Continuum is great for people that are tired of having a desktop, phone and tablet. It's hardware nausea. Speaking personally, it gets a little tiresome connecting cables so I can transfer files from my phone-to-computer-to-external drive and vice versa. I think it would be neat if Microsoft found a way to make Continuum work by connecting your phone to a laptop. IMO, that opens up a lot of possibilities. Cheap, low-powered or old laptops would get a new lease on life.

You could turn something like the HP Stream 11 into a true all-in-one device. Imagine being able to open your laptop, work completely from your phone and be able to switch to full Windows just in case. And without having to juggle a single cable or a keyboard, mouse, monitor combo. That would be pretty awesome, IMO, though I doubt Continuum will ever work like that.

 

[Christopher Kendalls]

I think the cost of entry will have a huge impact on the usefulness of Continuum for Windows Phone. For the sake of argument, let's say that you already have a Continuum capable phone.

First you'll need a spare monitor, likely one that has a HDMI port since you'll need some way to connect a cord or wireless adapter. In the U.S. that's almost a $100 minimum for a HDMI equipped monitor. Perhaps you could use your current desktop monitor but at that point you're already using a full blown PC thus defeating the point.

Then of course you'll need a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Go cheap and (sans a sale) you can get both for $30 bucks. Now you're at $130 for three separate pieces of hardware. That's not an insane amount of money but I could see why someone would rather invest that $130 into a new laptop, especially when companies like HP are selling new laptops for $200. And let's not get into the logistics of trying to backup files onto an external drive.

Continuum is great for people that are tired of having a desktop, phone and tablet. It's hardware nausea. Speaking personally, it gets a little tiresome connecting cables so I can transfer files from my phone-to-computer-to-external drive and vice versa. I think it would be neat if Microsoft found a way to make Continuum work by connecting your phone to a laptop. IMO, that opens up a lot of possibilities. Cheap, low-powered or old laptops would get a new lease on life.

You could turn something like the HP Stream 11 into a true all-in-one device. Imagine being able to open your laptop, work completely from your phone and be able to switch to full Windows just in case. And without having to juggle a single cable or a keyboard, mouse, monitor combo. That would be pretty awesome, IMO, though I doubt Continuum will ever work like that.

You may be onto something. I turn on my Vista box and it takes 10 minutes to do what my phone can do in 30 seconds.

If I could phone to "boot into" an environment and still read all of the files on my phone and the PCs hard drive I would have something. Just use my PC as a dumb terminal and allow the phone to do the heavy lifting. Apps on the phone could run off of the PC as though those apps were native to the PC.

 

[EMINENT 1]

Miracast dongles can be had for $30.

Microsoft's own is $59.

 

[Mortenvs]

It's a bit early I know, but what do you guys think about the Lenovo Compact Bluetooth keyboard with trackpoint? To me it seems like an ideal companion with continuum.

 

[Harrie-S]

I see the potential of Continuum but ...
If it would work on my 930 and I want to do some "serious" office work i see the following limitations.
Is the Snapdragon 800 up to this? Fast enough and no overheating?
Is 2GB ram enough?
Is 32 GB internal storage enough?
I guess it would kind of work but how would this compare to the surface 3.

So i really think new hardware is needed like more RAM, more internal memory and support for UHS in SD cards.

Now for storage you can use OneDrive but if you do not have unlimited data and/or slow wifi then this is not really an option.

So in the near future I think it's more a nice gimmick but in time it could really become part of IoT. ( I use the word gimmick but not in a negative way).
It just needs time because at the moment if you have a tablet/laptop/PC you do not "need" it but want it and it has first to prove that it can replace your existing devices.
And if you do not have any devices I do not see that a Continuum device is affordable.

But i really would like to see in a few years not only QI chargers "everywhere" but also monitors/keyboards. Would it not be perfect to use for example the display in an airplane, bus or car seat.

 

[TechFreak1]

I see the potential of Continuum but ...
If it would work on my 930 and I want to do some "serious" office work i see the following limitations.
Is the Snapdragon 800 up to this? Fast enough and no overheating?
Is 2GB ram enough?
Is 32 GB internal storage enough?
I guess it would kind of work but how would this compare to the surface 3.

So i really think new hardware is needed like more RAM, more internal memory and support for UHS in SD cards.

Now for storage you can use OneDrive but if you do not have unlimited data and/or slow wifi then this is not really an option.

So in the near future I think it's more a nice gimmick but in time it could really become part of IoT. ( I use the word gimmick but not in a negative way).
It just needs time because at the moment if you have a tablet/laptop/PC you do not "need" it but want it and it has first to prove that it can replace your existing devices.
And if you do not have any devices I do not see that a Continuum device is affordable.

But i really would like to see in a few years not only QI chargers "everywhere" but also monitors/keyboards. Would it not be perfect to use for example the display in an airplane, bus or car seat.

You could get yourself one of these

Buy Universal Mobile Keyboard - Microsoft Store

There are uses for continuum, however beyond typing email, presentations, general office work, play games on a larger screen, general web browsing there isn't much you can do like running full Win32 apps. Besides why would you want to run Win32 apps when a phone is docked. When there are decent 7" - 8" tablets out there that would give a much richer experience as they run full Windows along with a larger battery and larger surface area for hit dissipation.

What I'm really looking forward to is really pairing my phone upto my x1 and making sony & apple fan boys incredibly jealous :evil: (I'm aware I can do the same with Miracast enabled tablets). Plus most smart tv's are Miracast capable.