Concept and Mock Up: An actually useful, cheap version of Continuum

[AgentTheGreat]

Hello all. After hearing people complain (justifiably IMO) about the usefulness of Continuum with all the necessary accessories, I came up with an idea and spent an hour making a mock up. I realized the phone itself and its potential is wasted as an asset when using Continuum, and it could be used as an awesome part of the experience removing the need for mouse and keyboard.
The only thing you need is an external display to connect to, preferably wirelessly. If not, the single USB Type C port on the phone and a USB to HDMI cable would do the trick.

• Continuum as an app on your phone just like any other. When you run it, you'd see something like this:

​

• When you select a display (or connect to an external display in any way), everything starts working. The Continuum app on your phone changes its UI to become the interface by which you do everything, just like a big, spacey, multi-touch laptop touchpad and a relatively large keyboard (full phone screen) :

​

• Also the touchpad would be interactive and it could display the taskbar (or open app thumbnails) so you could do very fast multi-tasking:

​

• Your phone would support all kinds of gestures, like pinch to zoom, etc. so it would give you a pleasurable web browsing experience on a big external display. Adding a Continuum toolbar to the up would cause it to show up on the phone screen for common commands, too:

​

Imagine sitting in your living room and you decide to watch a movie or browse the web on the big screen, you'd just fire up the app and select the display. No keyboard or mouse necessary.

This eliminates the need for the dock, and basically any other hardware except for the external display while making you even more productive with an interactive touchpad that could provide app specific functionality, based on what app is currently active (like showing Cut, Copy and Paste on the phone in Word when you select text) bringing the experience on par or even making it better than a full PC.

What do you guys think?

 

[HXD]

It's a good idea. But, I don't think it'd be possible for the phone to switch to Continuum mode, AND control it. I don't know how Continuum works actually, but I think it's kinda like the Phone is...off, and the Hardware inside directly interacts with the Dock thing.

 

[AgentTheGreat]

It's a good idea. But, I don't think it'd be possible for the phone to switch to Continuum mode, AND control it. I don't know how Continuum works actually, but I think it's kinda like the Phone is...off, and the Hardware inside directly interacts with the Dock thing.

Actually in the demos you can see the phone is on and is working just like a phone.

 

[Citizen X]

Hello all. After hearing people complain (justifiably IMO) about the usefulness of Continuum with all the necessary accessories, I came up with an idea and spent an hour making a mock up.

Wireless video has been discussed. The phone can be used as a trackpad. One minute seven seconds in...

 

[AgentTheGreat]

Wireless video has been discussed. The phone can be used as a trackpad. One minute seven seconds in...

Yes, after posting the concept I realized there is something like it already there. Regardless of whether it's exactly the same idea (the dock is still necessary, right? Why?) I should say kudos to Microsoft's marketing for the fact that even I didn't know the phone can be used as a trackpad and I follow Microsoft's news. Even two of my friends who are into mobile news didn't know about it and the proof comes as a 10 second part of a Carphone Warehouse ad!

Anyway, if the dock remains an integral part of the experience and the setup also needs a full keyboard it still won't be as appealing to people and the comparison to HDMI sticks still stands. My idea was to turn the phone into a remote trackpad, keyboard and computer at no additional cost because technically it is quite feasible, and turns your phone into a truly mobile computer as long as you have an external display somewhere.
Also you could go beyond that by adding APIs so developers can provide UI (maybe in the form of a toolbar) in their apps to be displayed on the phone, so many additional commands like app's menus can be accessible from your phone (like the example of Edge above). I think that would be really cool!

 

[Black3ternity]

From what I gathered - the Dock is only additional.
It act's as it's name suggests - a dock. Like the one for a Laptop. You can use Continuum wireless OR wired. The wired connection is only for keyboard and mouse / USB and cable management. But other than that you can use the phone as usual. Use the keyboard / trackpad feature, connect bluetooth Mouse / keyboard OR use the wired dock for "regular" USB and HDMI / DVI connectivity.

Check this Microsoft site regarding Continuum:
Set up Continuum for Windows 10 phones - Windows Help -
It shows you how to use Continuum - Wired or wireless. So please - spread the word and stop confusion
But I agree, Microsoft could have done a better job at marketing and advertising the whole concept of Continuum and that you can use it wireless as well.

Kind regards,

 

[Citizen X]

Regardless of whether it's exactly the same idea (the dock is still necessary, right? Why?)

Where are you seeing the dock is necessary? Smartphones have bluetooth now and the phone itself can be used as a trackpad.

Even two of my friends who are into mobile news didn't know about it and the proof comes as a 10 second part of a Carphone Warehouse ad!

Well they can't be that into mobile news. I found that video and another one in french on day one. It's not like there were many videos demonstrating Continuum to wade through. I actually posted both those videos in this forum after I watched them.

Anyway, if the dock remains an integral part of the experience...

Why do you keep saying this?

You know if you spent even a fraction of the amount of time you used to make that mock up simply googling on day one you would have had most of your questions answered or at least enough information that you wouldn't be making such wrong assumption. I will agree with you that MSFT marketing of Continuum and the 950 and 950 XL has been atrocious, but that isn't an excuse for you as a consumer to do no homework and spread misinformation.

 

[AgentTheGreat]

Why do you keep saying this?

I keep saying it because in the 10 second part of a Carphone Warehouse ad you, who knew about it, showed me, the dock was still there and present. In every single picture of Continuum we've seen, the dock is always there; there isn't one like the ones I created up there to show off how cool it would be to have this feature.

Have we seen anything regarding the keyboard? Text suggestion? Gestures, etc.?
When someone gets so defensive about a horribly advertised feature to call someone who spent the time on an idea "spreading misinformation" I know the exact type of person to not waste my time arguing with.
Of course I wouldn't have said this if I hadn't seen the original comment you posted and then edited.

 

[anon(9630986)]

How come you guys can't accept that continuum will work wthout a dock? This isn't the first post in the continuum forums asking about this.

The dock is additional equiptment and can be used to unlock additional functionality such as the abiloty to use usb thmb drives and peripherals. It will also eliminate lag associated with wireless connections.

Watch this Acer Jade Primo demo. The phone becomes "presenter view" on powerpoint.

https://youtu.be/r2jCkZpwBYI?t=1m5s

Hope the video loads. Don't let the girls distract you, you might miss it.

 

[AgentTheGreat]

How come you guys can't accept that continuum will work wthout a dock? This isn't the first post in the continuum forums asking about this.

The dock is additional equiptment and can be used to unlock additional functionality such as the abiloty to use usb thmb drives and peripherals. It will also eliminate lag associated with wireless connections.

Watch this Acer Jade Primo demo. The phone becomes "presenter view" on powerpoint.

https://youtu.be/r2jCkZpwBYI?t=1m5s

Hope the video loads. Don't let the girls distract you, you might miss it.

THANK YOU.
I think this should have been demoed by Microsoft at some point, don't you think?!

 

[anon(9630986)]

THANK YOU.
I think this should have been demoed by Microsoft at some point, don't you think?!

I definitely agree with you. Bryan Roper's demo was brilliant, but he could have at least mentioned that you don't need the dock. I guess he was feelin' the purple.

And that comment about being "productive like a boss wherever he is now" generated a backlash of people saying that "you should just buy a cheap laptop."