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Comment by apatheticonion | Hacker News Reader

Can't wait for an iPhone Pro with an M1 processor that I can plug into a thunderbolt/usbc dock, run monitors, a keyboard, ethernet, and have it running MacOS when in desktop mode.

EDIT: A little context; when I am in the office, I use vscode over ssh to connect to my desktop PC at home. My desktop takes care of my language server, syntax highlighting, compilation and vscode forwards my ports and spins up terminals. All I will ever need is a low powered computer that can run my browser and tooling fast enough.

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They could've done this with the iPad already, but have not shown any indication that they will do so.

I suspect Apple don't want you to use your phone as a laptop replacement, they want you to buy one of their laptops.

Also: how would you cool it? The passively cooled M1 MacBook Air throttles after 15 minutes of high CPU usage. So, perhaps a phone would throttle after a couple of minutes?

Even when the Air throttles, the performance hit is barely noticeable for interactive tasks. You really only see it on batch tasks where you can measure a discrete start and end times. Not saying that there isn’t throttling but it’s not that impactful in practice.

> have not shown any indication that they will do so.

I find it very suspicious that the new iPad has a 16GB RAM option. There's ~no use for that in iOS. Wouldn't be totally amazed if some sort of dual boot solution shows up at WWDC.

I'd love for that to be the case, although I think it's more likely they'll anounce a reverse catalyst - running macOS apps on iPadOS.

This is the utopian future I dream of, but unfortunately there is 0 economic incentive for a company like apple to create a product like this. With how powerful our phones are, they could easily be the main workstations for millions, but they're forced to remain as toys. I'm somewhat surprised google don't try to push this more.

Basically many modern Android phones today work perfectly well paired wirelessly with modern TV screen. Enable desktop mode, pair with a mouse and keyboard, and you have a kind of working environment: video chat, programming, text editing, office apps - all exists.

That's actually how to watch youtube without ads, because non-Android TV has no freetube/newPipe apps.

Sadly I can't use a terminal or VSCode on Android so I can't use it as a development environment.

Have you tried installing[0] code-server[1] in Termux[2]? code-server is basically the VSCode app split into a backend which runs on NodeJS and a front end Web app which runs in an Android browser app and communicates with the backend running in Termux. It works pretty similar to the Electron app, but extensions don't come from Microsofts Marketplace because of licensing and usage restrictions. Most popular extensions are available though.

[0] https://dev.to/codeledger/how-to-get-visual-studio-code-to-r... [1] https://github.com/cdr/code-server [2] https://termux.com/

You can run vscode with termux and even a full X server, connecting over VNC.

Termux, Andronix and (Wireless) Dex (Samsung phones only) work pretty well to bring a workable Linux desktop onto an external screen, with the phone as a separate screen for android.

You can also connect a usb-c hub if you want hdmi in and out, network etc. It's even possible to drive 3D printers directly over USB.

As an additonal bonus, for Galaxy Notes and some newer S devices you can use a stylus for art, signing PDFs etc. They also support splitscreen multitasking and virtual desktops which is quite practical if you work from the terminal (emacs).

Certain phones can be very good replacements for a computer if you require the portability.

I hope that browser you want to run on a “low power” computer is not Chrome

Sure, can be whatever browser. Seems like Chromium, Safari, Firefox all run perfectly fine on a MacBook Air so I have high hopes that an M1 powered "iPhone Pro" wouldn't have too much trouble running MacOS with a browser and vscode.

It's more that Apple wouldn't create a device that would remove the incentive for customer to buy other products.

And yet, for work I'd like to see something 10x as powerful as a phone still. The differences in performance between the two is quickly becoming less and nonexistent though.

thermals would be quite bad for performance here, but the vision is quite appealing.

Isn't basically the same vision Canonical had for Ubuntu Touch/Phone?

You carry your (main) computer with you in your pocket. If you're on the go, you use its screen. If at home, you plug it in better screens/inputs peripherals.

I wish they had had the firepower to develop this. I'm not exactly unhappy with Android, but I'd bought that in an instant.

Many have had this concept, no one has actually executed well on it.

My use case is pretty fine, I think. I use vscode's ssh development feature to remote into my desktop at home. My laptop just needs to run a browser and editor window which I think an M1 powered iphone would be fine at.

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