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Comment by tophat02 | Hacker News Reader

The NEXT next iPhone needs to really be your "personal computer". I imagine a time when the only computer you have will be your mobile device. How this device acts will depend on what you dock it with. Maybe when you're on the couch you'll slide it into a tablet-like device and you instantly run in tablet mode, with more apps and functionality becoming available to you in that mode.

Maybe when you're in your home office you'll dock it with a keyboard, mouse, and two monitors, and use it as your workstation.

The point is, I look forward to the day when physical device size no longer really correlates to usable power or storage space, and THAT means that, barring supercomputers and servers, most people will have just their "phone". What that device acts like will be based on which I/O peripherals you plug it in to.

A guy can dream...

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> The NEXT next iPhone needs to really be your "personal computer".

Would you allow your main personal computer to have such a closed system that you aren't even allow to install unapproved software on it? I agree that this device will essentially be your interface to the digital and remote world. Can you really allow a company to censor what you can do with that? The current App store model just doesn't 'scale' to this scenario. To me the only choice is to look to other platforms until Apple changes their policy.

You're allowed to install unapproved software. You just can't jailbreak your computer and then expect to download Apple's new updates, most of which rely on their streamlined system's not being broken.

I find that I have everything I need on my iPod touch as-is. A friend of mine disagreed, jailbroke his iPhone, and he's pretty damn happy with what he's got.

I think you are mistaking 'allowed' for 'able to'. I can't see how it would be called 'jailbreaking' if it was somehow sanctioned. It is like saying 'you are free to leave - if you can escape'.

> You just can't jailbreak your computer and then expect to download Apple's new updates

Image saying this in terms of your desktop. It doesn't make sense. There is no technical reason why why you should need to jailbreak your phone to be able to chose which applications to run on it. Receiving updates and using free software is not technically incompatible.

typical mac users wouldnt know the difference between an open and closed system because they dont do anything on their device except what it comes with or is sold through official channels.

Most of my Mac-using friends use Adium and Firefox. Some of them even understand what plugins are. I've got a friend or two who've skinned their Mac, though why anybody would dislike Leopard's version of Aqua rather baffles me.

Typical Windows users don't know their device comes with official programs because every machine is loaded with crap. No Windows user within my acquaintance uses Notepad as their basic writing tool. They think Word is a default because it's so common. Meanwhile, I know a lot of Mac users who use TextEdit for everything. I only use Pages on rare occasions.

Typical Linux users are fringe to begin with, but of the casual computer users I know most couldn't tell the Ubuntu app directory from the App Store. Meanwhile, I can run quite a lot of Linux stuff on my Mac because it supports many of the same functions of Linux.

and your opinion is based on what?

I know a number of Mac users and not a single one of them fit your stereotype. I also know a much larger number of Windows users, and strangely a large percentage of them do fit your stereotype.

my experience is anecdotal. the opinions about "average" computer use on this site are heavily slanted towards people who understand what a UI is.

Have you been watching those ignorant MSFT ads? ;-)

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