New Motorola Axtrix demo/promo video up...

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Joe Average

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWEvWYbxLEo

Well, it sure as hell looks like "the device to beat" at this point, and with the leaks saying it'll be $150 with a contract at launch (maybe $200, depending on how greedy they are), it's definitely going to be a major force in the smartphone market considering what it's capable of.

When you think of it, in many respects this is truly a superphone as I mentioned a few weeks ago, the first of its kind really.

Too bad Motorola is the one making it... :)

Maybe HTC will kick ass in a few months, and make a phone that equals or betters it and of course is more "hackable" as HTC products always are. I was quite happy with the HD2 I had, if even for a short while, and I fully intend to replace it very soon when I can. If it lasts nearly as long as the Axim X51v I've owned for nearly 7 years now I'll be very happy indeed.
 
definitely impressive.

probably can't play any web video on the tv device.

i had the motorola q years ago and it was a solid device hardware wise. had windows mobile which blew. it even went through my washer and dryer (thanks wife!) and it still worked.
 
This is literally EXACTLY what I was hoping the evo would become...except I was thinking the phone would dock in the front of the "laptop" and act as a huge touchpad...

I'm glad someone is thinking.
 
Never thought I'd consider going back to AT&T, but this Atrix makes me consider it... strongly.
 
The whole laptop dock is so beyond pointless. I seriously can't believe they're making it a selling point. The laptop is esentially a dead laptop without the phone. So you are pretty much carring a laptop around that won't work unless you plug the phone in.

How pointless.
 
Ok, now you're giving off a trolling-vibe so, cut it out. :)

The point is the phone is more than capable of performing the duties that most folks require in terms of having a laptop which is basic web browsing/email capability while providing a much larger screen and of course a full blown keyboard.

Come on, it's not THAT hard to figure out the concept and the implementation...

Show me any other laptop on the planet - even the most expensive ones known to exist today - that can make a 3G or even a 4G phone call from the laptop itself and then you can troll. Ok, not really, no trolling. Seriously, cut it out.

No VoIP, no Skype, no Fring, no Bluetooth bullshit, no headphone/ear-mic crap, no tethering of any kind - show me a laptop of any kind where you can make a phone call directly from the laptop itself while you're using it.

Can't? Ok... now you should get at least ONE point about why this is a breakthrough product.

If not, well, move along... :)
 
does the laptop peripheral have a battery? would be nice if it could power itself(lcd) as well as the phone so you won't kill your phone's battery.

i wonder if this concept will take off. imagine buying a new laptop that is just a shell (screen/keyboard) and a removable "core". upgrading would just be buying a new "core".
 
mycomputersucks said:
does the laptop peripheral have a battery? would be nice if it could power itself(lcd) as well as the phone so you won't kill your phone's battery.

i wonder if this concept will take off. imagine buying a new laptop that is just a shell (screen/keyboard) and a removable "core". upgrading would just be buying a new "core".
Click to expand...

It's going to have to have a battery itself, there's no way the phone's battery is going to be able to power that LCD w/backlight for any given length of time. If it doesn't, well, that's bad design. My hope and belief is that it'll have a battery internally, and when the phone is attached not only will it power the "laptop" portion of the hardware but it might just serve to help recharge the phone battery at the same time. Seems like a win-win but it remains to be seen if Motorola actually implemented it.

if they didn't, well... someone should lose their Executive restroom privileges. :p

At 25 seconds into this video, the Motorola rep says "The only thing that's inside this <garbled sound> is the battery" while motioning towards the laptop portion itself, so that pretty much confirms it's just a shell, a keyboard, an LCD, the dock, and a battery (meaning the laptop component itself):

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/gaming-on-the-motorola-atrix-laptop-dock-upside-down/

And at about 35 seconds the question "And so it charges the phone while it's docked?" is asked and the rep says "Yes, it is."

WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER for Motorola... :D

Gotta love it when the other smartphones slip into the video view... people using them for taking videos themselves. It gives the whole thing a kind of "the other smartphones bow down to the power of the Atrix and worship it" quality... MUAHAHAHA hehe
 
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Figured I'd make a new post about this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WzeIGZKW_Y

The Motorola Atrix + Citrix Receiver = NirvanaPhone... and it's pretty damned close, I have to admit.

Christ, as soon as the Windows 7 screen appeared, and how snappy and fast it is... Motorola looks like they have absolutely nailed the superphone concept. People will say "Oh the webtop stuff is slow, blah blah blah" but, dammit, this shit is going to really change things, and fast.
 
Joe, let me ask you question.

Would you be fine with carrying around a laptop that essentially does nothing unless you plug in another piece of hardware? Even then if you check out the video that engadget put up from their CES event the UI is very laggy.

There's no question that this is a breakthrough product, but my question is, what&#8217;s the point? If I was out on the road for business (which I am a lot of the time) I would much rather have a powerful laptop running on windows 7 that has all of my programs (such has outlook, excel, word etc etc) and the ability to do wireless tether to hop on the web. I would MUCH prefer this method than using a limited UI from the phone which was clearly seen from the CES video when the demonstrator plugged in the phone to the laptop dock.This is exactly what the comments are discussing in the video you posted here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/g...k-upside-down/
so I know I'm not the only one who thinks the whole idea might be cool, but is useless in a practical sense.

Show me any other laptop on the planet - even the most expensive ones known to exist today - that can make a 3G or even a 4G phone call from the laptop itself and then you can troll. Ok, not really, no trolling. Seriously, cut it out.

No VoIP, no Skype, no Fring, no Bluetooth bullshit, no headphone/ear-mic crap, no tethering of any kind - show me a laptop of any kind where you can make a phone call directly from the laptop itself while you're using it.
Click to expand...

Again, what practical point does 3g/4g calling straight from the laptop have? If there is one I certainly don't see it.

The point in all this that I'm trying to make and have been trying to make in all the posts in this forum is that ya it's cool to make things that haven't been invented yet or thought of but if there is no practical use for them then what&#8217;s the point?
 
Joe Average said:
Figured I'd make a new post about this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WzeIGZKW_Y

The Motorola Atrix + Citrix Receiver = NirvanaPhone... and it's pretty damned close, I have to admit.

Christ, as soon as the Windows 7 screen appeared, and how snappy and fast it is... Motorola looks like they have absolutely nailed the superphone concept. People will say "Oh the webtop stuff is slow, blah blah blah" but, dammit, this shit is going to really change things, and fast.
Click to expand...

so, essentially a remote desktop feature. he didn't say if that was running on the 3g/4g network or if the dock has ethernet. neat concept. i can see that being useful for business users, especially techs. i'm sure this works w/ the laptop(can we call it that?) as well.

i think the future will involve a full desktop OS on the phone. i'm surprised google hasn't had some similar device that boots some chrome/android hybrid OS when the phone is docked. nexus would been a good platform to help boost chrome.
 
Your actually completely wrong. Google Voice can make calls from your computer. Ya know a Google product.....


Joe Average said:
Ok, now you're giving off a trolling-vibe so, cut it out. :)

The point is the phone is more than capable of performing the duties that most folks require in terms of having a laptop which is basic web browsing/email capability while providing a much larger screen and of course a full blown keyboard.

Come on, it's not THAT hard to figure out the concept and the implementation...

Show me any other laptop on the planet - even the most expensive ones known to exist today - that can make a 3G or even a 4G phone call from the laptop itself and then you can troll. Ok, not really, no trolling. Seriously, cut it out.

No VoIP, no Skype, no Fring, no Bluetooth bullshit, no headphone/ear-mic crap, no tethering of any kind - show me a laptop of any kind where you can make a phone call directly from the laptop itself while you're using it.

Can't? Ok... now you should get at least ONE point about why this is a breakthrough product.

If not, well, move along... :)
Click to expand...
 
lol. Check this post from December 2010:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036510466&postcount=87

Damn I wish this was on Sprint.

mobusta1 said:
The laptop is [essentially] a dead laptop without the phone.
Click to expand...

Its more like a bigger screen and a keyboard for when you would like a bigger screen and keyboard.

The reason I like it...

I carry a laptop simply for when I want to browse on a larger screen or type an email with a real keyboard. I use Office 2010 because...well...because I have it, but would be ok using Google docs when not at home. I ALWAYS have my phone plugged into my laptop if using it as it is my internet source...and never use my laptop when at home. My phone has replaced my laptop for most uses. I've started using my laptop more when I moved from a Windows mobile device that had a keyboard (HTC Touch Pro) to the EVO simply because I'm not a fan of the touch screen keyboard when trying to type something more than a few sentences, but other than that, the smartphone wins.

Assuming this laptop/dock/thing has a battery, it would replace the need for a laptop for people like me. Now it won't replace a laptop for people that want to play real games, or whatever....but I would argue the majority of people using a laptop when not at home are just browsing the web, typing a document, sending email or watching videos...all of which can be done on a smart phone....but more comfortably done on a laptop. Hell...the people I support at work use their laptop to connect to the company network...and then launch their apps in browsers. If this phone has enough speed and could work on our internal web apps...and could connect to our VPN, we could replace their blackberry with an android (win #1) give them our cheaper desktops in the office (win #1) and let them keep the little $150 dock at home (win #3). Lots of "ifs", but the direction this is heading is exciting.

I'm sure this thing will have all sorts of pit falls (Can the laptop dock plug into an exteral monitor? Can you minimize the phone display on the dock? Can you maximize video on the dock? Does it have a mic in and speaker out?)...but the concept is just killer.

IMO of course.

If this thing could act as a USB host for external storage, it would be awesome, but I think I could hang with a 16 or 32gb micro sd card. This IS a netbook. I hope HTC copies it and releases something similar on Sprint at the same price point.
 
My computer usage:

1. Desktop (gaming; some coding)
2. Laptop (Most coding; couch browsing)
3. Netbook (couch browsing, travel)
4. Smart Phone.


This basically combines #3 and #4 in usage. I've considered picking up a tablet to stick in there; but i don't want to pay a second 3g bill, and for the use it's cost prohibitive. The atrix to me slots in as a replacement for #3 and #4 above; while giving some options to #2 also; as I sometimes remote to my desktop. The arguments against the usability of this seem to be similar to the anti netbook arguments that went around about 18m ago.

My only hesitation being that the webtop is a moto proprietary stack; i'd much rather it boot into chrome os natively for future upgrade path. And AT&T; i like my cheap TMO.
 
Joe Average said:
Figured I'd make a new post about this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WzeIGZKW_Y
Click to expand...

This is awesome. I wonder how an RDP client would fair in this type of setup. We use thin clients at work and connect to an VMWare based virtual desktop setup. If you could get a little pop up window within the windows desktop to display the phone...wow...video conferencing in a corporate environment over a secured corporate wifi connection.

We don't have flying cars yet...but damn.
 
doctah said:
This is awesome. I wonder how an RDP client would fair in this type of setup. We use thin clients at work and connect to an VMWare based virtual desktop setup. If you could get a little pop up window within the windows desktop to display the phone...wow...video conferencing in a corporate environment over a secured corporate wifi connection.

We don't have flying cars yet...but damn.
Click to expand...

yeah, current gen phones have more than enough power to work as a thin client. it would be up to VMWare/Virtualbox to write the apps.
 
rfisher983 said:
$150 at launch ? yeah right... :)
Click to expand...

It's been reported from two sources (not that that actually means anything come the time it's released) that the Atrix should be $150 with the obligatory 2 year contract. If that's true, and I'm suspecting it is (although AT&T might do a $50 bump to ~$200) that's still going to sell pretty well.
 
it's supposed to be $150 from amazon and costco. this most likely will not reflex prices with anyone else except maybe wirefly at launch. they are known to sell phones at discounted prices.

p.s. I see that apple troll at it again.
 
Who has bought phones from Costco? I have read that they are rated very high for their service, but have never bought a phone from them. Buy lots of other stuff, but no phones yet.

If the Atrix is $150 at launch, then I'll be there when they arrive. I'm out of contract with AT&T and was waiting to see what would come out and the Atrix looks perfect.
 
mobusta1 said:
The whole laptop dock is so beyond pointless. I seriously can't believe they're making it a selling point. The laptop is esentially a dead laptop without the phone. So you are pretty much carring a laptop around that won't work unless you plug the phone in.

How pointless.
Click to expand...

Seriously? It takes a second to dock your phone into the laptop dock, and 99% of people, including me, ALWAYS have our phone with us, you are basically carrying around a full laptop, you are a horrible troll.
 
Eragon Dragonslayer said:
Seriously? It takes a second to dock your phone into the laptop dock, and 99% of people, including me, ALWAYS have our phone with us, you are basically carrying around a full laptop, you are a horrible troll.
Click to expand...

I would much rather carry around a regular laptop that is 1000000x more powerful and has a highly optimized OS (windows 7, mac os, linux, etc) then a laptop that is centered around docking a mobile phone and using it's OS as the laptops OS. The attrix laptop is NOT a full laptop. If you can't see this point then you are beyond help and I have nothing else to say.

If common sense is now referred to as trolling then, well, just wow.
 
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whether you like it or not, this is the future of computing. performance belongs on power servers/the cloud. you only need a thin-client rdp with good enough latency and network speed which you obviously can achieve with wifi and 4G.

what my problem with this is this is motorola's own instant-on os. I don't think I can run external flash apps such as tweetdeck, but that's okay cause they have a html5 version, but many others don't. and what about onlive? I want that on the dock and the laptop! even if motorola opens up development, who is developing for them? we need chrome os to do this. I can't think of any other instant-on os market-capable to achieve this, unless microsoft comes up with something xbox-like.
 
i was thinking 99->150 for the laptop dock was the max i'd pay... and was a bit off.. ouch
 
mobusta1 said:
I would much rather carry around a regular laptop that is 1000000x more powerful and has a highly optimized OS (windows 7, mac os, linux, etc) then a laptop that is centered around docking a mobile phone and using it's OS as the laptops OS. The attrix laptop is NOT a full laptop. If you can't see this point then you are beyond help and I have nothing else to say.

If common sense is now referred to as trolling then, well, just wow.
Click to expand...

Do ya know who Kyle was referring to in my Sig?
 
Ouch... I have to admit, the pricing on that laptop dock is going to have extreme negative consequences this time out. I'm all for it, don't get me wrong, but the pricing is just ridiculous, even if you can get both together for $500 on contract - it's just too much fucking money for what they're offering (and yes I know I'm the thread starter so this might come off as kinda ironic...).

It's just too much, it really is. Motorola has just made the "Sony" mistake of introducing a kickass product and then screwing people on the pricing which is exorbitant and beyond reason for what you get.

I'd grab an Atrix for $200 w/contract, for sure, but before I'd spend $300+ on the laptop dock (on contract, $500 off) I'd buy a damned laptop. $300-500 for a battery, a casing, a keyboard, and an LCD and dock connector... aka "the laptop with no brains..." That's just too much, Motorola, it's just too damned much. :(

Damn... and I had such high hopes. The phone is still going to be a monster device, nobody can argue that point (not even Steve Jobs if he tried), but the pricing on the accessories, most notably the laptop dock, are going to ruin the whole concept out of the gate which is where so many products fail: as soon as they hit the ground.

Crap. :(
 
Joe Average said:
Ouch... I have to admit, the pricing on that laptop dock is going to have extreme negative consequences this time out. I'm all for it, don't get me wrong, but the pricing is just ridiculous, even if you can get both together for $500 on contract - it's just too much fucking money for what they're offering (and yes I know I'm the thread starter so this might come off as kinda ironic...).

It's just too much, it really is. Motorola has just made the "Sony" mistake of introducing a kickass product and then screwing people on the pricing which is exorbitant and beyond reason for what you get.

I'd grab an Atrix for $200 w/contract, for sure, but before I'd spend $300+ on the laptop dock (on contract, $500 off) I'd buy a damned laptop. $300-500 for a battery, a casing, a keyboard, and an LCD and dock connector... aka "the laptop with no brains..." That's just too much, Motorola, it's just too damned much. :(

Damn... and I had such high hopes. The phone is still going to be a monster device, nobody can argue that point (not even Steve Jobs if he tried), but the pricing on the accessories, most notably the laptop dock, are going to ruin the whole concept out of the gate which is where so many products fail: as soon as they hit the ground.

Crap. :(
Click to expand...

well, motorola realizes that the atrix is the new hotness. i'm actually surprised the phone is only $200. i expected a $300 phone and $200 laptop dock. price will drop in a couple months when iphone5 is announced.
 
It's not a $200 phone, it's a $500+ phone, but on contract it's a $200 phone because AT&T will subsidize the rest of the cost just as the iPhone 4 is a $500+ phone and AT&T (and soon Verizon) cover the rest of it. Apple doesn't dump 'em to the carriers at a discount - they're basically charging them full price just like anyone else, save for maybe a few percentage points off but, rest assured AT&T and Verizon are not getting their inventory of iPhone 4 devices at less than $400-450 a pop...

And yeah, considering the laptop dock is a brainless device and of no use without the Atrix at all (as we understand how it works), having it cost even more than the phone itself is just insanity of the highest order. I can't even begin to comprehend what person at Motorola though the target of about $500 for the laptop dock alone was thinking unless they're just flat out bonkers. :D
 
Well, at $199 it's just the same price as every other hot phone at first release. I planned on upgrading my phone this summer so maybe the price will drop to $150 by then. If not, i'm still all in for the Atrix.
 
FerraraZ said:
Your actually completely wrong. Google Voice can make calls from your computer. Ya know a Google product.....
Click to expand...

Reread his post and eat humble pie. Google Voice is what we call a voip client. he said excluding voip. Have a nice day.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
I think mobusta's position is entirely defensible this time around...

Even if most people would carry this phone on-person, they sure as hell wouldn't carry along a shell of a laptop, and thus this would only be as portable as a laptop of equal size.

In effect, considering the rather impressive processing power of the Cortex A9 + Tegra2, this becomes a netbook with a limited OS and unique interface/input + built-in phone-charger. It's cool, I'll admit, but it's an expensive toy with less utility than I'd want for the expense. I'm just not sure I'd do with it... or why I wouldn't use that money toward a real laptop (which may as well have an HDMI input - and I bet I could tape/velcro the phone to it, possibly for a functionally equivalent (to the dock) mount?).

As for his VZW iphone4 pre-order: If such a pre-order was the only method of acquiring the phone significantly earlier than otherwise, then I can understand. None of us knew anything about the pre-order process, or so he indicated. I'm not going to look into it now, nor do I EVER care for pre-orders, but perhaps we were ignorant. No matter...
 
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