The Superbook: Turn your smartphone into a laptop for $99
kickstarter.comIt's kickstarter which means it won't actually ship until at least a year after it claims. And there's no way they're going to provide a decent keyboard, touchpad and screen for $99 and still make a profit.
It'll ship late and be probably 2x that cost at which point you should just get a chromebook. Or, ya know, use the laptop you already have.
Anyone who is in SF is welcome to come by our office and play with the Superbook. A bunch of our SF buddies and old batch mates have already done so - but always glad to turn skeptics into at least slightly less negative individuals ;)
Don't invite people on the internet to make a trip to your office. You know perfectly well that the vast majority of people reading here aren't even anywhere close to you.
Show video of a person actually using it. Unedited, continuous shot. Right now it looks like you're just plugging a phone into a macbook and then have the macbook fake up some stuff in the video.
There have been some crappy kickstarters, but I must say I've gotten some great deals on Kickstarter and they were delivered. Some projects do fail, and some projects rock.
Very sad that Kickstarter has earned such a reputation.
True, but sadly he's right. I still get emails from projects I funded YEARS ago that have still yet to ship a single product and they're still trying to make promises.
I'd argue that these platforms create a perverse incentive for people to exaggerate their experience and/or product to appeal to the clueless masses but I guess that's the same with most kinds of marketing ...
The same perverse incentive underlies all marketing. If you tell the truth and make sane claims you lose to flash, grandiosity, and viral gimmicks. Over time the whole system runs over a cliff. It's sort of a game theory meltdown thing.
It is eventually self correcting, but that usually involves a market crash and a Game of Thrones style winter where the junk is purged.
But not very surprising. Projects promising the impossible raise impossibly large sums of money and attention, attracting more people trying to do the same. Since these are the projects that get most of the attention, they end up driving the reputation of the platform. Projects trying to accomplish reasonable things for a reasonable amount of money can barely raise enough money and when they do they fly under the radar.
Considering the amount of outright scams on sites like this they should be happy that this is the reputation.
Looking at the background of the company founder I don't have much hopes on this one succeeding.
Curious, what is it about our backgrounds that make you feel worried?
No previous experience developing hardware. Lots of previous kickstarters failed because of unanticipated costs along the development process. For example they didn't anticipate the tooling costs associated with the mold for the product case.
Chromebooks start at $149. This is just a Kickstarter price claim, not a real price. It will probably increase after launch, after which it will no longer be competitive.
I am also wondering how this can compete with something like the Asus FlipBook Chromebook that not only nativly supports Android but also has a 11" touch screen and a unibody aluminium design.
Didn't a number of major vendors (Motorola, Microsoft..) already do this and failed to find a market for it?
I would say that Motorola was simply ahead of it's time. The cpu on my Atrix was honestly just a bit too slow to smoothly browse the web and do stuff. Motorola should be acknowledged for their innovation & proof-of-concept.
There's been a few all right. I remember the Celio Redfly for one. None of them worked so well.
That said, tablets didn't work so well when Microsoft tried them out 15 years ago, but they blew up later. Same with a number of other techs that weren't ready. Is this the time for smartphone computers? Nah, but keep an open mind!
> That said, tablets didn't work so well when Microsoft tried them out 15 years ago
Or when Eo/GO tried it 10 years before that!
Microsoft calls in Continuum - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum - they haven't really pushed it to market yet.
I currently carry around a bluetooth keyboard and have to awkwardly use it on the train etc, with my phone at awkward angles. I would absolutely get this if it were production ready.
Motorola did it for a specific phone. The Superbook works on any android 5.0+ phone.
Indeed - Motorola lapdock, etc.
I'd rather connect a display, keyboard and mouse to my phone. But the UI needs a cursor, and a file system.
If I recall correctly Ubuntu wanted to try that, as did Microsoft. Too early to market perhaps.
Android has a cursor. If you connect a mouse using a USB On-The-Go cable (essentially a micro to full-size USB adapter) you'll see it appear. Keyboards and game pads work too.
Can use bluetooth as well. I've helped mates replace their windows laptops with android tablets for (non-STEM) uni coursework. Pick up a cheap bluetooth keyboard and mouse, a tablet, and you're good to go. The keyboard and mouse will last you a decade, easy, and buying US$100 tablets every 2-3 years, you're looking at nearly a decade before it would cost the same as a laptop.
Andromium OS, the App that detects the connection to the Superbook, gives you a Cursor, a file system, a window manager, task bar, etc.
Well this is very similar to what Ubuntu Phone is providing, and Ubuntu does have a rich rich set of linux applications but not as rich as Android.
Wouldn't calling your company "Andromium" infringe on two trademarks simultaneously?
Shouldn't - to be infringing it has to be in the same industry (check), and substantially similar in sound, graphic design or spelling to the point that it would confuse the proverbial "average person". Is "Andromium" and more confusing than "Andromeda" to someone who wants to buy an Android phone?
It does reminds me of the el-cheapo Panashiba stereo I had as a student, though.
I think OC meant "android + chromium".
yes. Is anyone who wants to buy an "android" and a "chromium" be confused by andromium? That's the question for establishing trademark infringement.
And I mentioned my Panashiba stereo because it was an obvious mix of Panasonic and Toshiba, but was not a trademark infringement of either.
Middle of the page, there's an image below the caption, "Multi-Touch Trackpad & Keyboard - With Android Navigation Keys". What is the mechanical pencil shown in that picture?
Rotring 800 Series
Nice! Thanks!
Wow, people invest money even when there is NO working prototype.
We're in SF. Come by our offices and play with the complete, working prototype. andrew@andromiumos.com
Don't invite people on the internet to make a trip to your office. You know perfectly well that the vast majority of people reading here aren't even anywhere close to you.
Show video of a person actually using it. Unedited, continuous shot. Right now it looks like you're just plugging a phone into a macbook and then have the macbook fake up some stuff in the video.
But I already have a laptop..
This product is best for people who have something like the OnePlus 3 but a laptop with only 2 gigs of ram.
If you have a MBP 16gb or a Surface Pro 4 (or.. next year.. a SP5?) then this probably isn't going to be your every-day-carry.
Is Usb 2.0 fast enough for this kind of application?
From the FAQ:
Does the Superbook require MHL? Nope. The Superbook doesn’t use MHL technology--instead, it uses Displaylink technology
Check out http://displaylink.com/downloads/android for more info!
I haven't personally tried a Displaylink device yet but It looks like it works well with USB 2.0.
Ok, thanks, that makes sense. It's actually just a connection for the display and the keyboard, after all.
http://liliputing.com/2013/07/ubuntu-edge-canonical-wants-to...
Crazy that Ubuntu needed $32m, while this kickstarter has only asked $50k.
Ubuntu wanted to kickstart a phone. This device doesn't even have a CPU.