OLO's iPhone-powered Laptop

Surely the smart way to do something like this would be to use the iPhone/iTouch as a plugin touchpad and external disk?

It would need very little beyond the already existing sync functionality and some additional software to pass the touch info back to the host unit. No need to have any (ab)use of the iPhone cpu. As an added bonus you might use the iPhone as a security key - no iPhone plugged in, no workee.

I'd like my car audio etc to work like that. Plug in an iPhone/touch and it has the music, nav software, car service records etc, and the control display for the above.

The idea of a “laptop powered by iPhone” is the wrong concept. Docking station is a better concept. A laptop simply has poor ergonomics for this application. Docking stations exist at home, on your desk at work (assuming you have one of those), in your car, in coffee shops, business centers in hotels, first class airline seats, business lounges in airports, etc etc. You can dock when and where you need. When we fix the transportation system, your private delivery pod will have a docking station!

Many of the above locations have unique ergonomic considerations. So just think docking station, not laptop.

And it might not be the iPhone. For further discussion, see my post at
http://glennandert.com/2008/10/19/the-iphone-powered-laptop

Why is this obvious piece of fiction being promoted by TUAW as if it were real?

I really hope this is Apple testing the waters. I've wanted something like this since I got the phone.

I agree with the sentiment that the iPhone processor couldn't handle something like this no matter what the software will and won't allow.

That's nice and all, but how about we just get an external keyboard for the iPhone and iPod touch? Can we just have one of those?

This would actually be a great way to turn an iPhone into a full Internet Appliance. I would be interested in something like that.

Alas, we will likely see a snap-around handheld video game device before we see something like this.

Interesting idea. But, since Apple currently does not have any way to connect an external keyboard to the iPhone (via the Dock or BT), I don't see this happening any time soon. Then there's the whole interface problem. Does the iPhone simply become a trackpad, or is the video on the laptop monitor a mirror of the phone (which the iPhone also does not support except for iPod video)?

Something like the LandWare Go Type Portable Keyboard for PalmPilot (http://www.amazon.com/LandWare-GoType-Portable-Keyboard-PalmPilot/dp/B00000K10E) is what I would absolutely go for. (Plug the iPhone into a Dock connector on a keyboard with its own batteries!) I like having the virtual keyboard when I'm out and about, but there's nothing like a real physical keyboard when you are trying to take notes during a meeting, write on the plane, etc.

This is the one I want for my ipod touch. It would be incredible .... and cheap. I'll take two.

Price that sucker at about $300-$400 and you've got a phone, netbook, Mp3 player, and video player in 'one' device. Pretty awesome.

This is the sort of thing that I would buy pretty quickly... I think I'll wait until something like this comes out :)