Could Continuum on Windows Phone change the way you or your business computes?
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For those of you who have been following Build 2015 you might've already seen this, but for the rest of you...
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that they are integrating Continuum into the Windows 10 for Phones platform. Continuum is their engine for resizing applications to the current display whether it is 4 inches or 50 inches. While in itself a neat thing, the part that made my jaw hit the floor was when Joe Belfiore demonstrated a Windows Phone connected to an external monitor, BT keyboard, and BT mouse. Using the familiar mouse/keyboard interface he was interacting with the applications installed on the phone that were scaling up to the 27" (ish) display he was using. While the phone still cannot run Win32 applications, for many people in my organization they don't need anything beyond MS Office, a web browser, and Citrix. If I could get people down from 2-4 devices to just one it would be amazing for them.
At this point we don't know what devices will be needed to run this as they haven't been announced. The only thing that is known for certain is that current phones will not be able to connect to the external display in the way that was demonstrated. Hopefully they will be able to utilize Continuum when they're upgraded and then you can utilise Miracast or something similar.
For more info check out Paul Thurrott's article here: https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/windows-phone/3238/here-comes-continuum-for-phones
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Yes, I think it will
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The next question I think is, how will the other players, Samsung, Apple, Motorola, etc. respond? Can they afford not to produce something equivalent?
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This will be interesting to watch play out.
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I highly suspect that Apple has been working on something secretly.
As for me, if I have my phone or tablet connected to a keyboard & mouse, I can usually remote desktop into something that is more desktop-ish. But this would be sweet to have applications that scale up like that -- and act like their desktop counter parts.
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@dafyre said:
I highly suspect that Apple has been working on something secretly.
Have you seen anything that would indicate this? Based on Apple's post Steve Jobs' record they haven't innovated much in quite some time. I don't think they have ever officially acknowledged that anyone would want a keyboard for working on an iPad. I'm not trying to be critical, but a solution like this doesn't fit with the Apple I know and support.
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@Kelly said:
The next question I think is, how will the other players, Samsung, Apple, Motorola, etc. respond? Can they afford not to produce something equivalent?
Apple Maybe but, that goes against everything they said they wouldn't do in the past. The others can leverage windows technology. Windows for Phones is free for manufacturers, there is no licensing fee.
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@Kelly said:
@dafyre said:
I highly suspect that Apple has been working on something secretly.
Have you seen anything that would indicate this? Based on Apple's post Steve Jobs' record they haven't innovated much in quite some time. I don't think they have ever officially acknowledged that anyone would want a keyboard for working on an iPad. I'm not trying to be critical, but a solution like this doesn't fit with the Apple I know and support.
It seems like I remember reading some things about OS X having touch screen support built in a couple of years ago, but I can't seem to find it now. Maybe it was a dream, lol. A cursory google shows up somebody with a youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeHFRpj_zC8) of the Yosemite beta with a Lenovo touch screen.
I fully expect to see "OS X" go away, and IOS become the next Apple OS... If they pull it off right, it will be like what Microsoft is trying to do with Continuum.
