Hands on: The OneCompute Moto Mod could turn your Android phone into your PC - kellarbesillently

We just saw Motorola do something with Android that up to now, only Windows 10 has been able to do. Motorola's OneCompute prototype Moto Mod takes the concept tail end Windows 10's Continuum feature—the power to project a Windows phone onto a PC—and ports it to Android. Shown at parent company Lenovo's Tech World exhibition Thursday in San Francisco, OneCompute could further slur over the argumentation 'tween smartphone and desktop.

OneCompute is conceived as one of the magnetic Moto Mods MBD-ons that can lop on to Motorola's new sound, the Moto Z, announced Thursday. The OneCompute technology uses that Moto Modern as a tune bridge to a pumped-up dock. The dock communicates with a longstanding monitor, providing a desktop-like experience.

Officially, Motorola employees said OneCompute is part of the Moto Mods Developer Kit, designed to flaunt the magnate of Moto Mods and lure third parties to the platform. But both the Moto Mod and dock itself are proprietary and have the appearance of close-final hardware. Without lengthy tests, it's difficult to tell what, if any, bugs may have crept in. But my bowel says that Motorola plans to ship this As a product, and shortly.

Mark Hachman

Motorola's OneCompute hardware: the Moto Z phone, the OneCompute Moto Mod, and the docking facility.

Wherefore this matters: Peter Hortensius, Lenovo's chief technology officer, cautioned reporters not to think of this as an Mechanical man version of Microsoft's Continuum. Duly noted. But helium besides pyramidal out the relatively low pressure numbers of users who May own a Windows call. (To be fair, Moto Mods will work with simply combined Android phone at launching, which means OneCompute's share—when and if it ships—could comprise equally minuscule.) Motorola showed off  the Android version of Phrase Nomadic running on a Moto Z, pick a widescreen monitor like IT belonged there. Oh, and information technology ran in a window that could represent snapped to the left or right, just like in Windows 10. A major productivity advantage the Windows Mobile platform enjoyed apparently just gaseous.

A Kiss to die for

On the rear of each Moto Z are sixteen metal bumps, which, when the Mods are magnetically attached on to the phone itself, provide electric power and come about data back and forth. In the case of the JBL SoundBoost speaker or the Insta-Share Projector Moto Mod, every of the hardware is self-contained. Not so for the OneCompute.

Label Hachman

The Moto Z's electrical connections are how the magic happens.

The OneCompute solution uses a Moto Modernistic with a cow dung embedded in it from Keyssa, a small Silicon Valley startup that hired the minds behind HDMI and the LPDDR4 retentivity standard, among others. The company's short-range Kiss wireless engineering science transfers data at about 6Gbps over very dumpy ranges, and preserves USB, HDMI and DisplayPort protocols A swell. (Acer built the Kiss engineering into the Acer Aspire Switch 12 S and its associated dock.)

Most Android tablets use MHL to regurgitate an Mechanical man display onto an external monitor, but "MHL has limitations," Motorola executives said. For one thing, MHL pot make up laggy. That might be because MHL too supports some 5-pin and 11-pin connectors, and most manufacturers harbour't done a good job of telling you whether the headphone or pad actually supports MHL, not to mention which connecter it supports.

Bell ringer Hachman

Motorola's dock uses USB ports and an HDMI connectedness.

Motorola built its ain dock, which boasts three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI output, and a power connector—altogether connected to the receiver via a short cable television. The external telephone receiver's profound because it includes a charging plate, wirelessly charging the phone as it communicates with the display. Conceptually, the whole setup is pretty gawky—data is passed from the telephone set to the Mod to the receiver to the tail to the display via an HDMI cable—but it seemed to function in practice.

A functional desktop user interface

Connected, the Moto Z displayed a desktop quasi to that of Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy series, with an few key icons (phone, contacts, email) at the bottom of the screen, and a familiar regalia of icons at the go past. The only hint that the setup is somewhat unusual are the three common or garden Android buttons—hinder, home, and the menu fundamental—that are tucked into the street corner of the screen, rather than the bottom.

Note Hachman

The Motorola OneCompute app, which manages the computer hardware.

Information technology's not exactly clear what changes Motorola made to Mechanical man to enable OneCompute, though the company says they were minimal. Certain tweaks, however, are very Windows-care: Windows had options to snap it to the left, conservative, Oregon top of the test. Apps could follow windowed, and information cut and pasted from app to app. Applications could also be function inside received Windows, though this could experience just been a monetary standard Android N implementation.

Otherwise, Motorola doesn't seem to have done besides much to ease OneCompute. The company authored a OneCompute management app and built separate AMP Link up and AMP Disconnect apps. (A demo video that the company created—and which is in our sessile video, supra—shows that one of the advantages of OneCompute is the ability to bobtail and undock a video, while streaming, without needing to restart information technology.)

Microsoft

The competition: Microsoft's Showing Dock performs a smiliar function, but for Windows.

Consumers bum be particular about such things equally plugging in cables, and the $99.99 price Microsoft charges for its wired Display Dock means that probably only a tiny subset of users bought one for play and home. Plopping your phone onto a wireless charging dock thatas wel connects to your monitor, though, seems a lot more appealing.

Two pieces smooth take to click: Motorola needs to ensure that the OneCompute solution whole kit and caboodle, and cheaply—and that includes the price of the Moto Mod and the dock, too.  Unfortunately, compounding a wireless charging pad, USB ports, and an HDMI connection will probably push risen the toll well higher than the $30 or so I'd prefer. Still, the OneCompute concept means that Android phones could increasingly pressure Windows PCs—bad news for Microsoft, maybe, but a win for consumers.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/415148/hands-on-the-onecompute-moto-mod-could-turn-your-android-phone-into-your-pc.html

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