iPhone multi touch used with a macbook pro.

eckofisheckofish
Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Hey Guys,



I was sitting down thinking about how to get the functionality of multi touch onto a macbook pro and thought of a concept.

Why not link an iPhone via bluetooth or wifi to your macbook pro?





The iPhone would use onboard software to control the front most window on the mbp and zoom on the window, rotate it, zoom out, scroll, use touch controls etc...

This same software component would need to be used on the mbp so that the two could communicate correctly.





Here's the concept image that i threw together. Let me know what you think of my idea.



Thanks,

Ecko







[CENTER]My youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/eckofish[/CENTER]

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Not likely. Why not just make the touch pad responsive to multiple touches?



    But also, how would multi-touch help? The value of multi-touch on the iPhone is that you have very limited real-estate. On a MacBook pro screen, that's very large comparably, you don't have to zoom a whole lot. Scrolling and clicking is already built into the touchpad. And why would you need to rotate anything? Unlike the iPhone, MacBooks and MacBook Pros are only intended to be used in one orientation, as there is not a lot of value to rotating the screen as the screen is sufficiently big horizontally.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eckofish View Post


    Hey Guys,



    I was sitting down thinking about how to get the functionality of multi touch onto a macbook pro and thought of a concept.

    Why not link an iPhone via bluetooth or wifi to your macbook pro?



    It's cool, but it wont be needed once Apple releases their 11" (or 10") multi-touch Mac touch tablet in 2008. You'd interact directly with that.



    Think this with a finger-friendly UI:



  • Reply 3 of 8
    thttht Posts: 5,443member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eckofish View Post


    I was sitting down thinking about how to get the functionality of multi touch onto a macbook pro and thought of a concept. Why not link an iPhone via bluetooth or wifi to your macbook pro?



    Usability nightmare. A more capable multi-touch trackpad would do the same thing.



    How about mocking this up. In 2011, when the Intel Moorestown successor comes out at 0.25 W TDP with a dual-core 1.5 GHz 2-thread/core Silverthorne processor (assuming 32 nm is successful), just make the iPhone your trackpad.



    The idea is that the "laptop" is merely a screen, a hard-disk, a gigantic battery, a keyboard, and a port replicator/expandor. The iPhone will provide the CPU, the GPU, and the I/O. Part of the I/O will be the iPhone multi-touch screen as the multi-touch "trackpad". The iPhone will fit in the place of where the trackpad would be. When you don't need the keyboard or big screen, take the iPhone out.



    It's like a Macintosh Duo but at a much smaller scale.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    thttht Posts: 5,443member
    Someone stole my idea!



    If Apple Made a Foleo





  • Reply 5 of 8
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by THT View Post


    Someone stole my idea!



    If Apple Made a Foleo









    That's cool, but one would need to own an iPhone, and they couldn't keep it in a case. Wouldn't work for both those reasons. Why not just have the touch panel built in?



    Design is lovely though.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    darngooddesigndarngooddesign Posts: 63member
    I get GSM feedback when my phone sits next to my Powerbook, its really going to suck when its part of my Powerbook.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    thttht Posts: 5,443member
    Quote:

    Ireland: That's cool, but one would need to own an iPhone, and they couldn't keep it in a case. Wouldn't work for both those reasons. Why not just have the touch panel built in?



    rngooddesign: I get GSM feedback when my phone sits next to my Powerbook, its really going to suck when its part of my Powerbook.



    If you read my other post, I said: The idea is that the "laptop" is merely a screen, a hard-disk, a gigantic battery, a keyboard, and a port replicator/expandor. The iPhone will provide the CPU, the GPU, and the I/O. Part of the I/O will be the iPhone multi-touch screen as the multi-touch "trackpad". The iPhone will fit in the place of where the trackpad would be. When you don't need the keyboard or big screen, take the iPhone out.



    While the website dude has the "laptop" as an actual laptop, my idea is that laptop is a mostly dumb piece of hardware that provides a bigger screen, a large touch-type keyboard, backup HDD and a really long battery.



    There will be cost advantages. There could be usability issues with one's phone stuck in a docking cradle though.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    nano2gfteonano2gfteo Posts: 99member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by darngooddesign View Post


    I get GSM feedback when my phone sits next to my Powerbook, its really going to suck when its part of my Powerbook.



    Correct!. The iPhone need to be a foot away or farther to lessen the radio feedback prior inbound call or incoming SMS.



    I would think using iPhone as multi-touch pad for Mac togethr with wireless keyboard. In that mode, iPhone display could be showing widgets and Dock. Also, it should play songs to the Mac, (Heck, made me choose).
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