mt2u77 wrote:
I'm looking forward to the day when the watch can stand alone as a cellular device, and the phone just becomes one of an array of accessories that gets its data from the "brain". Chipsets, batteries, and efficiency have a long ways to go, but I could see it being feasible some day. I would rather divorce the "brain" from the UI-- make it minimal, small, and unobtrusively wearable, and allow the user to pick the appropriate UI for the activity. One data device, one monthly fee-- many form factors.
So let me understand what you want. Basically a brain that can clip to a belt (ex fuelbelt for sport, regular belt with a suit), or stay in a pocket or purse or maybe just somewhere in the room within line of sight , but that brain has no screen....just CPU, memory and networking. Separately, you can have a user interface that is just a screen (could be laptop/notebook or tablet size, phablet, phone or watch size). Brain unit communicates with whatever you have in your hand and recognizes which physical visual interface it is communicating with based on a code that the visual interface pushes to the brain and then brain pushes the apps/programs etc in a format appropriate to the interface?
On a plus side, it makes the UI side very lightweight and battery life friendly (potentially). On the down side, you need both or the UI/Screen unit is useless. I actually was hoping for something like that for laptop 15 years ago. Just let me eject the CPU-Memory-Networking-Storage in a tiny module and throw into my pocket for the commute home and then when I get home I can just dock it in my display/keyboard shell at home. No need to carry around all these bulky display units.
Once we get into augmented reality, I think this is the path to go. Brain unit plus glasses that render the 3D user interface experience.