this post was submitted on 31 May 2024

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Portable convenience [The Square Comics] (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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https://www.instagram.com/thesquarecomics/?hl=en

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Haha that's me but with my phone, as soon as I get to work I plug in my phone to a kvm that has a monitor keyboard and mouse, my phone has a desktop mode that I use on a second monitor while my main monitor is my work laptop.

This way I can switch between my personal phone and work computer, on my phone I mostly just have chats open or I vpn to my home lab to fix issues with my media server or game servers, if things get a little too wild I jump into a VM so I have all my tools. I also use this to edit photos or other projects during my lunch and breaks.

My work requires a lot of waiting for machined to reboot or go through tests so I like this setup that keeps my browsing on the guest network and non work device, and at the end of the day I just unplug one usb c and put my phone in my pocket so I don't have to worry if I stop at a grocery store on the way home about carrying a bag with me everywhere with a laptop

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I literally rocked an old laptop for years like this, lol.

Pros:

Comes with 2 screens by default

Cons:

Overheating
Some models refuse to start if a faulty battery is detected, and some models will use battery even while plugged in, and worst of all some batteries are inside the laptop case which must be pried open for access

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And some models work without any battery at all, my dell XPS circa 2008. I am still amazed at that. It still runs too, I just retired it from server duty a few years ago once I got a dedicated server.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I used that when there were some games unsupported on my XP PC, but working on a shittier but light-weight W7 notebook. That was weird. I was worried it'd melt through my table.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

I do you better. I have my macbook plugged into a 32", and a crappy 19" (which sits on top of my macbook), so I'm using two screens without using my macbook screen

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

ergonomics. portable screens need to be at eye level, keyboards need to be nearer, pointing devices are overdue for revolution on portables.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

pointing devices are overdue for revolution on portables.

Tilt control laptops when

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

id like to see eye tracking with dual caneras

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Also the shittier hardware for more money, terrible ergonomics, and noise/heat of a laptop. I tried using a high end laptop for a couple of years. Now I'm much happier after selling it and replacing it with a PC. 8th gen Intel laptops are dirt cheap and very capable for most tasks (as a secondary device) for when the portability is absolutely required.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I love this animation style so much haha

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I went from desktop to 100% laptop over several years; now I'm back on a desktop - using one of those Ryzen 7 mini-PCs - and a 36-key GMK Cherry MX split keyboard that, stacked, is barely larger than the computer. I'm seriously considering getting a small Thunderbolt dock and just carrying that with me between work and wherever. The only annoying bit is the computer I have isn't powered over the USB-C port, which means also carrying a power brick, and that's the straw that keeps me synching data between my computer and laptop.

I could move everything to a bootable USB device, but even over USB-C that'd be orders of magnitude slower than NVMe or SATA.

The laptop is only two years older than the desktop (and maybe less than that since I didn't buy the most current model), cost nearly 3x the PC, and is utterly blown out of the water by the specs on the micro(? 12.5 x 12.5 x 4 cm) PC. Yeah, the laptop has keyboard, pointer, battery, and monitor; that impacts size and cost, but still. I could almost use my PC in a coffee shop, if it weren't for the power brick and the need to do something about a monitor.

I have a foldable phone. Maybe by the time that display technology gets scaled up (and onto the market) there'll be a micro PC that's powered over USB-C and I can put together a small, laptop-sized case with everything I need.

The Frameworks are looking good, though, now that they're selling AMD models. I'll have to check in, in a year or so.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

You could get an nvme to USBC thing, that should be pretty fast

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I can't get over it.

You're one neat backpack and a decent repurpose-able display tablet with a kickstand away from a dream nomad set up.

How big is this power brick that it features so strongly in the 'cons' column!?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

It's not, really: 10x5x2.5 cm, plus the wall plug; but it's still there, and it's irritating because they could easily have powered this thing over USBC. Hell, most of my flashlights have USBC charging ports. It's an additional thing to carry, and another thing to have to plug in. Plus, not being USBC makes it far harder to run off a battery pack.

You're right about the rest of it, though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I did this too long and now my battery barely holds a charge

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is simply because of how batteries work. We're focusing on lithium ion batteries, the most common in computing at our current point in time, and these are simplifications and not electrical engineering down to the exactest detail.

They can only hold the max charge when brand new. As they are used (charged and discharged), literal physical wear is happening within the battery (really, series of battery cells, it is not one chunk that fails at once). The capacity for the ions to "stay" on the desired side of the anode-cathode pair diminishes over time.

This is why batteries are advertised as maintaining x amount (usually 80%) after x cycles (usually 500) and why a device having a good Battery Management System (BMS) can be as important as how many mAH units a battery is rated as having.

As to why a plugged in battery suffers the same fate? Physics is cruel. A charge cycle is just defined as using an amount equal to 100% of your battery. Nothing says it has to be all at once.

A plugged-in lithium-ion battery still undergoes wear because it experiences minor discharges and recharges, contributing to charge cycles. Heat from constant charging and chemical aging also degrade the battery over time, leading to shorter battery life when eventually used unplugged.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I have learned my lesson. At least it's old enough that if I really wanted to the battery is swappable.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

When I need to do stupid tasks like timesheets and emails I unplug. The lack of screen space means I don't get distracted.

When I need to do hard work I dock my system and use my dual 4Ks to maximize visual bandwidth.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago

I mean, you still can use it on the go if you need to.

[–] [email protected] 106 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (9 children)

Guilty of this. I've never used a track pad that didn't feel like complete ass.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I have. The Steam Controller (and Steam Deck) trackpads are very nice, mostly because there are two of them and they are thumb operated. The haptic feedback is really nice as well.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

I'm sure they do make trackpads that don't have a hole in the middle.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Trackballs have ruined trackpad a for me.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That particular model makes my wrist hurt almost instantly.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Haha I have the same ball

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Look at a Charybdis from bastardkb. Got a trackball built into the keyboard.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Lol the price of these fad keyboards are comical... 180€ with no switches and no keycaps?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Standard galactic alphabet?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Do you have specific keys for SimCity disasters?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

This looks rad

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Seriously, they ALL fucking suck. I honestly kinda miss the old nub thingie that IBM (now Lenovo) had (has?). It took some getting used to but it was so much better than a touch pad.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

One of my old laptops had the little nub mouse, but it would rub my finger tips raw if I used it too much, from the grippy texture on it

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They still have them, along with some Dell and HP laptops too I think. Honestly I like both. My laptop has that and I find myself switching between them mindlessly. Touch pad is great because of gestures. But the nub is more comfortable imo.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I've never used a PC one that I liked, but Macs have superb ones. They are so good I now get trackpads for every desktop I work on too (home + work).

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)

They're great, now if apple could concede that right click is an important thing that's not going away and not relegate it to a corner barely larger than my finger then they'd be perfect.

EDIT: I forgot the default way to right click on Mac is two finger click, I changed it in the settings when I first got it to be click in the bottom right. If you've gotten used to two finger click good on you, but point still stands for us who like the "right" way.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

I’m not sure I understand your complaint – if you two-finger tap anywhere on an Apple trackpad made since around 2009, it’s interpreted as a right-click.

Reply to edit: “I forgot that I changed it to make it worse and I’m mad at Apple about it” is maybe the most Lemmy comment I’ve ever read

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Yeah, that's easy to miss since Apple removed the super helpful tutorial shorts in the touchpad settings. The new menu is less clear imo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Not an Apple user, and curious: If you double click a movie file it does not open it but gives you the menu? How do you open it? Triple click? Or one click? If one, how do you just mark it?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Clicking once with 2 fingers on the pad is what they meant

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Sorry, the great prophet Jobs (pbuh) has decreed that one button is all you need.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Seconding this. My company issued me a MacBook and I was really surprised by how well the touchpad worked, and how smoothly gestures work with it. For as much hate as Apple gets, a lot really Just Werks™. Windows and KDE (Wayland) (I haven't tested other DEs) are certainly improving, but they're still nowhere near as smooth as what MacOS has had for a pretty long time now.

The crazy thing is that I've hackintoshed a ThinkPad T430 and T480, both with full gesture support (but no force touch, though to be fair I don't use that anyway). In both cases, using their touchpads on MacOS was much better than on Windows or KDE. Though some touchpads aren't that great to begin with (like, the one on the T430 is pretty small), it's crazy how much of a difference good software can make to how they feel to use.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

It's not just the software either. I really like the feel of the Apple trackpad. It's glass instead of plastic like a lot of others. And the haptic feedback feels exactly like what a click would feel like

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I've used a few trackpads on PC laptops that were almost as good as on a MacBook, but yeah, most of them kind of suck.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"Apple" the company gets hate, b/c they deserve it, but Mac OSX is fantastic - they really put a ton of effort into it, though iOS is a piece of crap - e.g. now they are trying to extort the users to pay money to send files b/t their desktop computer vs. phone, which is just not okay imho. Mac OSX was from an older era, when Steve Jobs was running the company, and people would have legit left Macs (or not switched to it) if it had not been "solid" like it was. Since then, the new era is not to provide "products" but rather "services".

Oddly enough, with the advent of Windows 7 (so many years ago now), it is fucking Microsoft that has been innovating their software - they are such a terrible company (as too is Apple, and Google, etc.), but they at least were pushing forward, more than Mac OSX, as the Apple corporation switched to put nearly all of their development efforts into iOS, and Music, and TV, and so on.

Apple ofc also has that hardware+software integration thing going on - monopolies really do have their advantages, as well as detractions too. You mentioned hackintoshing a Thinkpad, so I guess you are aware that often people will take a Mac and put Linux onto it as well, it's wonderful that people have put in the efforts so that we have such possibilities:-).

The issue you described with the touchpad on the hackintosh sounds more like a particular driver issue, which gets deeper than I have any knowledge of so I'll stop there:-). I will say tangentially that the Mac OSX has a shit-ton of cool features like font antialiasing, the Preview program is amazing, and I could go on and on but what usually gets lost on people is how Mac tended to have had things first, like everything has Bluetooth now, but Mac OSX had it long before Windoze did. I know nothing about Windows 10 or 11 though, except that they push to offer things as a service rather than product, and they show advertisements throughout:-( - those aspects alone turn me away from wanting to use it, even if the rest was somehow a better experience than Mac OSX (which I expect is NOT:-P).

Wow, a nightmare thought just struck me: if Apple enshittifies Mac OSX... the world will become a noticeably worse place, overall:-(. Fortunately someone will have it backed up and we can hack it (even if having to use older hardware), and there's always Linux that while significantly behind - especially in drivers & UI/UX concerns - is better than it has ever been.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

what usually gets lost on people is how Mac tended to have had things first, like everything has Bluetooth now, but Mac OSX had it long before Windoze did

That's just not true - in fact, Apple is well-known for repeatedly releasing 'new' products/features that already existed elsewhere, but acting like they invented it. That goes all the way back to the original Macintosh.

Or, to use your example, everything I can find says MacOS added Bluetooth support in 2004, while Windows XP was patched to support Bluetooth in 2002.

MacOS is good software, but let's not pretend Apple hasn't built their entire empire based on pinching other people's ideas and marketing them better.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Yep exactly, a Magic Trackpad is my main input device. It’s great for design work where you often interact with canvases and might need to scroll in every direction. It’s also more comfortable to use for long time periods.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

It's great but I've had greater sensitivity in my finger tips after trying to get used to it. Then typing hurt so I had to switch to a trackball and just regular vertical mouse. I miss the gestures for virtual desktops.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I also love the handy expose swipe features, offering more functionality that does not require still yet another button. The aesthetics are good but most important it's just so functionally beautiful. Those are probably tied to mainly be usable on a Mac OSX though.

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