Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by xmatos 3321 days ago
I love it!

I owned an Atrix with a lapdock, which was the first device to embrace this concept. Unfortunately, it was poorly handled by Motorola in the sense that you had to hack it to enable a full linux desktop, instead of what was basically a Chromebook.

What really made me give up on it was the fact that it never got updated, so you were stuck with Android 2. It was pretty useful even as a workstation and saved me as I used it exclusively for a couple of weeks, while my laptop needed repair.

I was already thinking about trying something like that again, by getting a phone that had hdmi output and i'll definetely take a shot on that! good luck to them!
5 comments
72deluxe 3321 days ago
I too had the Atrix, the Lapdock and the multimedia dock. It was a good device, just hampered by the lack of RAM, the dual core processor (which was a bit sluggish), and the hampered Linux desktop; I too hacked around with it to be able to install all manner of useful tools (compilers, editors, office packages) and it was useful. The Lapdock had a good screen and was conveniently incredibly thin. I did miss a backlit keyboard though.

In any case it was years ahead of its time.

Sold all the components individually though - I think someone used the Lapdock with a Raspberry Pi in the end.

link
em3rgent0rdr 3321 days ago
I still have my atrix. I remember hacking it to run a full linux desktop via the dock instead of Motorola's official limited selection. Motorola was truly ahead of their time...it is unfortunate for them that the smartphones weren't quite fast enough then to run the firefox desktop browser, though.
link
LaikaF 3321 days ago
I was one of the other Atrix people. Never got the full dock because I didn't think they'd ever continue with the concept. A shame they didn't, having more then one port on a phone might be nice.
link
djsumdog 3321 days ago
Woah I remember the Atrix! Man I had totally forgotten about that.
link
rtkwe 3321 days ago
Or you could do the same thing with a USB-C phone. C was meant to act as a single cord (charging,video,peripherals) solution for phones and laptops already.
link