Webtop is useless?

[darkmatter]

I have connected a bluetooth mouse and keyboard to my droid 3. That along with hdmi mirroring, I wonder what the point is with webtop. Is there some other functionality that I'm missing? I was under the impression the main point of the webtop was to connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse, but that I've done that already with my droid3, so... /shrug.

The stock browser seems to work well enough with mouse/keyboard. Does the webtop simply remove the mobile tag? (ie, defaulting to a full website instead of the mobile version?) If so, is there another way to disable a mobile device check?

 

[googlelover]

I have connected a bluetooth mouse and keyboard to my droid 3. That along with hdmi mirroring, I wonder what the point is with webtop. Is there some other functionality that I'm missing? I was under the impression the main point of the webtop was to connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse, but that I've done that already with my droid3, so... /shrug.

The stock browser seems to work well enough with mouse/keyboard. Does the webtop simply remove the mobile tag? (ie, defaulting to a full website instead of the mobile version?) If so, is there another way to disable a mobile device check?

Do you have a webtop adapter? If not then your not actually using the webtop capabilities, your just using the phones ability to mirror itself onto a HD TV and connecting a mouse and keyboard.
Edit: To remove the defaulting to mobile go to the device browser, type in About:debug, then hit menu, go to more, go to settings then scroll to the bottom (not sure if its the bottom on the Droid 3) and look for the UA string, or User agent and set it to a desktop browser/the desktop browser option.

 

[darkmatter]

N6I guess my question is what does webtop bring to the table if connecting mouse/keyboard/monitor isn't exclusive to a webtop enabled device?

I might be able to convince my mom to move into the modern world with this. All she does is web browse, facebook and ms word, things she could easily do with a phone these days...as long as she has her familiar keyboard/mouse/monitor.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[kodiak799]

Basically it lets you use a full desktop/PC version of Firefox. Even with set to PC/desktop, you're still using a mobile browser. That's essentially the difference, and I agree it's pretty worthless. Although webtop also enables the use of web-based suites of software (like Office). But unless you have no laptop or PC, I don't really see the point.

Webtop offers a lot of promise for when phones have power that truly rivals laptops (more like some netbooks at this point, or laptops about 5 years ago). However since Google bought Motorola and have talked about integrating or seamlessly linking ChromeOS with Android at some point, I expect Webtop to be killed. Or maybe it will be a foundation for something more from Google as they've done with a lot of other things they've bought. I just think Webtop is probably not far enough along and will ultimately be killed since Google would seem to have at least a couple of competing projects that may be more advanced already.

 

[jayman350]

I thought that the webtop seems like just another ploy to get us to buy $300 accessories. When I was activating my Bionic at the VZW store (stupid 4G sim card issues) I wanted to play around w/ the webtop and Bionic that they had on display in the store. I gave up after about 5 minutes of the thing not responding to any inputs. Then the guy at the counter talked about the webtop adapter and all of its features. Seems like it is just a waste of money.

for the price of the webtop dock you can get a decent laptop or netbook, and both of those will be far more functional than a keyboard/monitor that plugs into your phone.

 

[kodiak799]

for the price of the webtop dock you can get a decent laptop or netbook, and both of those will be far more functional than a keyboard/monitor that plugs into your phone.

Or an Asus slider.

Only advantage is the mobile data, but then it kind of defeats the purpose since you aren't carrying a monitor and keyboard around with you. I wonder if Moto thought this would be a way around tethering charges, but of course AT&T nipped that in the bud (not sure what VZW is doing).

 

[obinGilchrist]

when phones have power that truly rivals laptops

 

[Kingdombuilder]

I thought that the webtop seems like just another ploy to get us to buy $300 accessories.

I finally got the chance to try the Webtop with my Droid Bionic. I bought the $99 HD Station from VWZ and it was discounted to $75 because of my job's discount. That was all i needed to run Webtop, however a mouse and keyboard would be nice as well. Although when in Webtop your Droid Bionic turns into a slide pad and the keyboard, I grabbed a Mini keyboard off of ebay that has the slide pad and the full functioning keyboard for $30. The mini key board is wireless and seems to work up to about 15 feet away for the phone. Anyway I'm about little over $100 into this Webtop.

I have a Inspiron One PC so i can plug in my HDMI and use my Webtop on the same screen on my PC (Use my PC's wireless Mouse and Keyboard). I can go to my Living room and connect it to the TV in there and share as well with the whole house as we are looking up things on the Big Screen TV (I use the Wireless mini Keyboard from the couch). In my bedroom as I'm going to sleep I can use it on that TV (wireless Mini Keyboard) to surf and watch Netflix at the same time.

In my opinion just like anything you have to see how it can fits in your life. I have a tablet, my Bionic, and now Webtop capabilities. Me personally I use Webtop every chance i get because it is new to me and I'm trying to see it fits for me. At the present time I find at night in bed is the perfect time for me to use it seeing that i do not have a PC in my bed room and I no longer have a laptop. I have my dock already connect to the TV and when it is time i just dock it and lay down with the mini keyboard. I find that i do all the last minute things I forgot to do earlier on line will checking out Neflix. This is the normal things I did with my laptop but I have the convenience of using my Bionic to do it. By using my Bionic all the things i do are on my phone so when i take it with me all that is with me as well. To me it is like a transformer. I hope this helps anyone that is interested.

I mentioned some pros let me mention the rest:

*The HD Station has 3 USB ports for USB Mouse and Keyboard and maybe a flash drive.
*The Bionic turns into a Slide Pad and Keyboard to use with Webtop.
*The HD Station comes with a Remote control that allows you to control music, volume, and apps.
*Webtop has some dedicated apps that work with it.
*Webtop allows us to surf as mobile and as desktop simultaneously.
*Webtop also allows us to access our phone fully as we were using it in our hands on the screen. So all apps that work on your phone will work during the Webtop session.
*Use your 4g and when it is not available then you can switch to WiFi
Cons:

*You are limited to monitors or TV's with HDMI input ports. My suggestion would be to take away limitations and have where you can use a tablet if necessary.
*There is a lil lag but not bad enough to not want to use it.

 

[darkmatter]

Can you watch hulu with webtop? Or do you still get that your device is not supported?

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[kenoshabrew]

You don't need the dock to use webtop. He was either trying to sell you an accessory or was ignorant of how it works. They also told me you can't use a 64GB SD card in the DROIDS and you most certainly can - I have been for months with no problems. All you need for webtop is an HDMI cable with a mini plug on one end and a standard plug on the other. Once you plug it into the HDMI port on the TV or monitor it will automatically give you the choice to mirror your phone or use webtop. I actually think it's pretty nice. It's more like a little computer with a bluetooth mouse and bluetooth keyboard. With 80gigs of RAM total, not a bad little portable computer.. (DROID 4)

--Steve

I thought that the webtop seems like just another ploy to get us to buy $300 accessories. When I was activating my Bionic at the VZW store (stupid 4G sim card issues) I wanted to play around w/ the webtop and Bionic that they had on display in the store. I gave up after about 5 minutes of the thing not responding to any inputs. Then the guy at the counter talked about the webtop adapter and all of its features. Seems like it is just a waste of money.

for the price of the webtop dock you can get a decent laptop or netbook, and both of those will be far more functional than a keyboard/monitor that plugs into your phone.[/QUOTE