Skip to main content

Samsung Dex

Image
By
Yes, I realize it's been four years or so since I last updated this. I will be happy to regale you with all the tales of boring day to day details since then. Ready?

Waits to see if everyone has left...

 Ok, that got rid of most of you. For the true diehards, here are just some assorted thoughts that 140 characters have not been able to capture:

Samsung Dex. I'm a big fan of the Samsung Galaxy line of phones. The form factor is just right, and the features are bleeding edge. One thing they added a year ago or so was Dex: the ability to see and work with your phone on a desktop. Intriguing, but there were some drawbacks: you needed a special dock, you needed to have a dedicated monitor and keyboard. Wasn't worth it.

Fast forward to a few months ago: Dex is now an App! You can throw it on your PC, connect your phone through USB, and voila: your phone as a desktop. It's surprisingly useful, and really well thought out. For instance, you can pin whatever apps on your phone you want to the desktop, and run them full screen. What I find interesting is that, when I am at a computer, I'm mostly running the same apps as I do on my phone, but I just want larger real estate. Dex kind of takes all of that and negates the need for dedicated Windows apps.

There are some limitations, of course. Can't keep more than 5 apps open at once. Some apps correctly interpret hitting the Return key as "send this message;" some don't. If you keep a Twitter sidebar open so you get a free flow of tweets all day (um....am I the only one that does that. Yikes.), you can't replicate that in Dex. And, annoyingly, every time you click away from Dex to another Windows App, the Dex icon in the Windows taskbar flashes, as if it's trying to get your attention...even though nothing is happening. But these are minor, compared with the vision of really having a universal desktop wherever you go.

So, if you have a Samsung Galaxy or Note 8 or higher, try Dex. You won't be disappointed. Oh, did I mention it's free? 😀

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Loyalty Review: Kohl's Yes2You

By
 As some of you know, I've spent over 15 years in the customer loyalty space. So, when I come across a new retail loyalty program, I can't help but see the pluses and minuses. After this many years, it's kind of ingrained. Periodically, I'll share my thoughts with you. Today, it's Kohl's turn under the scope. Let's have a look, shall we? I've divided the review up into three sections: what's good about the program, what's bad about the program, and what I'd change about it. That last one has some actual value: I charged hundreds of dollars per hour for loyalty program consulting, and had over a dozen clients, before I moved to JustAnswer FT. But, being a pandemic and all, I'm giving it away for free here. Kohl's, you're welcome. Here we go! The Good Sign up is opt in Seems odd to praise Kohl's for this, but in department store loyalty, this is a rarity, and a smart one. It means the customers who are opted in are already prime
1 comment
Read more

2020 CV19 Lockdown: Winners and Losers

By
It is said that in any time in history, the winners and losers are determined when a unique set of circumstances arises the requires an unprecedented response. How a company responds to those conditions can often propel them to new heights, or sentence them to an ignominious end. This post is meant to be an ongoing and often updated list of those that may come out of the Great 2020 Covid19 Lockdown as champs...or chumps. Winners Zoom How is it that, with all of the video conferencing choices in the market, a relatively obscure one (and a freemium one, to boot!) ran away with the title? Think of it: you had entrenched competitors like Skype and Facebook, as well as work-focused like Microsoft Teams , Google Hangouts , and Amazon Chime , any one of which had far greater reach than Zoom . Yet Zoom won, to the point that they achieved the exalted state of having their product/platform become a verb ("I'll Zoom you later"). More amazingly, they even continued their gro
Post a Comment
Read more

The Icarus Effect

By
This morning's news started with the latest grim proof of overdevelopment in a tough sector: SkyBus Airlines shut down , less than year from when it started. Never heard of Skybus? Not surprising; they chose to focus on trips from Ohio to the West Coast for ridiculously low fares. Yes, you read that right: the airlines' unique niche was that they focused on trips from Ohio . Was air travel such an amazingly profitable business that we needed that much segmentation and focus? Of course not. A year ago, when Skybus was just getting off the ground (har har), fuel costs were at an all time high. United was still in bankruptcy; Delta, a fellow airline with a major hub in Ohio, was just exiting Chapter 11. And yet, "irrational exuberance" led investors like Nationwide Mutual Capital, Huntington Capital Investment Co., and Battelle Services Co. to ignore the obvious signs of risk, and dive into what was a dubious investment. Today, they, and the passengers who were lured by
Post a Comment
Read more