Personally, I think this is a genius idea. But sadly it won't catch on since Apple will probably sue them.

So have a laptop you could slip your iphone into - and then use the iphone as a touchscreen / 3gmodem would be really handy, but then i'm talking of having a functional laptop rather than a dumb terminal. I currently carry a mini EEEpc for typing notes on as well as a phone. Networking the two is impossible.

Perhaps they'll do one for google android instead?

Paris because I can't make the é go the right way.

Take a small and useless device and make it into a large and pointless device!

Seriously though, if you want to lug around something the size of a laptop then just lug around a laptop - that way you get extra processing power and, provided you don't buy a Mac, the option to install an operating system that lets you do stuff that Jobsworth didn't expressly permit.

As to the likelyhood of this selling; if someone is dumb enough to buy an iPhone then they are probably dumb enough to buy one of these.

Are scratch pads _really_ that expensive?!? I suppose you have to have some way of connecting the two devices, and wired would save power...

They could even do something snazzy with the screen, context sensitive scratch pad?

Why do so many people hate the iPhone... I think it's because they've never had one.

I've used all kinds of other offerings over the past decade from Psions to HTCs and I seriously think the usability of the iPhone is unrivalled. Sure, this comes with a slight compromise over functionality and power but it's a compromise that I havn't had any problems living with! For example, the camera is only 2MP, lacks zoom functionality and a whole host of other tinkerings that I'm accustomed to, but I've used it way more than any other handset I've ever owned because it's a pleasure to use - as is every other feature of the phone.

I could go on forever telling you how much I love the thing (even though it suffers from a few problems due to accidental submersion in a bowl of porridge) but I won't. Get out of your hate hole, go buy one and stop your rants.

" that way you get extra processing power and, provided you don't buy a Mac, the option to install an operating system that lets you do stuff that Jobsworth didn't expressly permit."

You can install Windows or Linux on a Mac and run either of them as the on-the-hardware operating system (i.e. not merely through virtualisation products on top of OS X).

Given that you don't seem to know the facts, I'm not inclined to pay any attention to the rest of your post.

If you get rid of most of the crap you get with the O/S in most PCs, what do we actually use them for, web browsing, the odd document or spreadsheet, and not much else. So why do you need Vista, Activ Sync, a core 3 duo and 4Gb of memory, why not just use your smart phone and it's arm processor, and plug it in to a docking station.

Full marks, pity it won't sell.

Oh and I like my iPhone, and I'd like it even more if it had a 3G modem, but then I hated my O2 XDA which had more functions, but not a 3G modem either, thank god I still have my T630 for those moments.

this could stay buried in my case or back of the car, and if i need to do something that benefits larger screen, like techsupport on VNC or ssh or even just spend an hour doing emails, then I have the option, without having to worry about syncing 2 devices for documents/contacts/apps/bookmarks etc.

People touted the idea of Home folder on an iPod before and this is kinda it, only using processor/modem too.

Forget having OSX screenshot. Just dock the phone and have its display come up full screen.

Wonder when we will see openoffice or neooffice ported for iphone?

and iphone haters... if they are so bad, what are ALL phone manufacturers starting to make similar offerings? eventually most phones will go this way.

Remember the little touch pads they had in Star Trek TNG? and they were in the FUTURE!! ;-)

This is no far stretch.

The IPhone can already plug into a television.

Just give me a Bluetooth Keyboard and Bluetooth Mouse for the iPhone!

(Make sure the Bluetooth Keyboard has a button to do zoom in and zoom out!)