I feel like a lot of folks are saying this kills the Code on your Phone opportunity some start-ups are building for. I don't agree. I feel like coding agents are like streaming services, we will subscribe to multiple and switch between them. So for one there's value in a universal control plane. The other is that mobile as a coding interface should offer more than a remote control to the desktop. I think there's still some space to cook, especially if people are investing 8 hours a day talking to agents, the interface surely matters.
I don't know a single person who is satisfied with the status quo on streaming services where you have to subscribe to multiple ones. Everyone is complaining that the landscape is 1) more fragmented than cable was, 2) costs more, 3) has even more ads than cable
I think people forgot how bad it was. It was much more fragmented before but instead of services it was fragmented by time. Sure you have access to Seinfeld, but you can watch one or two Seinfelds a night at 8pm and 11pm.
I also remember base cable without any movies was around $60 or something and with some movie channels is >$100. And that's not inflation adjusted. You can easily get 3 or 4 of the top services for $100 today.
Finally claiming there are more ads on these services is a joke. There was ~20m for every 30m of programming, meaning 1/3 of the time you're watching commercials. And not just any commercials, the same commercials over and over. There was even a case of shows being sped up on cable to show more commercials.
I get it, everyone wants everything seamlessly and for next to nothing, but claiming that 90s cable was even comparable is absurd.
Not that it is particularly relevant to agentic coding but how can anyone truly argue streaming costs more? Average cable packages were exceeding 125-150 USD a month (in 2000 dollars). Under no circumstances would I be sympathetic to the argument that streaming costs more.
You can get all 7 of the major streaming subs for less without even shopping out deals. That is 100s of times the volume and quality of content that was delivered on cable for far less. It is so much content realistically that no one I have ever met has subscribed to all of them at once.
The argument really is empty. The fragmentized experience is annoying, but it isn't more expensive...And it DEFINITELY has fewer ads.
I agree. I spend a lot of time working from my phone so I had to make my own workflow that works for me. I've been following all these bans and drama with the subscription keys and custom harnesses etc. I think there's room for a "universal control plan" that lets you leverage the CLI providers (and whatever crappy interfaces / apis they give you).
Focus is a currency and you have a limited amount of it, if all SaaS is built internally, teams would go bankrupt. There's likely always going to be a band of experts focused on solving a problem and everyone pays them to solve it for them, because they do it better and can handle the hassle of maintaining it.
I like the idea of saving recipes online. What I wish existed was something which would let me take a photo of a dish I’m eating and tell me how to replicate it at home. There’s been so many times I’ve eaten something at a restaurant or someone’s house and want to make it at home, but it’s inconvenient to ask for the recipe.
Me too, I find myself gaining or loosing motivation for projects based on social sentiment online. When you're in the real world, it's so different almost as if it's completely disconnected from what we see online. Especially in tech waves, we tend to focus on the fringe instead of making basic progress because we're afraid we're already too late. But when you step outside and talk to real people, you realise it's really not too late. So I agree, ideas get better the further away you are from a computer :)
There is this abundance of real things in the real world (haha) you cant help but have thoughts attacking real problems. I will come up with software idea in areas where the state of the art is pathetic. Browsing online you won't run into things that didn't get enough love.
It does seem to be possible to flip out your phone in the field and write a solution on the spot but the main drawback I think is that you cant properly pronounce something like for(i=1;i<42;i++){ and typing it on an onscreen keyboard might even be worse. I remember writing code in a textarea one time then pulling the screen down refreshing the page. I've been wondering eversince if blanking input areas on reload is ever what the user wants. I put so much work into those 10 lines.
The medium seems more fit for a "language" of dragging around elements in flowcharts. Then again, how would you begin to pronounce that?
Maybe a simplistic DSL without symbols to [say] only make crud apps?
Perhaps start out with something like:
HAVE A FORM WITH USERNAME AND PASSWORD.
IF USERNAME AND PASSWORD MATCH A DATABASE ENTRY
REMEMBER THE USERNAME AND SET A SESSION COOKIE.
And work towards:
HAVE A REGISTRATION FORM.
With some default database structure. If there is no DB make it, if there is no table make it. Have 3rd party account providers baked into the language.
It seems LLM's would be really good at strictly defined English.
it's been awesome ... i've been using this setup for 7+ years. Obviously with other phones (former pixel 5) but the passport form factor of the pixel fold works great for one handed use and I use it folded most of the time. Unfolded is just icing on the cake.
I build webapps so there's no difference using my phone or a laptop save for app switching/multi-window speed. As for typing speed, sure it's a bit slower but it helps I program in clojure(script) so the concise and terse syntax helps.
Also, when I need to dive into developer console I use KiwiBrowser which is slower to get around compared to desktop chrome but it gets the job done.
I've been meaning to share the minimally modified APKs I use and write a blog posts.
I'll also "Ssh + GNU Screen + emacs" occasionally on my phone and I'll be honest... it's way better to throw a bt/mini keyboard in the mix.
After that you can have a mostly normal desktop experience w/ the addition of a tablet. How long can a person stare at a screen that's only six inches?
So, ultimately I'd suggest using a tablet and [mini]keyboard with the phone as a hotspot instead; unless you're a die-hard masochist. Of course it's a slippery slope and a full laptop might be ideal for most users.
Phone displays are just too small.
> I've been wanting to build something in this space.
Interesting, what got you interested in having a mobile setup btw?
> Did you have something specific in mind?
I'm still brainstorming on this topic, would love any ideas. But one habit I am noticing amongst my friends and I is assigning a task to an agent, then moving onto the next task while the agent works on the previous one (this can be in codex, claude etc). All of this doesn't need to be on the laptop, infact it could be done through whatsapp or telegram. Let's say I have an ongoing chat with the agent, me giving instructions, getting a diff, reviewing and then hit to commit. Would be useful when I am away from my desk.
Another thing could be an information assistant, to keep me in the loop with what my agents are upto by summarising their performance and current active tasks and letting me butt in when they're stuck somewhere.
> what got you interested in having a mobile setup
Over time the need to quickly address administrative and operational issues while on the road converged with marathon coding sessions. So, I'd say it was organic and more "evolutionary" than "revolutionary". More often than not, I think advances tend to happen in that fashion.
Perhaps that's something to consider while you brainstorm. IOW, it may be good to compromise between a more grandiose vision and a mundane, but tangible delivery... then iterate.
Is this hedging bets a little? Sure, but I've grown into a somewhat risk averse developer so I like playing "small ball". Whether or not that's the best approach, I can't say.
I've had some fun conversations failing to explain why someone needed to try a multi monitor setup. It seems one could just get used to small screen. I normally use a redmagic phone. Today I had to test a website on an older iphone and got some claustrophobia vibes from it. No idea how I've ever used it.
I did some experiments with this https://synesthesia.go-here.nl but was to lazy to sufficiently learn it. I never got around to writing a code viewer.
I've been thinking with the advancements of agents being more capable of being left alone and just treated like a co-worker, is anyone actually finding themselves doing the assingment tasks from their phone, away from their laptop.
That's what I meant to say, that task assignment to agents could shift to mobile. What experience would you personally like, from a mobile continuity perspective?
