The iPhone as a Computer: A Game-Changing Development

Just starting to work, this settings menu allows users to scroll through developer information and version details. Interestingly, the application was first released for the iPad, but with the introduction of iOS 17 and USB-C on the iPhone 15s, it has since been updated to work with newer iPhone models, including the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. One notable aspect is that users don't need a Pro Max to utilize this feature; even standard iPhone 15 and 15 Plus models can take advantage of USBC's slower data transfer speeds.

Keyboard and Mouse Support

The user experience is where things get really exciting. Keyboard support works seamlessly, allowing users to type away with ease. Mouse support is also present, enabling drag-and-drop functionality and the ability to resize windows and switch between desktop modes. The interface is responsive, making it easy to navigate and find what you need. However, there have been some minor issues reported, such as difficulties in corner-resizing due to a temporary glitch. Despite this, overall, the user experience remains smooth and intuitive.

A Future of Extensive Possibilities

This application represents an exciting step forward for Apple's plans to integrate external displays with their iPhone lineup. As we see here, even before the introduction of Stage Manager and extended monitor support, applications like Infinite X2P were already experimenting with this concept. It's easy to imagine a future where the iPhone becomes not just a phone but a versatile tool capable of handling tasks that previously required a separate computer or laptop.

The Potential for Apple's OS Evolution

Infinite X2P serves as a proof-of-concept application, demonstrating how it is possible to create an entire operating system experience on an external display using an iPhone. This idea has been explored before in the context of Samsung DeX, which offers a similar web-based interface for Windows-like functionality. Apple could potentially adopt a similar approach with their own OS, creating a watered-down version of Mac OS that can be used directly from an iPhone. With the iPhone's increasingly powerful hardware capabilities, this could become a viable option in the future.

The Question of Cost and Practicality

But how much would such an arrangement cost, and whether it would be practical for everyday use? The proposed subscription model is $99 per month or $10 per year, with a one-time payment option available at $15. While these prices may seem steep, consider the versatility and potential convenience that this system offers. Imagine being able to work on documents, browse the web, or watch videos directly from your iPhone, without needing to switch between devices. For some users, this might be more than worth the cost.

The Possibility of an All-in-One Solution

The ultimate question is whether we can see a future where our iPhones become our primary computing device, capable of handling all aspects of our lives. From cameras to music players, it's already possible for iPhones to excel in these areas. With this new development, we might soon find ourselves saying goodbye to separate computers and laptops altogether. The possibilities are endless, and it will be exciting to see how Apple chooses to develop this technology further.

Follow Up: Infinite X2P in Test Flight

Infinite X2P has already made its mark by providing us with a taste of what's to come in terms of iPhone-powered computing. To keep up with the latest developments, make sure to follow me on Twitter for updates when it officially releases to the App Store. Until then, I'll be keeping an eye on this project and sharing my findings with you.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

Don't miss out on our upcoming content exploring Mac OS, iOS, and iPad OS in greater depth. From tutorials to analysis, we've got you covered. Click one of the links below to explore more articles from our collection.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso everybody as you can see on my face I'm extremely excited to kind of show off what I have behind me and it's exactly what it looks like it is floating windows on an external monitor that is being fully powered by an iPhone 15 Pro Max so without further Ado let me show you exactly what this is all about all right everybody so let's get right into this and before I do get started I do want to mention this is in testflight with a Target date of kind of mid to late October for actual the public release so the developer is still working on some kink but the name of this application is called infinite x2p so I don't really know what the name comes from but it does kind of give you that idea that there's infinite possibilities with this new USBC port and I am connected via USBC 3.2 into a cigit hub which is then kind of going to my actual BenQ monitor which we'll kind of zoom out in a little bit but what I like about this is that it gets you set up nicely there's no kind of room for messing up or anything like that because it walks you through how to set up everything perfectly because this does require you to use a mouse and a keyboard to actually use this and use it correctly so you're going to want to go through setup environment and it's going to walk you through how to be able to get this mouse interface to work as you can see I have a mouse cursor right here which works kind of like the mouse that we see on iPad OS right now but it tells you how to do it so you basically want to go into settings and make sure you have all these current settings set up so if I kind of turn this over like this to walk you through it real quick we'll go into settings you're going to want to go through accessibility and that's what this is all going to be through you're going to go into touch you're going to make sure assist of touch is turned on you're going to go down to where it says oh show menu make sure that's turned on you're going to want to turn the trackpad sensitivity all the way down to Turtle speed which is zero and then you're going to want to go into your devices and connect your mouse and you connect your mouse the same way you connect any Bluetooth mouse just make sure you're in pairing mode I'm using it anywhere S2 you can see that it works on the entire OS which is kind of cool to see so that's something that you should know and you can actually use this accessibility feature in any way this isn't kind of something that only for infinite x2p you can use it with iOS at any point and then you connect your Bluetooth keyboard the way you would normally connect a Bluetooth keyboard through the normal Bluetooth menu settings in settings let's go all the way back and you go into your settings and just connect it that way so go into your Bluetooth and you can see that I am connected but then once all that's set up then we can go back into Infinite x2p and kind of make sure and can go through this process and make sure that you are fully set up press this check mark right here say that we're connected to display check that we have a keyboard connected and now let's zoom out and show you the actual interface okay everybody so we are zoomed out and we do have this BenQ monitor right here and my setup is very simple like I mentioned we have my 15 Pro Max which is down here connected via Thunderbolt and USBC to my Cal digit Hub which is down there and then that's actually connected via USBC to my 32in BenQ Monitor and then once you are connected to your Bluetooth mouse we're going to go through these checks make sure that you're able to connect to an external display connect a keyboard dismiss the process and then you're going to want to go into the infinite x2p now again this isn't test flight so they aren't charging if you do get invited to the test flight but once you do get started you do actually have to pay to use external monitor support so I believe it's 9 cents per month $10 per year or $15 for a lifetime purchase I think it's totally worth it to to support a developer this kind of show everybody what the possibilities are now that iPhones have a USBC and the fact that the A7 Pro is nearly as powerful as the original M1 chip which again was amazing in its own right so that's what the purchase is for and then once you do purchase it we go in here and then you're brought into kind of like the dashboard menu you get this nice little animation you can see that the cursor actually changes a little bit it it changes to an actual more traditional cursor or with the traditional looking cursor then you have a little bit of information so enjoy infinite xtp multitasking use mouse or trackpad and keyboard look up Studio mode so again some nice little tools and we're going to press continue and then voila we have a full edgo EDG screen interface now again we are technically mirroring the iPhone itself so if the second that you leave the application it goes back to regular mirroring but you do get a full screen on the actual display no matter what the size of the display is so that's awesome to see and again right now it's very simple you have a couple options you have your bottom left option which brings up your menu you have your web you have your doc sheets and slides and this relies on the Google kind of workspace situation so if you click on one of these it does bring you to sign into Google to be able to use your Google Docs you have your settings your files your lookup your text edit and your calculator so I'm just going to show you guys exactly what the UI is like isn't quite perfect just yet but hopefully by the time this app is actually available it will be good to go so again I am connected via Bluetooth keyboard so if I go in here and type in YouTube it gives me a nice little like it gives me a normal web browsing experience now again there is some popups like you know like like hey you should probably do the web only version or the mobile OS version just so we can get the actual playback to work well so I'm going to do that we're going to go to switch to desktop mobile and you can see that it did switch and I can probably make this bigger as you can see so I can actually open this up and drag it around move it around like I would any other window you do have some nice tiling over here which is built into the system so if I press this full screen button you can go into quad thirds halves minimize or maximize so I'm going to show you guys this what it looks like with another application open let's open up another web browser see what that looks like let's go to 9 to5 Mac and if I want to open these side by side I can go half to the left and then go on this one half to the right and now I got two side by-side windows Two web browsers that again work with the scroll wheel so I'm scrolling with the scroll wheel go over here scrolling with this scroll wheel and when it comes to audio if I play let's say video it is going to default audio to whatever the external display has so if you do not have speakers in your external display you know leave a comment down below if you've heard this before the iPad it won't actually give you any audio so my BenQ monitor does have speakers built in but the only way to bypass this is to actually connect Bluetooth speakers or use your headphones otherwise you cannot actually default to the iPhone speakers no matter how good they are but you're able to click on this video and it's going to load up and it's going to work I'll the bathro the laundry you so that's awesome to see so again this is very kind of watered down like imagine like a Chrome OS type of experience where everything is kind of very simple everything is very web based there aren't like applications that you can download but if I keep going on here you can see how the UI kind of just it works right if I want to do you know the calculator they have a built-in calculator which is again something the iPad doesn't have it works as intended go back down here there is a files app the idea is that the files app does work with your actual files app inside of the file system of your iPhone so you're able to kind of view that stuff I haven't fully been able to see it at least in terms of downloads and in terms of what's on my actual iPhone but you are supposed to be able to sync across both of those devices which is great to see so again this is more of like a demo and a in like what is possible when it comes to the iPhone USBC allows us to power external displays unless us use external displays as mirror displays right now so yes we are mirroring but I can see a future where maybe you just plug in your iPhone and you get some sort of Samsung Dex like experience because I have heard that Apple's working on maybe bringing some sort of Chrome OS type of laptop so why not just create a chromeos version of Mac OS on the iPhone that can just be plugged in to an external display and use that way and I'm sure Apple can sell a bunch of like laptop chassis or dumb laptops to be able to use your iPhone with and then we'll have that dream of just being able to put your iPhone into the laptop itself and it just starts working but this is the settings menu that you can see you can scroll through some developer information the the version of each one and again this application was actually first released for the iPad and then of course when iOS 17 came out and then USBC came to the iPhone 15s it did work and this does also work with your iPhone 15 and 15 plus you don't only need a pro Max which is good to see because the iPhone 15 and 15 plus still have USBC there's a slower data transfer speeds but you'll still be able to extend your display and use an application light infinite to XP but as you can see if I start to open these up they do work like I said you just have to actually sign into them and be able to use them but everything works as intended which I love to see keyboard Works mouse works it's responsive you can make things bigger make them smaller drag them around go into the settings refresh Swit switch to mobile you know minimize them if you want so they go down here and then open them back up so again all the basics and UI stuff is there the user experience is there for the most part it isn't too choppy I have kind of found it a little bit tough to maybe grab one of the corners and make it bigger sometimes it doesn't know if I want to move it or make it bigger which I'm sure will be fixed by the time this releases to the public but overall again I just think this is awesome to see using your iPhone to power an entire OS experience on an external display the future is extremely bright so that is pretty much going to do it for this video everybody like you saw this is kind of like a proof of concept application right I remember in the early days of iPad OS 13 and 14 when Apple brought USBC over to the iPad there was applications kind of like this that would kind of help us out and try to get some real extended monitor support and this is all before stage manager and the actual extended monitor support that we see today so I think we're going to see some similar type of evolution with the iPhone moving forward because there are things like Samsung decks out there which are very useful and we aren't really asking for a full OS beyond the iPhone that can be used kind of like Mac OS we want kind of kind of maybe like a watered down Chrome version OS that Apple could give us but this by infinite x2p is a great kind of first step to show us exactly how it can be done this is kind of like a web first interface you can easily use it you got floating windows yes it isn't perfect but again it's still in test flight mode as of right now and should be releasing in mid to late October and by then everything should be kind of buttoned up and tightened up but overall I think this is a great idea to keep moving this forward now I you can definitely see apple maybe adopting some sort of version of this in iOS 18 19 and 20 something along those lines where Apple gives us kind of like a netbook typee Os or like a water down version of Mac OS that can be powered directly from an iPhone especially because these iPhones from a pure power perspective are already kind of reaching that M1 level of power and performance so why not slap kind of like a watered down OS that we can use to get some floating windows to get Safari open to get Google Docs open and things like that but let me know in the comment down below is this something that you would use would you pay $99 a month $10 a year or $15 for the lifetime kind of subscription for this thing is that something that's worth it for you do you see yourself maybe using your iPhone Ione as a computer if it is possible at the end of the day let me know in the comment down below I'm very curious to see if maybe the iPhone can be your One-Stop shop solution for everything it can be your camera it can be your phone it can be your music player it can be your computer now so sky the limit for the iPhone everybody maybe we're in a world we where we don't need a Macbook an iPhone and an iPad anymore but that's going to do for this video if you made it to the end leave a little dolphin in the comments down below so I know you made it to the end thank you to infinite x2p for letting me kind of test this out in test flight and like I said definitely follow me on Twitter and I'll let you guys know when it actually fully releases in the App Store but that's going to do it if you guys want to watch some more Mac OS iOS or iPad OS videos click on one of these right here and until next time I'm fernandoo and I'm out of here everybody peaceso everybody as you can see on my face I'm extremely excited to kind of show off what I have behind me and it's exactly what it looks like it is floating windows on an external monitor that is being fully powered by an iPhone 15 Pro Max so without further Ado let me show you exactly what this is all about all right everybody so let's get right into this and before I do get started I do want to mention this is in testflight with a Target date of kind of mid to late October for actual the public release so the developer is still working on some kink but the name of this application is called infinite x2p so I don't really know what the name comes from but it does kind of give you that idea that there's infinite possibilities with this new USBC port and I am connected via USBC 3.2 into a cigit hub which is then kind of going to my actual BenQ monitor which we'll kind of zoom out in a little bit but what I like about this is that it gets you set up nicely there's no kind of room for messing up or anything like that because it walks you through how to set up everything perfectly because this does require you to use a mouse and a keyboard to actually use this and use it correctly so you're going to want to go through setup environment and it's going to walk you through how to be able to get this mouse interface to work as you can see I have a mouse cursor right here which works kind of like the mouse that we see on iPad OS right now but it tells you how to do it so you basically want to go into settings and make sure you have all these current settings set up so if I kind of turn this over like this to walk you through it real quick we'll go into settings you're going to want to go through accessibility and that's what this is all going to be through you're going to go into touch you're going to make sure assist of touch is turned on you're going to go down to where it says oh show menu make sure that's turned on you're going to want to turn the trackpad sensitivity all the way down to Turtle speed which is zero and then you're going to want to go into your devices and connect your mouse and you connect your mouse the same way you connect any Bluetooth mouse just make sure you're in pairing mode I'm using it anywhere S2 you can see that it works on the entire OS which is kind of cool to see so that's something that you should know and you can actually use this accessibility feature in any way this isn't kind of something that only for infinite x2p you can use it with iOS at any point and then you connect your Bluetooth keyboard the way you would normally connect a Bluetooth keyboard through the normal Bluetooth menu settings in settings let's go all the way back and you go into your settings and just connect it that way so go into your Bluetooth and you can see that I am connected but then once all that's set up then we can go back into Infinite x2p and kind of make sure and can go through this process and make sure that you are fully set up press this check mark right here say that we're connected to display check that we have a keyboard connected and now let's zoom out and show you the actual interface okay everybody so we are zoomed out and we do have this BenQ monitor right here and my setup is very simple like I mentioned we have my 15 Pro Max which is down here connected via Thunderbolt and USBC to my Cal digit Hub which is down there and then that's actually connected via USBC to my 32in BenQ Monitor and then once you are connected to your Bluetooth mouse we're going to go through these checks make sure that you're able to connect to an external display connect a keyboard dismiss the process and then you're going to want to go into the infinite x2p now again this isn't test flight so they aren't charging if you do get invited to the test flight but once you do get started you do actually have to pay to use external monitor support so I believe it's 9 cents per month $10 per year or $15 for a lifetime purchase I think it's totally worth it to to support a developer this kind of show everybody what the possibilities are now that iPhones have a USBC and the fact that the A7 Pro is nearly as powerful as the original M1 chip which again was amazing in its own right so that's what the purchase is for and then once you do purchase it we go in here and then you're brought into kind of like the dashboard menu you get this nice little animation you can see that the cursor actually changes a little bit it it changes to an actual more traditional cursor or with the traditional looking cursor then you have a little bit of information so enjoy infinite xtp multitasking use mouse or trackpad and keyboard look up Studio mode so again some nice little tools and we're going to press continue and then voila we have a full edgo EDG screen interface now again we are technically mirroring the iPhone itself so if the second that you leave the application it goes back to regular mirroring but you do get a full screen on the actual display no matter what the size of the display is so that's awesome to see and again right now it's very simple you have a couple options you have your bottom left option which brings up your menu you have your web you have your doc sheets and slides and this relies on the Google kind of workspace situation so if you click on one of these it does bring you to sign into Google to be able to use your Google Docs you have your settings your files your lookup your text edit and your calculator so I'm just going to show you guys exactly what the UI is like isn't quite perfect just yet but hopefully by the time this app is actually available it will be good to go so again I am connected via Bluetooth keyboard so if I go in here and type in YouTube it gives me a nice little like it gives me a normal web browsing experience now again there is some popups like you know like like hey you should probably do the web only version or the mobile OS version just so we can get the actual playback to work well so I'm going to do that we're going to go to switch to desktop mobile and you can see that it did switch and I can probably make this bigger as you can see so I can actually open this up and drag it around move it around like I would any other window you do have some nice tiling over here which is built into the system so if I press this full screen button you can go into quad thirds halves minimize or maximize so I'm going to show you guys this what it looks like with another application open let's open up another web browser see what that looks like let's go to 9 to5 Mac and if I want to open these side by side I can go half to the left and then go on this one half to the right and now I got two side by-side windows Two web browsers that again work with the scroll wheel so I'm scrolling with the scroll wheel go over here scrolling with this scroll wheel and when it comes to audio if I play let's say video it is going to default audio to whatever the external display has so if you do not have speakers in your external display you know leave a comment down below if you've heard this before the iPad it won't actually give you any audio so my BenQ monitor does have speakers built in but the only way to bypass this is to actually connect Bluetooth speakers or use your headphones otherwise you cannot actually default to the iPhone speakers no matter how good they are but you're able to click on this video and it's going to load up and it's going to work I'll the bathro the laundry you so that's awesome to see so again this is very kind of watered down like imagine like a Chrome OS type of experience where everything is kind of very simple everything is very web based there aren't like applications that you can download but if I keep going on here you can see how the UI kind of just it works right if I want to do you know the calculator they have a built-in calculator which is again something the iPad doesn't have it works as intended go back down here there is a files app the idea is that the files app does work with your actual files app inside of the file system of your iPhone so you're able to kind of view that stuff I haven't fully been able to see it at least in terms of downloads and in terms of what's on my actual iPhone but you are supposed to be able to sync across both of those devices which is great to see so again this is more of like a demo and a in like what is possible when it comes to the iPhone USBC allows us to power external displays unless us use external displays as mirror displays right now so yes we are mirroring but I can see a future where maybe you just plug in your iPhone and you get some sort of Samsung Dex like experience because I have heard that Apple's working on maybe bringing some sort of Chrome OS type of laptop so why not just create a chromeos version of Mac OS on the iPhone that can just be plugged in to an external display and use that way and I'm sure Apple can sell a bunch of like laptop chassis or dumb laptops to be able to use your iPhone with and then we'll have that dream of just being able to put your iPhone into the laptop itself and it just starts working but this is the settings menu that you can see you can scroll through some developer information the the version of each one and again this application was actually first released for the iPad and then of course when iOS 17 came out and then USBC came to the iPhone 15s it did work and this does also work with your iPhone 15 and 15 plus you don't only need a pro Max which is good to see because the iPhone 15 and 15 plus still have USBC there's a slower data transfer speeds but you'll still be able to extend your display and use an application light infinite to XP but as you can see if I start to open these up they do work like I said you just have to actually sign into them and be able to use them but everything works as intended which I love to see keyboard Works mouse works it's responsive you can make things bigger make them smaller drag them around go into the settings refresh Swit switch to mobile you know minimize them if you want so they go down here and then open them back up so again all the basics and UI stuff is there the user experience is there for the most part it isn't too choppy I have kind of found it a little bit tough to maybe grab one of the corners and make it bigger sometimes it doesn't know if I want to move it or make it bigger which I'm sure will be fixed by the time this releases to the public but overall again I just think this is awesome to see using your iPhone to power an entire OS experience on an external display the future is extremely bright so that is pretty much going to do it for this video everybody like you saw this is kind of like a proof of concept application right I remember in the early days of iPad OS 13 and 14 when Apple brought USBC over to the iPad there was applications kind of like this that would kind of help us out and try to get some real extended monitor support and this is all before stage manager and the actual extended monitor support that we see today so I think we're going to see some similar type of evolution with the iPhone moving forward because there are things like Samsung decks out there which are very useful and we aren't really asking for a full OS beyond the iPhone that can be used kind of like Mac OS we want kind of kind of maybe like a watered down Chrome version OS that Apple could give us but this by infinite x2p is a great kind of first step to show us exactly how it can be done this is kind of like a web first interface you can easily use it you got floating windows yes it isn't perfect but again it's still in test flight mode as of right now and should be releasing in mid to late October and by then everything should be kind of buttoned up and tightened up but overall I think this is a great idea to keep moving this forward now I you can definitely see apple maybe adopting some sort of version of this in iOS 18 19 and 20 something along those lines where Apple gives us kind of like a netbook typee Os or like a water down version of Mac OS that can be powered directly from an iPhone especially because these iPhones from a pure power perspective are already kind of reaching that M1 level of power and performance so why not slap kind of like a watered down OS that we can use to get some floating windows to get Safari open to get Google Docs open and things like that but let me know in the comment down below is this something that you would use would you pay $99 a month $10 a year or $15 for the lifetime kind of subscription for this thing is that something that's worth it for you do you see yourself maybe using your iPhone Ione as a computer if it is possible at the end of the day let me know in the comment down below I'm very curious to see if maybe the iPhone can be your One-Stop shop solution for everything it can be your camera it can be your phone it can be your music player it can be your computer now so sky the limit for the iPhone everybody maybe we're in a world we where we don't need a Macbook an iPhone and an iPad anymore but that's going to do for this video if you made it to the end leave a little dolphin in the comments down below so I know you made it to the end thank you to infinite x2p for letting me kind of test this out in test flight and like I said definitely follow me on Twitter and I'll let you guys know when it actually fully releases in the App Store but that's going to do it if you guys want to watch some more Mac OS iOS or iPad OS videos click on one of these right here and until next time I'm fernandoo and I'm out of here everybody peace\n"