You needn’t look with envy at the Padfone, a phone-meets-tablet device Asus showed off yesterday at the Computex 2011 show. Just a few hours later, computer maker ECS rushed to demo a Padfone-like prototype offering. Unlike the Asus device, the ECS solution can actually house your iPhone 4. The ECS thing is a docking station rather than a tablet per se, though. It takes your iPhone’s video and outputs it via HDMI to the built-in display which is of the same 9.7-inch variety and 4:3 format as your iPad’s. You also get an SD card slot, two USB ports and a front-facing camera, as seen in a video introduction below the fold. So far so good. But what’s the selling point?
The ECS accessory is a cross-platform play of sorts due to its ability to work with and house multiple smartphone brands, from Apple’s iPhone to Windows Phone and Android smartphones. Best of all, the gizmo should work with future iOS devices – including iPhone 5 – using “simple upgrades”. The yet-unnamed device is the result of joint efforts by ECS and its partner ICE Computer. You can expect the accessory to hit the market in the fourth quarter costing $200 or less.
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