Abstract: A mobile unit such as a smart phone is augmented with one or more flexible-retractable peripherals in order to allow the mobile unit provide a non-area-constrained user interface to the user. For example, a smart phone provides an area-constrained and device-specific user interface to the user while the user is mobile. When the user wishes to work on desktop applications, a roller-mounted and retractable keyboard and LPD (liquid polymer display) are extended from the smart phone to provide a non-area constrained user interface. This allows a hand-held smart phone to optionally function as a laptop/desktop computer. The flexible-retractable peripherals may be built directly into the smart phone or may be implemented as stand-alone peripherals coupled to the smart phone using wired or wireless connections such as Bluetooth™ connections.