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- cross-posted to:
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Basically Android is Linux but…in weirdest way if i must say.
Now…we just need to make it modular right…???I’m intrigued simply because it’s not Android but the keyboard and gamepad are better done with existing products like the click keyboard and Gamesir.
Cool emulation machine and design, even if it isn’t the most practical thing ever.
I’ve been wanting a phone with a keyboard for a long time, I don’t think I’ll get this one (I specifically got a fairphone in part so I wouldn’t have to think about buying a new phone for a couple of years) but I think that this could be really nice for some specific usecases that are underserved today.
I feel like it’s almost too generic to be useful. All the “standard” attachments make it a thing that already exists (and those things are usually much stable and supported). If they get enough 3rd party attention prior to launch, that could change.
I wish they would have spent the time and effort just committing to the smartphone idea. Linux and the Linux community could greatly benefit from more open source smartphone devices.
Hopefully gphoto2 will run in this. It would make a less bulky intervalometer than the one I built with a raspberry pi and an attachable display.
I see a lot of negativity in the comments. And yeah, this thing probably isn’t something I’m going to get, but at least they are trying something that isn’t a generic rectangle of glass like all the others. I miss the days of fun gadgets.
Fun useful gadgets. A gadget for the sake of a gadget is just another word for “e-waste”.
Yeah I’m just tired of seeing projects like this get abandoned quickly
I get it, but a gentle reminder, often the best way for society to have an awesome projects is to have a lot of projects.
Fair point
I like the generic rectangle block of glass.
Don’t understand why they insist on a physical keyboard.I don’t mind it, but I also don’t hate that people are trying something new! Maybe it fails, but maybe it’s awesome!
I much prefer physical keyboards and find it difficult to use touchscreen, so a mobile, qwerty keyboard sounds great to me.
What phones u guys been using for the last 15 years? I haven’t seen slide out keyboards for about that long
i am personally sick of shiny rectangles. physical keyboards are the buttons on your cars dash instead of the shiny rectangle on your car’s dash.
Cars’ buttons need to be used while preferably not looking at them, that’s a pretty different situation to a smartphone
Can I just send you five years worth of „we’re sorry we’re behind schedule” messages and then ghost you instead? If so send me $159
My first thought: If this ever ships, I’ll eat an outboard motor.
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I will do it for $149, don’t be stupid and come to me!!!
$145.99 with me, just look at these CU-RAH-ZY savings!!!
I’ll do it for free. Just going it for the love of the game
Looks suspiciously like a smartphone with an external KB plugin
plastic garbage
Why the fuck would a handheld need an ethernet port?
The pro-linux developers just can’t stop designing things to their own specific needs and skillsets. No concept designing & marketing for a wide audience.
The pro-linux developers just can’t stop designing things to their own specific needs and skillsets. No concept of designing & marketing for a wide audience.
You mean the wide audience that’s already catered to by every other tech company?
There it is. The self-defeating attitude that got us here, and keeps us here.
If here is where the niche products are I’m happy to stay. I haven’t been able to upgrade my phone in almost a decade because they’re all catering to the mainstream now. Most people don’t care about doing anything cool with their devices.
How can this possibly present a problem? People with specific needs developing new hardware - seems like a great idea to me. I can definetly see a use for this sort of device for network people. It could function as a travel router when needed. Another more obacure use could be penetration testing. Just because you can’t imagine a use case doesn’t mean it’s useless.
I can absolutely think of use cases for it. Would 100% support an expansion port for it.
But as a default feature on a mobile device? Moronic design choice. But again, just a classic out-of-touch decision from Linux developers. Very on-brand.
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So now we can’t even speak of Linux’ poor usability?! Hah. Fat chance.
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Exactly. Most people have skill issues with this. Stop gatekeeping.
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What do you think the obvious use case of the device ia then? It runs Linux, has pogo-ecpansion and is obviously niché as is. I would argue that it’s a device developed by Linux users/developers for Linux users/developers. In this case an Ethernet post is on brand as you said yourself. No matter if you think it’s “out of touch” or not, whatever you mean by that.
And this thinking is exactly why it will always be niche. A complete inability & unwillingness to move beyond that.
Might as well put a damn ham radio in it. The Linux crowd will love it, and everyone else won’t know what the hell to do with it. Seems what they’re going for.
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A user after my own heart.
Technically the Deck is more expensive but that’s exactly what I did, went with a Steam Deck.
There’s also Samsung DeX or other desktop-like experiences from an Android device.
It’s much smaller, lighter, and cheaper than a steam deck. Seems good for emulating retro games. Definitely a niche product, but cool.
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Maybe. But that means a lot more diy, and once your done with buying a pi, screen, battery, and all the 3d prints, you’re in about $160 anyway.
I wonder who this is made for?
The article calls it a “smartphone sized pocket computer”, but that describes smartphones too; they already are pocket computers. And they’ve had decades of design and development behind them.
So… This device has a tiny touchscreen, and a keyboard, rather than having the whole thing being a touchscreen. So instead it has a modular bottom half… Which… Sounds like it’s trying to solve a problem that would’ve been a problem in like… The 90s, maybe, but has been solved by using… A touchscreen that can change the type of input it is flexibly, like smartphones do.
It can’t call, like a smartphone, despite being a smartphone sized device. It has USB A 2.0 sockets and an Ethernet socket… Which makes it once again sound incredibly out-dated, like a device found in a time capsule, because USB C is smaller and faster than USB A 2.0, and can potentially be used for damn near anything. Which includes connecting to the Internet.
Its battery looks very weak. Its CPU looks very weak. It has a tiny amount of RAM, and a tiny amount of storage. It is outclassed by any affordable, midrange smartphone, at nearly the same price too (if you avoid big brand names).
This device has a tiny touchscreen, and a keyboard, rather than having the whole thing being a touchscreen.
That’s awesome. I still miss my Blackberry Passport (keyboard and large 1:1 screen).
Tiny keyboards were a nightmare. There’s a reason why the Blackberry failed. You might like it, but then you’re part of a minority.
And they didn’t fail because of their keyboard…
Yeah they did. It was a pretty major factor. The moment touchscreen phones began to exist, Blackberry became past-tense.
It was them sticking with proprietary software instead of going with Android. I’m sticking to those guns.
I’d say their software limitations are the reason they failed, not the keyboard. In fact, people really liked the final BlackBerry devices with Android and a keyboard, but at that point the company was already gone.
But while iPhones were at the boom of Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, iBeer and using Skype, and Google’s Android looked like ass but already had ad-infested versions of the same titles, BlackBerry had… corporate messaging? A really robust email app, I guess?
For people who like a concept more than practicality. There’s maybe a handful use cases that this specific device fits in that isn’t covered better by existing tech, but I guarantee if that thing actually gets kickstarted and arrives severely delayed in several years, it’ll show up in a couple YouTube videos with people sort of uncertain what to use it for, and in the vast majority of cases it’ll end up in some drawers after having been used a few hours tops.
My thoughts exactly. I’ve seen several such devices already, probably the most expensive and over-designed one being the Apple VR, and it’s always the same story.
Full-size usb, Ethernet and keyboard mean you can use it as a Linux computer, install arbitrary debian packages, run shell scripts, python scripts, and you don’t need any dongles. This is the differential factor. You can’t do the same on a smartphone, and it’s not supposed to be a smartphone. Why would you need a separate sim card when you can simply tether Internet from your phone?
I get that this device isn’t for you, but there are people who don’t want to write and maintain apps through apps stores and simply want to copy simple scripts into a small device they can have with them. It’s a niche market and good for them for trying to fill that niche.
I wonder what they use for charging port if not usb c…
You can do all that with USB C and a touch keyboard. There is no good reason under the sun to make a device that is this dated in concept.
Whatever the market is they’re trying to fill, it’ll be so extremely niche that this product is already a failure. It’s not the first time some kind of ultra niche product from kickstarter failed before launch because except for a small handful even cared.
How do you install utilities like
kubectland azure CLI on Android?If you get a phone and install PostmarketOS on it, you could also get pretty far on it, couldn’t you?
I can do that and more on my Pinephone running Kali Nethunter. While it’s mostly a gimmick with awfull battery life, I’ve already used it a few times mostly in regards to wifi pentesting for my cyber-sec job, i.e when going to lunch onsite and you notice a new wifi AP you didn’t see when inside the office you’re working on.
And since it has an USB-C, I can simply plug in a dock with two USB-As, Ethernet, PD and HDMI, to turn it into a full-fledged Kali desktop.
Pinephone looks great and the keyboard case seems very ergonomic. Fo you use it as your daily driver?
ugly and bulky, when linux is on a form factor like the new razr or samsung z flip phones then Ill care
