my thoughts exactly, that keyboard looks like heck to type on… that being said, pair this with a decent USB keyboard & it looks kinda neat (think “cyberdeck”)
On the one hand, it’s a shame to see this new device cost more than 2x what the pocketchip cost, (costing as much as a pinebook pro) but on the other hand, maybe if the pocketchip hadn’t been so underpriced, the company that made it would still be around today?
Very interesting. I have two PocketCHIPs which I thought would be more convenient to develop on than the RPi at the time because it has a built-in keyboard, but the one I have lashed to a breadboard has a full-size keyboard connected, so …
I did like the built-in screen and the easy-to-access headers on the top, and the pencil kickstand.
Finally, my prayers have been answered by the Ghost of Sharp Zaurus, restlessly roaming the world, looking for a new body. Born like a star amongst pretenders like glorified Android phablets/PDAs with keyboards (Planetcom Gemini, Cosmo Communicator and their ilk), it is here to reclaim its niche domain.
And yet… alas and alack, there’s no way I can afford one with my bloody third-world salary right now. Wait for me, my friend. I’ll be back to take what is rightfully mine. Unless something cheaper comes along, that is.
LoRA on this device is super interesting. From what I tested on another SX1276 device, you can control things within ~0.5 km without internet in an urban area, or ~10km if there’s line of sight. No gateway required.
I found someone [1] running … something … over LoRA (with the same LoRA chip as this computer too). It looks like it interfaces with SSB somehow but I’m not sure how.
LoRa has a very low data rate - from 100bps to 27 kbps depending on spreading factor (i.e. faster rates give you shorter range) - and there are duty cycle regulations (what percentage of time you can occupy the network), which vary by region but it’s usually 1%. Worst case your average throughput will be about a bit per second (over a 5 to 10km range), which is about 10kB per day. And that’s if you run your own private LoRa network, shared LoRaWAN networks often have fair use restrictions going as low as 30 seconds of airtime per 24 hours. So I’d say it’s definitely not suited for real time messaging.
The main intended use-case for LoRa is transmitting sensor readings from sensors running on a small primary battery and intended to live for decades, so a lot of the trade-offs are made in favor of low energy. If you want to run SSB on a device with the power of a smartphone, you probably just want to use a commercial cellular network. If you want something like a disaster proof, censorship proof, community-owned network, LoRa is a pretty bad choice anyway as it’s really easy to jam (a neat example of selective jamming in LoRaWAN is explained in this paper, it would be harder in a LoRa mesh, but non-selective DOS attacks against any LoRa network are trivial).
Hmm, it looks cool, but what exactly is the purpose of this? Wouldn’t it be much more comfortable to use a small laptop?
my thoughts exactly, that keyboard looks like heck to type on… that being said, pair this with a decent USB keyboard & it looks kinda neat (think “cyberdeck”)
For context here, the $49 Popcorn computer is based on the $9 CHIP from a few years ago; the company that made it went out of business (https://hackaday.com/2018/04/03/is-this-the-end-for-the-c-h-i-p/) but released the designs under a free license: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP_(computer)
They also released the “pocketchip” for $79 which was a handheld computer using the CHIP as its heart and a truly awful keyboard: https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/pocket-c-h-i-p-new (but at least it had a headphone jack!)
On the one hand, it’s a shame to see this new device cost more than 2x what the pocketchip cost, (costing as much as a pinebook pro) but on the other hand, maybe if the pocketchip hadn’t been so underpriced, the company that made it would still be around today?
Very interesting. I have two PocketCHIPs which I thought would be more convenient to develop on than the RPi at the time because it has a built-in keyboard, but the one I have lashed to a breadboard has a full-size keyboard connected, so …
I did like the built-in screen and the easy-to-access headers on the top, and the pencil kickstand.
Finally, my prayers have been answered by the Ghost of Sharp Zaurus, restlessly roaming the world, looking for a new body. Born like a star amongst pretenders like glorified Android phablets/PDAs with keyboards (Planetcom Gemini, Cosmo Communicator and their ilk), it is here to reclaim its niche domain.
And yet… alas and alack, there’s no way I can afford one with my bloody third-world salary right now. Wait for me, my friend. I’ll be back to take what is rightfully mine. Unless something cheaper comes along, that is.
LoRA on this device is super interesting. From what I tested on another SX1276 device, you can control things within ~0.5 km without internet in an urban area, or ~10km if there’s line of sight. No gateway required.
Can you run Secure Scuttlebutt on that?
Can’t see any reason why not.
From what I understand is that LoRA is extremely low bandwidth and SSB is kinda chatty (also from what I understand)
I found someone [1] running … something … over LoRA (with the same LoRA chip as this computer too). It looks like it interfaces with SSB somehow but I’m not sure how.
LoRa has a very low data rate - from 100bps to 27 kbps depending on spreading factor (i.e. faster rates give you shorter range) - and there are duty cycle regulations (what percentage of time you can occupy the network), which vary by region but it’s usually 1%. Worst case your average throughput will be about a bit per second (over a 5 to 10km range), which is about 10kB per day. And that’s if you run your own private LoRa network, shared LoRaWAN networks often have fair use restrictions going as low as 30 seconds of airtime per 24 hours. So I’d say it’s definitely not suited for real time messaging.
The main intended use-case for LoRa is transmitting sensor readings from sensors running on a small primary battery and intended to live for decades, so a lot of the trade-offs are made in favor of low energy. If you want to run SSB on a device with the power of a smartphone, you probably just want to use a commercial cellular network. If you want something like a disaster proof, censorship proof, community-owned network, LoRa is a pretty bad choice anyway as it’s really easy to jam (a neat example of selective jamming in LoRaWAN is explained in this paper, it would be harder in a LoRa mesh, but non-selective DOS attacks against any LoRa network are trivial).
Flagged spam, is product and advertising (even if the product is neat).
This looks like the real deal for a real tablet computer.
I am good to buy it - once it’s shipping (I know how manufacturing issues are prevalent with new lines, hehe).
Is the notify form not working for anyone else? I’ve tried three different browsers and I keep getting a
You must write an e-mail.error.
It’s not just you, I ran into the same issue. So I’m either signed up about eleven times or it’s not working.
Haha same.
Wow, I’d love to carry something like this around wherever I go.