Video interview with Planet at CES 2018 - questions welcomed!

[Varti]

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The user Charbax has announced on the #planetgemini channel that he'll make a video interview to the Planet Computers' representatives at the forthcoming CES show in Las Vegas. He'll shot the Gemini in action and perform some tests, such as a keyboard typing speed one. He's inviting everyone here to post any question regarding the Gemini, which he'll forward to the Planet guys during the interview.

Charbax has his own channel on Youtube, where he posts interviews and videos blogs about interesting new devices released during the CES shows, such as the GPD Win video last year.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Charbax/

Varti

[Varti]

I'll begin with my own questions/requests:

- Does the Gemini support DisplayPort over the USB-C port?
- Which version of the Pump Express fast charging protocol will be supported, 2.0 or 3.0? Also, what are the estimated charging speeds?
- Will it be possible to have a second desktop through the HDMI output, or will the latter just mirror the desktop from the Gemini's screen?
- It has been rumored that LittleKernel (https://github.com/littlekernel/lk/wiki/Introduction) will be used as a boot loader, is this true? Will it be possible to install and boot additional OSes, even from a MicroSD card?

It would be great to see a voice call test being performed with the device's shell closed, and have a report on the voice quality.

Varti

[Adam Boardman]

I feel its somewhat moot to be asking questions this close to the release, we might as well just wait and see, but curiosity has me adding:

 - Linux(d9) screen resolutions for HDMI output? (I assume if not in mirror mode it will work fine, but in mirror mode how does it cope with different sizes available at the hardware level? Possibly this is just up to the software to start treating the screen as the smaller of the resolutions and the one with the larger resolution just scales things up to fit?)
 - Linux(d9) OpenGL desktop-acceleration?
 - Is it possible to change the volume during a voice call? (Presume opening will put onto speaker phone mode, so then changing the volume will change the speaker phone volume?)
 - Flash file system longevity, do we need to be running a wear levelling aware filing system or does that all get handled in hardware by the flash controller chip?

[Varti]

I feel its somewhat moot to be asking questions this close to the release, we might as well just wait and see, but curiosity has me adding:

 - Linux(d9) screen resolutions for HDMI output? (I assume if not in mirror mode it will work fine, but in mirror mode how does it cope with different sizes available at the hardware level? Possibly this is just up to the software to start treating the screen as the smaller of the resolutions and the one with the larger resolution just scales things up to fit?)
 - Linux(d9) OpenGL desktop-acceleration?

Yes, we'll find out soon the answers, yet I'm also curious to know the answers in advance

Varti

[zaurusrex]

- It has been rumored that LittleKernel (https://github.com/littlekernel/lk/wiki/Introduction) will be used as a boot loader, is this true? Will it be possible to install and boot additional OSes, even from a MicroSD card?

Would like to know this as well.

[BSTM]

When, exactly, will units be made and then ship?

Does the Gemini PDA come with a (fast) charger? The perks for Gemini units just talk about supplying a cable only.

When, exactly, will the C HUB and HDMI extras be made and shiped?

As shiped will the unit have fixes (both in Andorid and Linux) for the Meltdown and Spectre hardware bugs?

Will Andorid come with Google Playstore access?

Have the units now been certified in all geographies?

[Varti]

Do you have any confirmation if the Helio X27 is affected or not by the recently discovered Meltdown and Spectre CPU bugs?

Varti

[Alius]

How much custom software (launcher, 'Agenda' application?, etc.) will be ready to ship with the first units?

[Michael Liberman]

@Varti, I am pretty sure it is vulnerable.
There was some info about ARM being vulnerable to at least one of the three vulns recently patched in Linux Kernel.

[jutleys]

I would love to know if shipping to uk is going to incur any custom charges been very sketchy on this topic.