OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Gemini PDA => Gemini PDA - General Discussion => Topic started by: Varti on December 27, 2017, 10:01:31 pm
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After reading that the folks at Planet might bump up the price of the perks at the end of this month, I have finally decided to make my pledge for a new Gemini. Since I wanted both the device and a pouch, I have opted for the All-in Bundle (the Wifi+LTE version, a leather pouch, an USB-C hub, a power supply and an HDMI cable), plus the front camera add-on. Can't wait to check out if it will be a worthwhile Zaurus successor. Expect now even more posts from me in the Gemini subforum in the future
Has anybody else here made a pledge, too?
Varti
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After reading that the folks at Planet might bump up the price of the perks at the end of this month, I have finally decided to make my pledge for a new Gemini. Since I wanted both the device and a pouch, I have opted for the All-in Bundle (the Wifi+LTE version, a leather pouch, an USB-C hub, a power supply and an HDMI cable), plus the front camera add-on. Can't wait to check out if it will be a worthwhile Zaurus successor. Expect now even more posts from me in the Gemini subforum in the future
Has anybody else here made a pledge, too?
Varti
No, maybe soon!
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After reading all the posts here, and even though I have been mostly pleased with my GPD Pocket, I too put in for a Gemini (although just the WiFi edition). Looking forward to see how things turn out.
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I don't know if the Gemini is a really good Zaurus successor.
Yes, it runs pure linux if you wish. But it's focused on Android.
It's more a business devices than a "mobile hacking tool". Don't get me wrong, it's (probably) a fine device and the best way to replace a Psion 5 (!). But i think if you want a "new zaurus" you should look at the OpenPandora or Dragonbox Pyra.
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I don't know if the Gemini is a really good Zaurus successor.
Yes, it runs pure linux if you wish. But it's focused on Android.
It's more a business devices than a "mobile hacking tool". Don't get me wrong, it's (probably) a fine device and the best way to replace a Psion 5 (!). But i think if you want a "new zaurus" you should look at the OpenPandora or Dragonbox Pyra.
Maybe I should have worded that sentence in a different way, what I meant is that the Gemini is the best replacement for my needs. The Pyra is indeed more closely related to the Zaurus, since it's also a Linux-only device, moreover on the Gemini direct driver support under Linux is still apparently uncertain. I have opted for a Gemini since, right now, I also need a replacement for my aging Samsung Galaxy Pocket. Thanks to the LTE and back/front camera support, the Gemini will replace my phone too, so I'll have to carry around only one device. I'll mainly run Linux (hoping that there will be a tool that will make and receive calls under that OS), Android support is for me a bonus for the occasional app or game I'll need to use.
Varti
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I've been toying with getting one even though like Walt, I'm quite pleased with my Pocket. However, there's something compelling about the Gemini...maybe that it reminds me of the fun I had with HPC's back in the day....
Agree that in many ways the Pyra is more of a Zaurus replacement. Except for the Pyra having the gaming controls, which I don't need. I'd rather have a decent keyboard.
So, I'm slowly tiptoeing towards getting a Gemini I think.
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So, I'm slowly tiptoeing towards getting a Gemini I think.
Hurry up with your choice then, thanksfully the perks on Indiegogo haven't been raised in price, but the campaign will anyway end this month, after that the Gemini will be sold at a retail store at a full price. Or wait until they start to sell them at a discounted price, most probably this will happen after a year or so.
Varti
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Well, I have pledged mine several months ago
I am still thinking about the connectivity pack though.
It kind of infuriates me, the way the whole hdmi thing was done (and the very late explanation about impossibility to have a generic cable for the device.
Perhaps Planet will be more flexible and allow those among us who just want the cable to be able to purchase just that.
75$ for just the cable (and a hub which I will likely not use) does sound a bit hard to swallow.
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Well, I have pledged mine several months ago
I am still thinking about the connectivity pack though.
It kind of infuriates me, the way the whole hdmi thing was done (and the very late explanation about impossibility to have a generic cable for the device.
Perhaps Planet will be more flexible and allow those among us who just want the cable to be able to purchase just that.
75$ for just the cable (and a hub which I will likely not use) does sound a bit hard to swallow.
Planet has confirmed some days ago that the HDMI cable will be available separately once the campaign will end. A logical move, since many like you are interested in the HDMI cable only. I'll receive the HDMI cable since I have ordered the All-in bundle, as I wanted the pouch as well and didn't want to pay more than one shipping fee.
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Varti
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As an owner of the original Psion 5 then the 5mx and Ericsson MC218 and the Psion Revo and Psion 7, pleased the join the Gemini PDA club!
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As an owner of the original Psion 5 then the 5mx and Ericsson MC218 and the Psion Revo and Psion 7, pleased the join the Gemini PDA club!
Ah, a long time Psion user I see... welcome to the Gemini club!
Varti
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So, I'm slowly tiptoeing towards getting a Gemini I think.
Hurry up with your choice then, thanksfully the perks on Indiegogo haven't been raised in price, but the campaign will anyway end this month, after that the Gemini will be sold at a retail store at a full price. Or wait until they start to sell them at a discounted price, most probably this will happen after a year or so.
Varti
Thanks for the encouragement....
Will probably take the plunge, as we say....
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Has anybody else here made a pledge, too?
Varti
I did, after reading the last Register piece. My Blackberry has gotten long in the tooth and now Blackberry itself is just another Android phone maker. Apple has become (or maybe always was and I just didn't notice it) too authoritarian for comfort. I've been using Linux exclusively for desktops and notebooks for 20 years this week, so the idea of a super-portable Linux machine warms my heart. My phone requirements are minimal -- I have a T-Mobile account with unlimited data and 100 minutes talk, and I've never come close to using all 100 minutes -- though I'll be interested to see if phone-over-wifi works with the Gemini (I live out in the woods where there's no cellular service, but it's been no problem with the Blackberry). And I'm of course interested in what if any telephony will be available under Linux on the Gemini.
Of some though lesser concern is whether it will be trivial or awful to bring over things such as my favorite desktop (TDE; I wrote a book about KDE in 1999 and have great affection for the TDE fork of KDE-3.x) and whether the necessary compiling tools and such are available.
At minimum, it will be an adventure.
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I did, after reading the last Register piece. My Blackberry has gotten long in the tooth and now Blackberry itself is just another Android phone maker. Apple has become (or maybe always was and I just didn't notice it) too authoritarian for comfort. I've been using Linux exclusively for desktops and notebooks for 20 years this week, so the idea of a super-portable Linux machine warms my heart. My phone requirements are minimal -- I have a T-Mobile account with unlimited data and 100 minutes talk, and I've never come close to using all 100 minutes -- though I'll be interested to see if phone-over-wifi works with the Gemini (I live out in the woods where there's no cellular service, but it's been no problem with the Blackberry). And I'm of course interested in what if any telephony will be available under Linux on the Gemini.
Same for me, I rarely make or receive phone calls, so most of the times I'll run Linux on it. Phone-over-wifi shouldn't be a problem, though to run Skype you'll have to use something like ExaGear.
Of some though lesser concern is whether it will be trivial or awful to bring over things such as my favorite desktop (TDE; I wrote a book about KDE in 1999 and have great affection for the TDE fork of KDE-3.x) and whether the necessary compiling tools and such are available.
The Gemini will run Debian, and Debian is a distro which runs the same, and offers the same packages regardless of the used architecture. Long time ago I used Debian Woody on a PowerPC machine, and it felt the same as on an x86 machine.
At minimum, it will be an adventure.
And I have always liked adventures
Varti
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Well, did the deed and just joined the Gemini PDA Owner's Club....
Should be fun....
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Well, did the deed and just joined the Gemini PDA Owner's Club....
Should be fun....
I'm keen to see how app developers support provide productivity apps to make best use of the Gemini form factor. The old Psion 5 with IR connectivity for faxing documents helped me close a few business deals in the late 1990s :-) Paid for itself many times over.
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Well, did the deed and just joined the Gemini PDA Owner's Club....
Yay!
Varti
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Well, I have pledged mine several months ago
I am still thinking about the connectivity pack though.
It kind of infuriates me, the way the whole hdmi thing was done (and the very late explanation about impossibility to have a generic cable for the device.
Perhaps Planet will be more flexible and allow those among us who just want the cable to be able to purchase just that.
75$ for just the cable (and a hub which I will likely not use) does sound a bit hard to swallow.
Planet has confirmed some days ago that the HDMI cable will be available separately once the campaign will end. A logical move, since many like you are interested in the HDMI cable only. I'll receive the HDMI cable since I have ordered the All-in bundle, as I wanted the pouch as well and didn't want to pay more than one shipping fee.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Varti
That was my question to Planet. I'm trying to be okay with the hdmi situation. It is what it is and not much we can do about it. I think if the shipping hadn't been so much ($40 on the wifi version to the US/Iowa) I would have gotten the Connectivity Kit. Honestly though, I'm in it for the keyboard and if it delivers on that, I'll be happy. (I pledged this summer.)
Does anyone know if there is an easy way to mirror the screen in Linux as you can with Android?
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Owner of multiple Series 3a units (unfortunate hinge/battery issue made for some repairs back in the day), a still-functioning (but sticky gooey) Series 3c, and a franken-Series 5 (Series 5mx with Series 5 keyboard, purchased off an enterprising fellow on eBay). I pledged just before the original campaign ended and just recently went 'all-in' + camera. Nice to meet everyone, and looking forward to a great time once I get my paws on my Gemini!
Edit: Originally said I have a 5 with a 5mx keyboard, actually the opposite. Preferable scenario, imho.
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Owner of multiple Series 3a units (unfortunate hinge/battery issue made for some repairs back in the day), a still-functioning (but sticky gooey) Series 3c, and a franken-Series 5 (Series 5 with 5mx keyboard, purchased off an enterprising fellow on eBay). I pledged just before the original campaign ended and just recently went 'all-in' + camera. Nice to meet everyone, and looking forward to a great time once I get my paws on my Gemini!
Hi Alius and welcome One of the things that make me worry about the Gemini is the hinge durability, it's one of the holy grails of clamshell devices it seems... we'll have to wait and see.
Varti
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One of the things that make me worry about the Gemini is the hinge durability, it's one of the holy grails of clamshell devices it seems... we'll have to wait and see.
Definitely! Well I am hopeful, since the Planet team has the design experience and history from the Psion devices to draw on. *fingers crossed*
And thank you again for the welcome!
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does anyone know what the USB-C hub actually is?
I've seen them as cheap as $20 on Amazon, and as much as $90 depending on the features - a plain hub is cheap, once you add a microSD card slot, ethernet adaptor, video out etc, they become lots more expensive.
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I decided I didn't want to risk missing out on the indiegogo discounts, so I ordered the standard wifi+4g unit, and a camera module. Everything else will be available at some point I'm sure, and the mystery of the USB-C to HDMI cable, and what kind of hub, can wait!
Hopefully they'll start to ship them out in quantity very very soon. I'm really stoked, I've tried all sorts of USB and bluetooth keyboards with my phones, and considered the Moto Mod keyboard, but only the latter and the Gemini have really offered what I want, and I'm also very enthusiastic about a proper linux handheld along with an active community to make something special!
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Does anyone know if there is an easy way to mirror the screen in Linux as you can with Android?
in one of the videos, it implied that linux video out was possible, but not dual display. I don't know what resolutions might be possible for this.
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in one of the videos, it implied that linux video out was possible, but not dual display. I don't know what resolutions might be possible for this.
The Youtube video from CES said that Linux has video out but that neither Linux nor Android offers dual display.
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I decided I didn't want to risk missing out on the indiegogo discounts, so I ordered the standard wifi+4g unit, and a camera module. Everything else will be available at some point I'm sure, and the mystery of the USB-C to HDMI cable, and what kind of hub, can wait!
[Snip....]
For info/photo of the hub as well as a hands-on prelim review check out:
https://liliputing.com/2018/01/hands-gemini...ch-display.html (https://liliputing.com/2018/01/hands-gemini-pda-handheld-pc-android-linux-6-inch-display.html)
Mark
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I decided I didn't want to risk missing out on the indiegogo discounts, so I ordered the standard wifi+4g unit, and a camera module. Everything else will be available at some point I'm sure, and the mystery of the USB-C to HDMI cable, and what kind of hub, can wait!
Hopefully they'll start to ship them out in quantity very very soon. I'm really stoked, I've tried all sorts of USB and bluetooth keyboards with my phones, and considered the Moto Mod keyboard, but only the latter and the Gemini have really offered what I want, and I'm also very enthusiastic about a proper linux handheld along with an active community to make something special!
Happy to hear you're joining the club
I must say I'm very happy to see again an alive community here, this motivates me a lot to maintain and upgrade the forum
Varti
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Happy to hear you're joining the club
thanks!
I must say I'm very happy to see again an alive community here, this motivates me a lot to maintain and upgrade the forum
after my Zaurus C3100 was stolen, one thing I really missed was not being able to be active in the Zaurus community here. I then bought a Nokia 77 and then n800 and that was pretty good for a while.
this may seem an odd thing to say, but I enjoyed Android more when it wasn't so polished, it's become an appliance for me now, whereas in the earlier days there was a lot of tweaking and hacking to be done to get the most out of it. I'm hoping that linux on the Gemini will give us ordinary users a chance to be useful ;-)
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thanks, @ArchiMark for reference to photos showing the hub. I did see the hub on the lilliputing youtube video, but it only showed two sides of the hub, so I wondered if there was anything on the other. So it's just "two full-sized USB ports, another USB-C port, and an Ethernet jack".
I'll probably buy a third party hub, which offers USB ports, ethernet and a memory card slot. I have something like that but it's USB3 with the full sized connectors.
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this may seem an odd thing to say, but I enjoyed Android more when it wasn't so polished, it's become an appliance for me now, whereas in the earlier days there was a lot of tweaking and hacking to be done to get the most out of it. I'm hoping that linux on the Gemini will give us ordinary users a chance to be useful ;-)
I know what you mean. Android is a far different beast today than it was when I hacked it onto my first Windows Mobile phone nearly a decade ago (it had a qwerty slideout, naturally!!)
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Does anyone know if there is an easy way to mirror the screen in Linux as you can with Android?
in one of the videos, it implied that linux video out was possible, but not dual display. I don't know what resolutions might be possible for this.
I was thinking about using Miracast until I could get the HDMI cable. A Google search tells me that Linux does potentially have the ability but successful implementation appears to be rare.
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In the CES interviews Planet Computers team keep mentioning the full retail price of the Gemini but they are still offerings lower prices as Perks. I thought that after CES launch they would stop the lower price option. Perhaps they are waiting for the initial batch to be shipped before they can increase the price.
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In the CES interviews Planet Computers team keep mentioning the full retail price of the Gemini but they are still offerings lower prices as Perks. I thought that after CES launch they would stop the lower price option. Perhaps they are waiting for the initial batch to be shipped before they can increase the price.
I think the current price is very reasonable compared to any mid to high range unlocked/carrier-free phone.
I backed it as soon as it appeared in a finished form at CES just in case they decided to close the discounted indiegogo option. They might go to a direct sales model anyway to avoid paying fees to Indiegogo?
I'm also hoping that sales will be sufficient to make it worth while to continue making them for a couple of years, and to make a superior second generation model.
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In the CES interviews Planet Computers team keep mentioning the full retail price of the Gemini but they are still offerings lower prices as Perks. I thought that after CES launch they would stop the lower price option. Perhaps they are waiting for the initial batch to be shipped before they can increase the price.
According to this review http://uk.pcmag.com/news/92835/the-gemini-...the-handheld-pc (http://uk.pcmag.com/news/92835/the-gemini-pda-brings-back-the-handheld-pc) 2 weeks left for the lower price