OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Cosmo Communicator => Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion => Topic started by: Daniel W on June 24, 2019, 10:21:35 am
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Update #18 gave me some (now dispelled) dark thoughts.
If Planet Computers expects to get the first Cosmo units for certification and Linux development by the end of June, then, I thought, shipping in July, as stated in the latest published (Update #13) timeline, would seem pretty unrealistic. Hoping to maybe get a bit of clarification in some future update, I used the "I'd like more info" reaction button to send a message, posing the above question and also noting that, for the Gemini, it took four months from the T0 samples to the first backer production run. Adding that amount of time to the Cosmo T0 samples, from late May, would, I felt, be a bit disheartening.
So, at 22:36 (British Summer Time) on Sunday June 23, as it happened to be, I hit send and went back to a physics video YouTube. To my surprise, 21 minutes later, at 22:57, I got the following (from which I have removed some blank lines):
"Daniel, Thank you for your message.
We still expect to start Cosmo production in July if all is well. As you know, there are many certifications to complete as well as completing the firmware in a very short amount of time. So, there may be further changes in the timeline, but only if there are unforseen delays. And we will publish any changes in the timeline. I agree its very tight, but we have been there before. The T0 production samples are were very good, so some of the time is compressed from the published time schedule.
Why the shorter time period this time? With Gemini, we had to retool the Gemini keyboard several times, which caused a long delay in initial production. We don't have this problem this time, as there is prior knowledge that helps us.
I hope that this answers your question.
Thank you for your support.
Best regards,
Janko
[a copy of my message]
Sent from my Gemini PDA with the Airmail® app. Please excuse my verboseness - I have a great keyboard and just cannot resist. Get a Gemini PDA from Planet and type on the move! www.planetcom.co.uk "
That's the quickest action I've ever observed from Planet Computers, and it came right when I had begun to doubt a bit. It certainly answered my question, and pretty much put me at ease again. Of course, the actual schedule could still slip a bit, for any number of reasons, but to read that the CEO, at this point in time, thinks the timeline from April is still feasible, was uplifting to read. As I presume others, like me, might be wondering what to expect right now, and since the above, as far as I can tell, isn't sensitive in any way, I felt sharing this here, was the appropriate thing to do. I hope Mr. Mrsic-Flogel agrees. Not sure if I should be impressed or worried to find him at work on a Sunday night, but, in any case, it seems progress is being made.
/Daniel
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I'm not surprised by this. The Gemini internals appear to be fairly mainstream for an Android device, the big difference being the keyboard.
I'd still be concerned about keyboard-related delays due to the backlighting (which is new), but the initial stumbling block of building a small device keyboard in the first place is something they've already dealt with. The Cosmo is a version 2 product, so mostly just incremental improvements, aside from the external display.
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Sounds like pretty good news to me...
Thanks for sharing, Daniel!
Mark
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Cosmo is modified version of Gemini. There is few new features that Planet Computers need to implement to Gemini, wich can be seen straightaway (Back light for keyboard, 2nd display with new camera and fingerprintsensor).
And of course they have something under the hood. New processor and probably quite lot with motherboard and SW and FW. And they might have something from Gemini that might need some improvements.
But as on Gemini, delays came from HW. On Cosmo those HW modifications are quite small this time, thanks to all the good work already done with Gemini. On Cosmos HW there is possible improvements from Gemini and few implementations of new features.
I think hardest part of Cosmo is everything around 2nd display and new HW parts on motherboard.
If everything goes well, on on official testing and Cosmo is getting certificates as planned, I think this tight schedule is still alive. I think possible delays might come from getting certificates in time and shipping delays for T1 samples.
Nice to hear about Daniel post. Keep up good working Planet computers...
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I think hardest part of Cosmo is everything around 2nd display
I think so too. But testing will most likely focus mainly on the HW side of things. The SW of the 2nd display can be optimized after the Cosmo is officially out.
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I think hardest part of Cosmo is everything around 2nd display
I think so too. But testing will most likely focus mainly on the HW side of things. The SW of the 2nd display can be optimized after the Cosmo is officially out.
I think it was observed a in an interview with one of the Psion engineers- explaining why there were some glaring deficiencies in the original Series 5 ROM such as no sort function in the spreadsheet- that every product development cycle eventually reaches a point where the pressure to launch exceeds the pressure to improve the product further, and that's when the first (imperfect) production version emerges blinking into the light of day.
Nowadays, when updating firmware is a comparative cinch, partially-functional software at launch is theoretically less of an issue, so long as the development team is not disbanded or seconded to other projects as soon as the hardware is launched.
From a PR perspective however, since the external screen is such a seminal feature of the Cosmo, it would be hard to launch before it is in a reasonably functional state.
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From a PR perspective however, since the external screen is such a seminal feature of the Cosmo
I find just the camera matters, I would even prefer it without the external screen making the phone bigger+heavier.
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From a PR perspective however, since the external screen is such a seminal feature of the Cosmo
I find just the camera matters, I would even prefer it without the external screen making the phone bigger+heavier.
Certainly, a reasonable idea, but it sounds like it would be a Gemini II, not a Cosmo....
Mark
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I think hardest part of Cosmo is everything around 2nd display
I think so too. But testing will most likely focus mainly on the HW side of things. The SW of the 2nd display can be optimized after the Cosmo is officially out.
I think it was observed a in an interview with one of the Psion engineers- explaining why there were some glaring deficiencies in the original Series 5 ROM such as no sort function in the spreadsheet- that every product development cycle eventually reaches a point where the pressure to launch exceeds the pressure to improve the product further, and that's when the first (imperfect) production version emerges blinking into the light of day.
Nowadays, when updating firmware is a comparative cinch, partially-functional software at launch is theoretically less of an issue, so long as the development team is not disbanded or seconded to other projects as soon as the hardware is launched.
From a PR perspective however, since the external screen is such a seminal feature of the Cosmo, it would be hard to launch before it is in a reasonably functional state.
That's why I said "can be optimized after launch" , not "can be made functional after launch" .