Messages

1

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Recent update 84 on Indiegogo site

« on: January 24, 2025, 04:31:27 pm »

How are you liking it? I see on Ebay someone is selling them. I guess they bought them from the factory when Plant Computer did not pay for them. they are asking $200 + $600 for shipping so $800 for it but since not many have not been delivered I do not think it will have a good support community.

2

Astro Slide - General Discussion / Re: Astro reviews thread

« on: July 20, 2022, 10:31:44 am »

Well here is a review that is not a paid by PC promo ad.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/planet-computers-astro-slide-5g-hands-on-features-price-photos-release-date/

3

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: Holy Downgrade, Batman!

« on: January 12, 2021, 10:33:11 am »

Last I checked Taiwan is not part of China. The ROC government relocated to Taiwan in 1949 while fighting a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party. Since then, the ROC has continued to exercise effective jurisdiction over the main island of Taiwan and a number of outlying islands, leaving Taiwan and China each under the rule of a different government. So when I asked about the Ban on China getting semiconductor chips that was going into effect on November 15, 2020 I was told MediaTek was in Taiwan so it would not be a problem. The reason why PC can not get the Dimensity 1000 (MT6889) or the Dimensity 1000+ is because MediaTEk is banned from sending it to China.

4

Astro Slide - Hardware / Does SD card share slot with second SIM card?

« on: April 05, 2020, 12:13:24 am »

Did you review the 'Story' page on Indiegogo for all the specs?

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-sl...er/x/16478532#/

Mark

yes, I read it and I am still not sure if it is possible to put in two physical sim cards in the phone while at the same time also having a microSD card.

From the text and tables, it could be either, but from the video, the sim tray looks like one of those hybrid ones.

did I completely miss it?

After looking at the video it looks like you have to chose between the second sim card or microSD memory card.

https://imgur.com/a/iP7duzq

5

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Hairline crack in display case

« on: May 22, 2019, 12:10:33 am »

Just to add in, I have these cracks as well (the two center ones for me) in the same positions indicated on the posted images with the arrows. So given the amount of responses it does seem to affect a larger amount of people, but similar to other responses I'm not convinced these cracks will actually be a problem. We'll see in a year or two I suppose

The cracks on mine has cased the screen to separate from the keyboard. The metal pins used to hold the screen to the keyboard was able to break through the plastic causing the metal pins to no longer hold the screen to the keyboard.

6

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Curved Hinge

« on: November 05, 2018, 06:10:53 am »

Tried that  mine just keeps popping off. It has now gotten to the point that the metal pins for the screen have broken the plastic that held them in place due to the plastic not being able to handle the weight. So make sure you leave that metal hinge on your Gemini or yours will become like mine. https://imgur.com/a/WoB6I8F

7

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Screen Hinge Tightness RESOLVED

« on: November 05, 2018, 06:07:24 am »

tried that  mine just keeps popping off. It has now gotten to the point that the metal pins for the screen have broken the plastic that held them in place due to the plastic not being able to handle the weight. So make sure you leave that metal hinge on your Gemini or yours will become like mine. https://imgur.com/a/WoB6I8F

8

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / Big announcement on 5th November

« on: November 04, 2018, 01:21:28 pm »

One day left till we know for sure. Also I just updated my Gemini with multi boot and have been stuck on a boot loop. oh the fun.

9

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Sometimes Wifi won't register

« on: October 28, 2018, 11:41:15 pm »

glad to see I am not the only one to have this problem.

10

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / HDMI and VGA output

« on: August 11, 2018, 08:57:45 am »

I think yours is like mine defective because I have not been able to get mine to work either.

11

Gemini PDA - Android / Apps: Games

« on: June 24, 2018, 05:49:18 am »

here are some fun one's. Sorry they are from the google Play store but could be found elsewhere

This one is still in Alpha and is getting updated to fix the issues they are finding but is ok for a 2 minute time waster. It is a really bad attempt at pay to win gaming but I grew up playing Command & Conquer.

Command & Conquer: Rivals (Unreleased)  

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?...p.candcwarzones


This is the one that has caused my Gemini to overheat due to me playing for 8 hours on a Saturday.
 
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? DanMachi - MEMORIA FREESE

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.us.danmemo

12

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / The eSIM feature is exclusive to the x27 variant of the Gemini and it's a design/compatibility choice.

« on: June 24, 2018, 05:00:10 am »

https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/arti...rn-ref-ent-trus

I do sympathise with people who were less lucky, it's not entirely Planet's fault about the X25 vs X27 thing, but really, we received everything that mattered in the original Indiegogo campaign, and the x25 vs x27 doesn't actually matter.

So x25 vs x27 deosn't actually matter  to you I bet because you got the x27. While I know backing a project means you get a work in progress I have backed multiple projects that then fix and add things based on the backers opinions. But everyone got the same item with the same hardware in it. When the project creators were ready to launch version 2 many of us returned to back them and most were kind enough to reward us for it. Also the first 1000 backers were to get the x25 but then Planet had issues with keyboards and they then skipped over some of the first thousand backers and just went on down the line passing out the x25. I was not among the first 1000 but was Order ID 1115, Order Date March 3, 2017. So as I said before I am waiting to see how planet is going to fix this as My Gemini's right USB-C port is not working with the HDMI adapter that was sent with it from planet.

13

Gemini PDA - Android / Gemini MassStorage App?

« on: June 21, 2018, 12:36:31 pm »

If you want to use the Gemini like a USB stick or a CD drive, I have just successfully tested DriveDroid which allows for that.
I was able to download an Ubuntu ISO, present it to the PC via DriveDroid as a virtual USB storage device and boot my PC into Ubuntu.
It's even much faster than using a CD drive.
Since I need to use different boot media regularly, I really appreciate that the Gemini supports DriveDroid. My previous phone didn't.
Saves me a lot of time creating USB boot sticks or burning DVDs from downloaded ISO images.
This is about as useful to me as a swiss army knife.

If your intention is to transfer files between the Gemini and a PC that doesn't speak MTP:
Two operating systems can normally not mount the same file system at the same time. It's like two people simultaneously writing on the same line on a piece of paper.
That means that previously the "sdcard" file system had to be unmounted on the Android side, terminating all apps that were accessing any files or folders at that point, so that the PC was able to cleanly mount the filesystem without corruption and interference. Android apps had to "wait" until the PC unmounted the sdcard before they could access the sdcard again.
This was a very unreliable and dissatisfying mechanism.
Apart from that Windows could only handle NTFS and FAT file systems. Both had limitations which made them unsuitable for the Android system. I won't even mention the licensing issues.

Current android uses a linux file system which is less prone to corruption, supports files>4G, stronger security and encryption.
MTP is the protocol that acts as an intermediary between the Android operating system/apps actively "working" on this linux file system and the PC wanting to read and write files.
Not a bad solution in my opinion. It minimizes conflicts, allows apps to keep doing what they are doing and reduces corruption to practically 0.
The only disadvantage is that the OS on the PC has to support MTP. But any sufficiently recent OS does ...

Other alternatives for transferring files:
-USB C SD adapter
-Install DroidSSH and copy files from Windows with WinSCP over WIFI. Or any sftp client.
-TotalCommander Wifi Plugin
-TotalCommander LAN Plugin to copy files from the Gemini to and from your PC over WIFI
-USB Tethering and DroidSSH + WinSCP
-Google Drive
-ADB
...

Thank you for sharing the DriveDroid app, it is just what I needed.

14

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / The eSIM feature is exclusive to the x27 variant of the Gemini and it's a design/compatibility choice.

« on: June 21, 2018, 12:32:14 pm »

Well... mea culpa!
After ranting above about not being told, today, among some random papers, I found a letter that came with my Gemini, clearly stating that in order to not cause further delays, my Gemini (presumably the entire first batch) was made without e-SIM support. And yes, I've read it before. How close I was to send an angry email, and appear as a complete idiot.
 [ Invalid Attachment ]
When I read about the issue above, I first got the impression PC decided to not support e-SIM on specifically the X25 Geminis, but as PC supposedly didn't even know X25 units were made, how could they then tell the factory to make them differently? They didn't. It rather seems they told the factory to leave the e-SIM out of first batch because of other issues. That the same batch also is the one in which the factory used the wrong SoC seems to be an unrelated coincidence.

If the letter came with the Gemini then what good did it do? Mine did not come with a letter and Planet did not post it on Indiegogo under the updates. So to me they sent something different then what I backed for. I understand the screen size and battery size changes because they applied to all the Geminis but to be sent a Gemini that does not have the items that caused you to back it is Bs. I am waiting to see How planet is going to fix this for the backers who speak up about this.

15

Gemini PDA - Android / Safe and unsafe flashing / dual boot with rooted Android

« on: June 19, 2018, 03:20:43 pm »

I went ahead and tried it, I guess things went as expected. Process:

copy Gemini_Dual_Boot.txt as Gemini_Dual_Boot_Rooted.txt
edit Gemini_Dual_Boot_Rooted.txt: replace "boot.img" with "patched_boot.img"
follow Flashing instructions, except that un-check all the boxes except "boot", and use Download Only option.

Flash device, boot: now it's rooted.

Can't see that I would have lost anything in the process; software and accounts remain on Android side, and Debian side seems the same also.

Are there "official" or recommended ways to root the Gemini? So far, I was recommended Magisk, but not specifically for Gemini.

From the Gemini Firmware :" Rooted Android firmware
With Gemini you have the option to easily root your device. Please bear in mind that rooting an Android device comes with associated risks, and some application might not work correctly. You can search the Internet for more information, we suggest that you proceed only if you know what you are doing.
If you know what you are  doing and you want to continue, then you can use the "Gemini_Android_Rooted.txt" scatter file to flash the rooted Android firmware. Please complete the process by installing Magisk Manager"

So since this is from Planet it is for Gemini.