Messages

1

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

« on: February 05, 2021, 03:08:43 pm »

CPU
The question is why MediaTek seems to be the only CPU vendor under consideration and PC cannot source from Qualcomm for example.
Could it be that volume / scale is a factor? Or maybe the manufacturing partners only work with MediaTek for some reason?

It bears repeating that, per their video Q&A, Planet works with an ODM -- a Chinese factory -- who only work with Mediatek chipsets. They built the two previous Planet smartphones. If they ditched Mediatek they'd have to find a new manufacturer, and with COVID19 out there they can't simply fly out and hold face-to-face meetings with people who are unfamiliar with what Planet are trying to achieve. So it'd be a production nightmare, hence their decision to downgrade to a lower-spec CPU rather than pick a very high risk strategy that might wreck the entire project.

2

Cosmo Communicator - Android / v22 is coming this week

« on: May 20, 2020, 08:20:08 am »

From the latest update, issued on 20/May:

[blockquote]Android Firmware – V22 firmware update

We now have a release candidate V22 firmware version and if all is well with the OTA updates we will release it withing the next week. Thank you for waiting for this firmware update.[/blockquote]

So if we're REALLY lucky it should drop some time on or after Monday 25th  

3

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Baffled by Planet's muilti-boot install firmware card!

« on: March 18, 2020, 05:26:36 pm »

What do you mean there's no (textual) documentation? Planet has textual instructions right on their support site!
http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Linux_for_Cosmo
Just skip the SD card preparation instructions as your SD card is already good to go and start from the rebooting into recovery mode section.

Weird -- why didn't I see that?

(I would just like to note the total lack of anything on paper -- or a readme -- with the SD card I received.)

4

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Baffled by Planet's muilti-boot install firmware card!

« on: March 18, 2020, 01:21:26 pm »

So I decided I wanted to upgrade my Cosmo to multi-boot Android/Linux, and to play it safe (and because I'm dumb) I ordered their micro-SD card with firmware.

Guess what: there are no instructions for how to use it! Or how to reboot the cosmo into recovery mode or whatever it takes to re-flash your firmware.

Does anyone have any pointers? (please no  fscking youtube videos, I just need straight textual instructions. Planet's approach to documentation drives me nuts!)

5

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Best app for large volume formatted text entry?

« on: January 31, 2020, 05:01:09 pm »

What I'm using -- admittedly a bit idiosyncratic -- is: Termux, the Linux userland/command line interface, with byobu (terminal multiplexer/virtual terminal manager) and nvim (NeoVim, a fork of vim with a whole bunch of new/cleaned up code) and a bunch of custom plugins for Markdown editing.

This is sitting on top of a directory tree that I sync with Dropbox using Dropsync (although Termux has a port of rclone available, which would be a feasible alternative if I could be bothered retooling to use it).

Upshot: full-featured vim editing environment with markdown-specific editing plugins and terminal multiplexer. And a near-clone of this setup running on macOS, Linux, and Windows 10 under WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux, in my case running Debian as a guest OS under Windows).

6

New products and alternatives / A PSION-like keyboard for the PinePhone

« on: January 25, 2020, 05:26:00 am »

Speaking of "second keyboard" devices, here's the castAway -- not a moving-key keyboard, but an entire miniature ChromiumOS tablet that pairs with your phone over bluetooth/wifi and lets you work on different tasks and continue to use apps while on the phone; it also has a keyboard mode.

7

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Configuring byobu (in termux) on Cosmo

« on: December 27, 2019, 11:49:29 am »

Alas, ctrl-\ is a bad choice for the Gemini/Cosmo layout (backslash is Fn-3, so it's a three-finger salute).

8

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Configuring byobu (in termux) on Cosmo

« on: December 27, 2019, 07:49:36 am »

In other applications (mc) alt-1 through alt-0 work for f1 through f10. Btw, for escape works alt-space, in mc or vim.

Huh. byobu in termux seems to pass alt-1 and alt-0 directly through to mc. Meanwhile, other keystrokes (Ctrl-a ! -- toggle key bindings off/on -- and Ctrl-a $ -- status) seem to be bound to other commands.

... And then, while poking around inside the byobu keyboard binding files, I seem to have kernel panicked my Cosmo!



So byobu ships with termux configured as a back-end, which is fine; and turns out to obey the termux keystroke commands -- which is fine, i can use them instead of the inexplicable vanishing function keystrokes -- except that the modifier key is ctrl-a, not ctrl-b. And this isn't visible anywhere in the man pages, because fsck documentation (and fsck gnu emacs, which is apparently why there's a program -- byobu-ctrl-a -- for messing with the behaviour of ctrl-a under byobo).

(Learning this cost me an hour. I now have a working byobu setup on the Cosmo (and Gemini), and one less hour in my life.

9

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Configuring byobu (in termux) on Cosmo

« on: December 26, 2019, 12:35:42 pm »

I'm trying to use byobu under termux on the Cosmo (in preference to tmux).

However, byobu relies on function keys to interactively create/move/resize terminal windows.

Does anyone know how to access and/or bind function keys on the Cosmo (which doesn't actually *have* F1, F2, etc as separate keys)? Failing that, has anyone got a working boybu-config that uses tmux command keystrokes (ctrl-B whatevs) to control it?

10

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / New Cosmo Firmware Update

« on: December 11, 2019, 03:50:12 pm »

So, this isn't the trailed firmware release with multiboot, TWRP, and Linux installation support baked in, right? (As announced in Indiegogo campaign update 35.)

11

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Mouse for Cosmo

« on: December 11, 2019, 03:39:56 pm »

I use a Microsoft Arc Bluetooth travel mouse (what can I say? Microsoft make decent hardware, whatever one thinks of their software offerings!). Works fine with the Cosmo and Gemini, flattens nicely for portability, available in a dark grey finish that matches the PDA.

12

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Changing default signature line in Airmail

« on: December 11, 2019, 10:02:24 am »

I had to contact Planet Computers to sort this. Not aware of a user guide for Airmail but that would have helped.

Thanks! That fixed it, but I would never have thought to look there for it (I don't normally use the unified inbox view at all).

We need a wiki or a HOWTO or something: there've got to be other gotchas lurking in a large but barely documented app.

13

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Changing default signature line in Airmail

« on: December 11, 2019, 08:35:31 am »

Does anyone know how to edit or get rid of the really annoying spammy signature in Airmail (on the Cosmo Communicator)?

Anything I compose comes up with a default signature saying "Sent from my Gemini PDA with the Airmail app. Please excuse my verboseness ..." and some cheesy marketing crap.

This is highly unprofessional and annoying, but there doesn't seem to be any way of changing the default signature in the Airmail settings. What am I missing?

14

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / First Impression (72 hour)

« on: November 28, 2019, 08:24:13 am »

However, the lack of a way to control the backlight from the keyboard is really annoying (even a simple on/off toggle key would be helpful).

I was under the impression that Fn + Shift + B or N (or whatever letters changes screen brightness in any particular keyboard layout) would increase or decrease the keyboard brightness. I've seen it demoed in videos from Planet.

This is my fault for never watching videos. (I'm a textual kinda guy.)

15

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / First Impression (72 hour)

« on: November 28, 2019, 06:33:52 am »

I'm now at about 48 hours with my Cosmo, still feeling my way into things. It replaces my Gemini, so I'm getting it set up to do similar stuff -- basically a PDA and typing machine, but with more phone use possible now.

The keyboard is a noticeable improvement over the Gemini, even before you add in the backlight. However, the lack of a way to control the backlight from the keyboard is really annoying (even a simple on/off toggle key would be helpful).

Performance-wise, it's clearly faster. I especially noticed this when I compared games across machines -- I tend to play Neverwinter Nights, and the frame rate on the Cosmo is vastly higher. Bluetooth, however, isn't necessarily great: I've got a Microsoft Arc bluetooth mouse set up with it, and it's a bit laggy -- and this doesn't seem to be app-specific. Is this an issue with the HID driver in the Bt stack?

Essential setup stuff: put the Cosmo into developer mode, install SystemUI Tuner (which requires some adb shell commands to permit it to write preferences), then mess with the DPI and set up Immersive Mode (hide navigation and status bars, swipe in to view them). I use Dropbox for storing my stuff, and DropSync for active sync to a Sandisk 400Gb micro-SD card: Termux for work (I use a heavily customized Neovim setup for editing), with a symlink to a synced folder in internal storage.

On the To-Do list: try and configure Sentio Desktop so that it's readable (the out-of-the-box configuration assumes you're using a largeish tablet and is almost impossible).