Messages

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For Sale / Wanted / [SALE] Cosmo Communicator (EUSA, US English, currently in Ireland)

« on: May 04, 2021, 11:33:49 am »

I am interested in selling my Cosmo Communicator: the poor quality keyboard and poor Linux support made the device unsuitable for me, and as a result, it has largely been sitting unused.  It is currently dual booting Linux and Android, both with modifications to workaround key rollover limitations, but I can change the setup to whatever the buyer would prefer.

It has a US English keyboard (not what I ordered...), and is the EUSA model.  It has been fine for me on both US (Google Fi) and EU (Vodafone) networks.  This sale is (at least for now) only for the device itself: I don't think I have the charger or original cable easily accessible to me, as I have consolidated USB-C charging arrangements for all of my devices.

I am asking €400 (or the equivalent in GBP/USD/ETH, all of which I can accept without conversion), plus shipping; I can accept SEPA and a number of other payment methods.  I am currently in Ireland, and can ship to the EU or UK, but will likely be in the US in June and could ship to the US at that point.

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For Sale / Wanted / Re: Wanted: Gemini HDMI cable adaptor

« on: May 04, 2021, 11:14:17 am »

Are you still looking for one of these?  I have the HDMI adapter that came with my Cosmo, and I assume this is the same.  From my experience with it and other reports I've seen, however, it works rather poorly.  I'm located in Dublin, so I don't think shipping for such a small item would be that expensive.

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Cosmo Communicator - Linux / Re: Bad keyboard mapping for some keyboard localizations

« on: January 31, 2021, 10:32:45 am »

Actually, the problem wasn't there: KDE (specifically kglobalaccel) was configured to eat a number of keys.  See https://github.com/gemian/kglobalaccel/commit/34c52a58b12bc76eb1fb4d0832f2f13bef39fb7f.

It appears to be fixed, but not in v3.  Try running sudo apt update; sudo apt dist-upgrade and rebooting.

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Cosmo Communicator - Linux / Re: Bad keyboard mapping for some keyboard localizations

« on: January 31, 2021, 08:47:28 am »

Many keyboard layouts I have tried don't actually work, primarily with this problem (eg, gr has it, and dvorak, after fixing other problems, also has it).  My assumption is that it is a bug in symbols/planet_vndr/cosmo in xkeyboard-config, but it isn't immediately obvious as to what differs between layouts that work and layouts that don't.

I was planning on figuring out how to fix this today, but because of the horrible battery life, and some bug in suspending that requires my password in order to suspend, the battery ran out overnight, and now something freezes while booting, and I can't figure out how to turn off the splash screen / remove quiet from the kernel parameters.  So it might be a while...

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Key ghosting with Dvorak layout

« on: June 24, 2020, 12:17:18 am »

TapamT, did you ever hear back from support (I haven't)?  If the key ghosting problem is showing up even with commonly-sequential keys in qwerty layouts, like (), that's disappointing.

This type of problem is caused by poor/cheap keyboard matrix design, and then poor firmware/software mitigation.  It's baffling that a device whose key feature is supposed to be an excellent keyboard would have this problem, and that questions about it would receive no response.

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Cosmo Communicator - Android / V21 firmware

« on: April 13, 2020, 04:52:00 pm »

Are these firmware updates coming from the OTA update system, or are people installing them manually from somewhere?  I haven't seen any available OTA updates on my device since V19.

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Astro Slide - General Discussion / Astroslide

« on: April 13, 2020, 03:23:33 pm »

Please note that you should not think that supporting an Indiegogo campaign is the same as purchasing a product at a retail store or online store.

You are making a contribution to support development of a product. Rather than the company giving you shares of company in return, they typically offer a 'perk'. Think of the perk similar to a thank you gift for making your contribution.

Once the company delivers their perk, they have satisfied their obligation to the contributors.

Again, this is very different than you purchasing their product after it is released to the general marketplace either at Planet Computers directly or through other retail channels. Many of the comments I read about product delivery, service, and support sound as if you purchased device through normal retail means. But as a contributor you did not do so and Indiegogo is very clear about this.

Adjust your expectations accordingly or wait to purchase later at retail price, which is generally higher price, but less risk.

While it is true that supporting Indiegogo campaigns is different than purchasing a product, PC does sell the Cosmo in their store as a retail product, and some of us did buy it that way; at least in my case, I did so specifically for the reasons that you mention.  I'm not sure that the experience for retail Cosmo purchasers has been any different than for Indiegogo supporters, and I too was mildly disappointed to see a new product announcement sent to me (not least because I never sign up for marketing emails...) while basic usability problems with advertised features (in their store, not the campaign) still seem to plague the Cosmo.  I remain hopeful that the problems will be fixed, but it is not encouraging.

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Key ghosting with Dvorak layout

« on: April 13, 2020, 03:09:53 pm »

I don't have any of your ghosting issues on my Dvorak Cosmo. The only issue I have is that keyboard shortcuts and long-presses for special characters are mapped to the QWERTY layout, which I reported to Planet a few months ago but they have yet to fix it...

Hmm... if you try to create as bad of a situation as possible, and press t, h, and e at the same time, does an o register?  It may be that I am used to somewhat slurring my typing more than most people; if am very careful to separate my keystrokes, as though I am typing on a typewriter and need to avoid jams, I don't have the problem, but that slows me down considerably.

It would actually be somewhat encouraging if this is a problem specific to my device.  My Cosmo was not originally Dvorak (actually, PC shipped me a different keyboard layout, and potentially different model, than the one I ordered...) but they've assured me that all the keyboard layouts should be supported on it.

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Key ghosting with Dvorak layout

« on: April 12, 2020, 05:37:58 pm »

I was quite happy when I purchased the Cosmo to see that it was advertised as supporting the Dvorak layout, but in using the layout, there appear to be significant key ghosting problems that make typing at speed (somewhat the point of the device) practically infeasible.

In particular, "the" registers as "thoe", which happens quite frequently, while "ing" registers as "in<UP>g", which is extremely problematic as it disrupts typing flow rather than just resulting in a fixable typo.  I'm willing to devote some time to fixing this, as the usability of the Cosmo is significantly hindered for me without a usable Dvorak layout, and I'd prefer to have a working device rather than having the purchase be a waste because advertised features are broken.  This problem seems like it is something that could be reasonably addressed in firmware, depending upon how key jamming is implemented.

Does anyone know the accessibility of firmware here?  Is this a situation where we are reliant on PC, or worse, the keyboard manufacturer?  I've let PC know about the bug through their bug reporting form, but was wondering if anyone here might know about the openness of the firmware, or other approaches to handling this.