Topics

1

Hardware News / PlanetPC XR Mini Desktop - new Planet Indiegogo campaign

« on: February 27, 2023, 05:59:15 am »

"Planet Computers introduces the PlanetPC XR series of mini desktop computers. The XR series runs Ubuntu Linux and are based on ARM multicore processor technology.

The new-look XR features a unique integrated colour touchscreen, giving access to soft keys for frequent tasks, a system monitor and controls for WiFi, Bluetooth, VPN, Network disk, audio and other system functions.

The XR Series is truly zero configuration, allowing anyone to become a Linux user straight out of the box.The XR2 performance range features an 8-core superfast ARM processor coupled with a Mali-G610 GPU and a 6TOPS NPU to give extraordinary performance. The XR1 value range is based on a 4-core ARM processor."

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/planetpc-xr-mini-desktop#/

 

I wonder if Planet has given up with the mobile devices market, or if they are simply trying to enter more than one market in order to diversify their products line.

Varti

2

Zaurus - Arch Linux ARM support / ARMv5 support dropped in Arch Linux ARM

« on: March 24, 2022, 05:12:02 am »

Unfortunately it seems that ALARMZ won't see any update anymore, as support for ARMv5 (and v6) has been dropped in February:

https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15721

"Starting in February 2022, support for ARMv5 and ARMv6 architectures will be ended in Arch Linux ARM.

Reasons for this include:
1. There is very little, if any, new hardware being made for these architectures.
2. Looking at mirror traffic, ARMv5 and ARMv6 account for 1% and 5%, respectively. These numbers have been steadily declining, with v7 and v8 splitting the rest about equally.
3. Keeping packages building for these architectures has become an outsized effort given their usage with respect to v7 and v8, and there are already large chunks of packages that aren't building for them.
4. More focus and time can be put into ARMv7 and AArch64, where over 90% of the user base is."

This is sad news, although it was expected to be happening sooner or later. Alarmz is more resource hungry than Voidz, but on the other side it was much easier to maintain since all the packages were already available as armv5 binaries. Thanksfully we still have Voidz for our Zauruses.

Varti

3

Astro Slide - General Discussion / Campaign updates

« on: March 09, 2022, 10:22:57 am »

Astro production is ongoing, non-japanese keyboard layouts are starting to be produced:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer#/updates/57

Varti

4

Site Suggestions, Requests, and Updates / Simple Machines Forum 2.1 major update released, forum update planned

« on: February 28, 2022, 03:53:24 am »

Hi,

after many years of beta testing, the official 2.1 version (already at 2.1.1) of the forum software which OESF is based on (SMF) has been finally released. This is only a partial changelist of this new release:

New features for users

    A new WYSIWYG editor, SCEditor
    Real-time alerts in addition to email notifications
    A new default theme with full support for mobile devices
    Draft messages (you can save & resume later)
    Mentions using @name syntax
    Drag & drop attachments
    Attachments can be embedded directly into post text

New features for moderators and administrators

    An improved Administrator Control Panel
    Support for moderator groups, not just individuals
    Many security enhancements, including support for optional Two Factor Authentication
    IPv6 support
    Designed with GDPR support

The integrated mobile theme is certainly welcome, since the current, third-party one has a few flaws, and I hope that the search engine has been improved, too.
I'm going to test the new version on a private install and test it, if everything will work smoothly I'll proceed with the update, the procedure should take approx. 30 mins, the forum will be offline during that period. Since the update will be performed only once a working procedure will be devised (I also have to check if all the current add-ons are working) using the current database, there will be no lost messages or threads during the transition.
I'll let you know when I'll proceed with the update.

Varti

5

Astro Slide - General Discussion / Astro reviews thread

« on: February 03, 2022, 03:06:43 am »

The (probably) first official Astro Slide review has been published on the Big Tech Question website:

https://bigtechquestion.com/2022/02/02/review/astro-slide-review/

 

I really hope that the camera quality can be improved via software and that updates will be available, either from Planet or from third-party.

News via Planet PDAs Facebook page.

Varti

6

Astro Slide - General Discussion / First Astro units starting to arrive to backers!

« on: February 02, 2022, 03:25:11 am »

The first lucky owners seem to be from Japan:

 

https://twitter.com/planetcom2017/status/1488473788018741251

https://twitter.com/hkyamane/status/1488334499674943490
https://twitter.com/LeoGoto_SWL/status/1488342963411644419

7

New products and alternatives / Pocket Popcorn Computer available for preorder

« on: May 07, 2021, 12:55:14 am »

The Pocket P.C. is "a handheld Linux device with a high-definition 1080p display and large battery life."

 

It includes:

- a reprogrammable 59 button silicone keyboard w/ RGB backlight
- an Infineon OPTIGA TRUST M IC with: ECC NIST P256/P384, SHA-256, TRNG, DRNG, RSA® 1024/2048 and 4.5K of user memory. This chip can store private keys securely, as well as generate true random numbers
- a removable 3200mAh battery
- the LoRa version has integrated LoRa and GNSS radios capable of joining worldwide LoRaWAN networks and concurrent reception of up to 3 GNSS
- shipping with Debian 10 running mainline Linux,

https://pocket.popcorncomputer.com/

[News via Planet PDAs on Facebook]

8

Software News / Sailfish OS Koli 4.0.1 for Gemini released

« on: February 05, 2021, 03:41:59 am »

A new version of Sailfish OS, 4.0.1 - Koli,  has been released for various devices, including the Gemini PDA (but not the Cosmo). A list of the most important new features and bugfixes is available here:

https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/release-notes-koli-4-0-1/4542

 

The flashable image for the Gemini will appear when this release has been rolled out to all users.

Known issues specific to Gemini PDA:
- Features not yet implemented: double-tap wakeup, RTC Alarms
- Gemini Screenshot Button Fn + X does not work
- Not possible to answer calls when Gemini is closed with side button
- Some 3rd party apps have issues in Landscape mode.

Thanks to cos on the Gemini & Cosmo PDA Telegram channel for the news.

Varti

9

Astro Slide - General Discussion / First Look and Backer's Q&A videos released

« on: January 16, 2021, 09:43:08 am »

Planet Computers has today released two videos for the First Look Event, showing the first Astro Slide 5G sample:
 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer#/updates/20

Astro Slide 5G - First Look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WGJCh0v1Rw

Astro Slide - First Look - Backer's Q&A:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgQ8NTituUA

Moreover, they have also started an Astro backer poll on the battery capacity: https://strawpoll.com/9s6f9zfeg

Varti

10

Off Topic forum / 2020 game :)

« on: January 14, 2021, 12:44:24 pm »

I have stumbled on this little and cute webgame. The ending is really fun to watch

 

The game about the mad year 2020
Play through all the major events of 2020: the Australia wildfires, Covid-19, the stock market crash, quarantine, the rise of TikTok, the USA elections, etc.

https://2020game.io/

Varti

11

Misc News / Astro/Cosmo/Gemini's IRC channel has moved to a new home

« on: January 09, 2021, 03:12:32 am »

Hi,

I wanted to inform you that the Astro/Cosmo/Gemini's IRC channel (#gemini-pda) has now moved from freenode:

the new channel is called #planet-devices and is hosted on IRCNet, you can connect to it via irc.ircnet.com on port 6667 (SSL: irc.ssl.ircnet.com on port 6697).

This new channel is still bridged with both Telegram and Matrix (thanks Sami!). The reason for the move was because of technical limitations of the Freenode servers which was making bridging difficult.

Link to the list of all the active IM channels: https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=36332.0

Varti

12

Off Topic forum / Happy New Year 2021!

« on: December 31, 2020, 01:22:20 pm »

The OESF team wishes you a happy new year 2021! Hoping that the new year will be full of good news for everyone

Varti

13

Software News / New Linux firmware v3 for Cosmo Communicator now available

« on: November 19, 2020, 03:31:10 am »

https://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Linux_for_Cosmo

 

"The latest Linux Debian firmware v3 is now available!

This release contains a Cover Display (CoDi) implementation for Linux which provides a number of new features, such as:

 -  Mouse Control - you can now use the CoDi display as a trackpad when the unit is open
 -  Phone Control - you can browse contact and place/accept calls from the Codi screen while the unit is closed
 -  Device Control - you can switch OFF/reboot Cosmo from the CoDi display
 -  Contacts can be updated by the gka-contacts-qt application or directly from the dialer app

A big thank you to the Cosmo Communicator open source community for supporting Linux on Cosmo Communicator!"

14

GPD Win - hardware / GPD Win 3 announced

« on: November 10, 2020, 10:04:57 am »

"If the design looks familiar, that’s because it’s heavily inspired by the Sony Vaio UX line of handheld computers from almost 15 years ago."

https://liliputing.com/2020/11/gpd-win-3-handheld-gaming-pc-has-a-sliding-display-qwerty-keyboard-and-intel-tiger-lake.html

 

Varti

15

New products and alternatives / Sony Ericsson VAIO smartphone prototype from 2010

« on: November 02, 2020, 11:52:46 am »

XDA has released new photos of the unreleased Sony Ericsson VAIO smartphone which was under development in 2010, bearing a striking resemblance with the Astro:

https://www.xda-developers.com/sony-ericsson-vaio-prototype-smartphone/

 

Varti