Topics

1

Site Suggestions, Requests, and Updates / Issue with new users registrations

« on: April 12, 2026, 04:43:57 am »

Hi,

an user has informed me that it's not possible to register any new account since emails are not being sent. I'm now investigating on this.
In the meanwhile, I have manually accepted all the account request, so those of you that are still waiting for the mail should have the account validated, let me know if it works now.

Varti

2

New products and alternatives / Mecha Comet portable Linux device on Kickstarter

« on: February 02, 2026, 10:24:29 am »

The Mecha Comet is a modular handheld Linux computer that lets you swap out the parts to suit what you want to use it for. A keyboard, a gaming controller and an IO board module have been announced so far.

https://www.xda-developers.com/i-love-this-linux-handheld-computer-and-you-can-help-fund-it-right-now/

The device can be configured as follows:
- an AMD64 I.MX8M Plus CPU, 4-core, up to 1.8 GHz or an I.MX95 CPU, 6-core, up to 1.8 GHz
- 2GB, 4GB or 8GB RAM
- 64GB or 128GB eMMC storage, an external MicroSD card or an NVMe SSD disk can be used too, supported size up to 1TB
- a 3.92" AMOLED display

It will be available starting from May 2026 (I.MX8M Plus version) or September 2026 (I.MX95 version). The prices start from $189/€160 for the base model, the modules and all the other accessories must be ordered separately.

As a word of warning, this is a Kickstarter project, so keep in mind that the project might not reach its goal or the pledged money be returned.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mecha-systems/mecha-comet-modular-linux-handheld-computer

Varti

3

New products and alternatives / A Chinese company is reviving old BlackBerry Classic phones with Android

« on: August 15, 2025, 07:43:26 pm »

"A brand named Zinwa Technologies is working on resurrecting a limited number of decade-old BlackBerry Classic Q20 devices and installing Android on them. The reborn phone will be sold as Zinwa Q25 Pro."

https://www.androidauthority.com/blackberry-classic-revive-android-3587932/

Varti

4

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Are new Cosmos/Geminis still available on Planet's webshop?

« on: July 02, 2024, 07:46:30 am »

Planet still lists the Cosmo and the Wifi-only Gemini as available on their webshop:

https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator
https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-wifi-only

Has anybody recently bought any of them, or knows if they are still accepting orders?

Varti

5

General Discussion / Hrw recalls his 20 years of work on the Arm architecture

« on: March 12, 2024, 10:31:42 am »

https://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2024/02/12/twenty-years-of-my-work-with-arm-architecture/

Hrw was OpenZaurus' release manager and a prolific poster on OESF. His work on Arm started when he bought a SL-5500.

I hope to see him logging here someday again to say hello, and wishing him many years of prolific work and fun on Arm platforms!

Varti

6

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

7

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

8

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

9

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

10

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

11

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

12

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]

13

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

14

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

15

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