Topics

1

Astro Slide - Hardware / Performance comparison

« on: December 25, 2022, 03:19:35 am »

So, I tried a little experiment the other day. I loaded the WebGL aquarium on my Cosmo, Astro and a work RAZR (8+ gen 1)

1024x1024  canvas, 10000 fish, duckduckgo browser.

Cosmo - 9 fps
Astro - 23 fps
Razr - 37 fps

So the Astro, in a real world test is 2.5 times faster than Cosmo. The latest and greatest is only around 60% faster. Not bad I think.

2

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Benchmarks

« on: December 03, 2019, 07:17:55 pm »

For fun, I benchmarked the cosmo using Geekbench V5. It isn't too shabby. The gemini (on geekbench 5) gets
Single core: 190
Multi: 900

My cosmo gets:
Single: 303
Multi: 1411

From the browser, this puts the cosmo around par with the Galaxy S8 - a 2 year old premium phone, or the google pixel 3a which is a modern mid-level phone. The Mali chip gets an OpenCL mark of 1259, which puts in on par with a galaxy S7 - or in another context 1.2 times faster than a core i3. Not bad for a mid-range chip, and quite a bit faster than the gemini.

3

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Speakers

« on: November 27, 2019, 05:09:34 am »

When the Gemini first came out, it had mono speakers - not through design. They were loud, but tinny. I thought the cosmo would be similar, however I did a few tests today, and was very pleasantly surprissed. The speakers are most definitely stereo, they are loud, and less tinny than gemini. I still wouldn't put them in the same boat as say a good bluetooth speaker, but they are quite usable. Stereo separation is excellent, and there is plenty of volume to play with.

I played oxygene at full volume and was actually amazed at the quality and quantity of sound eminating from the little beast. I haven't installed an equaliser yet, but I would guess you could sacrifice a bit of volume for better sound.  I would be interested in hearing what other people think of the sound. There are some good audiophile sound tracks on youtube, but if you have a decent bitrate mp3, I would think that would be better.

4

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Camera

« on: November 23, 2019, 06:55:33 am »

I have been playing with the camera on the cosmo, and you know what? It isn't bad. I'm not comparing it against a phone twice to three times the price. Against the gemini, it is a wonder

I installed OpenCamera, which allows you to tweak a few settings and tried to push the limits. I took some night photos of stars and was surprised. These are hand held, no editing of any sort. I haven"t taken any daytime ones (that I can share) yet. the built in camera isn"t bad, but OpenCamera allows you to use API2, and a host of extra features. I am sure I could get better shots if I steadied the cosmo, but it is an example of what you can do.

Uploaded in full quality so you can have a look.

5

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / First impressions mini review

« on: November 21, 2019, 09:42:01 pm »

I haven't seen a review yet, so thought I'd write one for all those people waiting for their cosmos to get delivered. Firstly, I upgraded from the gemini to cosmo, so I can try to detail the improvements as well as new features.

The same
A strange thing to start with, but for those still using their geminis, this might be useful, and those who don't have one, this will be new. So the size is basically the same. On paper it is a little thicker, but the main difference is the top cover is a different shape. The cosmo weighs a bit more, but it is not heavy. If anything it feels more solid. The screen is basically the same, still good in my opinion. There are the same number of ports (2 USB-C, headphone). So all in all, roughly the same size,weight and shape. It fits nicely in trouser pockets, or jacket pockets. I wouldn't put it in your back pocket of your jeans.

Improvements
So everyone knows what the improvements were meant to be, but how much of an improvement are they? The keyboard is amazing. I got use to the gemini keyboard, but this one is much better. Nice action (clickey), and the keys have never been missed (the space bar on the gemini regularly doesn't work unles you press the middle). The hinge, which was the subject of many indiegogo comments is a big improvement as well. It is much firmer, doesn't wobble, and holds the cosmo firmly when on a table (as I am now typing). The unit feels far more responsive, but that could be a combination of faster CPU and more modern android. The camera - Oh the camera. The gemini had a camera (well as an extra). It was.....usable. You really only used it in an emergency. The front camera was good for skype/video chats, but that is about it. The cosmo camera is, well, good. It won't rock the world with its quality, but it takes more than acceptable photos. The flash is a welcome addition. The speakers are also nice and loud, and clear.

New features
The external screen. It works well. Maybe a bit slow, but it is really useful. You can read texts, accept calls. The selfie image is a bit delayed, but still usable. All in all a great addition. The other great improvement is the backlit keyboard. As well as being better all round, the backlight makes it usable in all conditions. It works surprisingly well - better than I thought it would. I also like that you can add a sim card/memory card without removing the back cover. It is more like other phones with a caddy which is reached via a thin pin like tool.

Summary
I can't think of any areas where the cosmo didn't improve on the gemini. I've only had it a few days, and I already love it. Once I worked out that DuraSpeed is broken (not cosmo's fault) and now my watch stays connected, I have no niggles. The battery easily lasts a day (83% half way through the day). The speakers are really loud if you turn them right up. So hopefully this gives people waiting something to look forward to. It is worth waiting for.

6

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / The unofficial official my cosmo has arrived thread

« on: November 18, 2019, 10:40:09 pm »

I looked for one - I seem to remember we had a "My Gemini Has Arrived" thread. After the "scam" thread, and with so many waiting, maybe people can be more confident that theirs is on the way be seeing how many have been delivered.

So:

order 9xx, Japanese motherboard (for Australian LTE frequencies), US keyboard and power supply.

7

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / External screen under sailfish

« on: July 01, 2019, 07:23:44 pm »

So we don't pollute the welcome thread, we can discuss the functionality of the external screen under sailfish here. I am going to investigate the functionality of the current phone gui, and see if it would be easy to insert code in there for the external screen. If any other sailors want to have a go at it as well, put your findings here. If Jolla doesn't have a solution when the cosmo is released, hopefully we will.

8

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / Mini 3.0.3.9 review

« on: May 19, 2019, 09:24:26 pm »

Hi all, just thought I'd drop a mini review of 3.0.3, which I updated to last Friday. Overall, a worthy update, even though you might not immediately notice some of the changes.

Bad
* Pulseaudio is stilll broken.
* On calls, the microphone is still on the same side as the earphone meaning poor call quality
* The headphone jack does nothing other than put mono sound through to the headphones (ie. speaker is still on)

Good
* Browser is updated, and seems to be more functional (no need to zoom/resize to click on hyperlinks)
* Wifi hotspot now works (I upgraded from 3.0.1.11, so it might have started working in 3.0.2)
* Wifi power drain seems to be far lower, I'll keep an eye on it
* Security fixes are always good.

Odd
* the prefs.js file can be modified automatically so webgl stops working. Easy fix is to reset the prefs file to the default
* the escape key locking on the home page is back to FN-Esc - and I had just got used to Esc

It was a fairly slow upgrade, but went without issue. Make sure you have a few gig free before trying it.

If anyone wants me to check something specific, ask.....

9

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / Mini review 3.0.1.11

« on: February 12, 2019, 06:58:24 pm »

Ok, so I have been using 3.0.1.11 for a while now, and thought I would give a little review on the state of sailfish for gemini

The good:
The interface is now natively landscape aware for the gemini
The new pull down menu is available everywhere and has more functionality than the previous one
The apps pull up works consistently
The camera focus works now
It seems faster
The browser is now able to view webgl pages (with a bit of extra setup)
Newer libs for better compatibility
The wifi problem is fixed
Light themes

The bad:
Headphones still not fixed (ie plays out of speaker and headphones). The workaround is to manually prod pusleaudio (no difference to 2.x)
The telephone seems to use the microphone and speaker on the same side - doesn't rotate with the phone (no difference to 2.x)
Some apps which displayed in landscape with the hack in 2.x are now back to portrait (you can always put the hack back in).
Hotspot still doesn't work (no difference to 2.x)
Some old apps need libs that aren't in the 3.x repos (I could probably fix this if I cared about the app, but it could be frustrating for others)
Still no office suite for editing, although there are online alternatives - google docs works, as does the stackedit markup editor (I wrote a simple web redirector that forces full screen for apps like gdocs which helps...)

The different:
The top pulley menu is different - I think it is better, but some won't
The quick close is now on the edge rather that just from the top (that is the new pulley menu)
The apps tray has larger icons/more space between so there are fewer icons per line

Bottom line is that I quite like the new version - it still has its faults, but is a step in the right direction. With fixes for headphones, hotspot and call microphone/speaker, sailfish would be awesome on the gemini. With the paid for version getting android app support for those absolutely must have apps (which I don't seem to have a need for), then it would be a compelling option for the gemini for most users I believe.

As a small note, with webgl now working, there are a lot of things you can now use - mainly games online. I can also now run the interface to octopi (3d printer) which uses webgl.

For others using 3.x, is there anything I have forgotten - I have almost forgotten 2.x in the month I have used 3.x, and may well have skipped something I now take for granted

10

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / Battery tip

« on: September 04, 2018, 12:39:13 am »

I had read about problems with the gemini wifi continuously going up and down when the screen was locked, but thought nothing of it as my unit was quite happy lasting a day. Well, the other day I was testing a device at work using the gemini and I had turned off the wifi (4G was still enabled). I forgot to turn it back on, and was surprised when I got home that I still had almost 90% battery! I normally take it off charge around 6am, and get home somewhere after 5pm. I tested this a few times, with and without wifi. The same thing happened every time. By turning off wifi when the gemini goes to sleep/lock, it uses almost no battery (as it probably should).

When you need internet and don't want to use 4G data, you can turn on wifi and use it as normal, but when finished, simply turning it off increases the battery life significantly. You still have network connectivity for email via 4G, so nothing will be missed, and you shouldn't use much. This is a bug - you can see it easily when sshing into the gemini over wifi when the screen is locked. It continually disconnects/reconnects meaning delays of several seconds every 5 or so seconds waiting for it to reconnect/power up/whatever. Unlocking the screen causes this behaviour to disappear.

Hope this helps someone

11

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / ffmpeg + ffplay

« on: August 27, 2018, 05:13:41 pm »

Hi all,

after working out how SDL sound works with sailfish, I added the fixes to my ffmpeg compilation. It hasn't changed the ffmpeg utility (convert from one video format to another amongst other things), but it now means that ffplay is fully functional. This is a very simple video player which uses ffmpeg to decode the streams and plays using SDL. It supports a lot more formats than the gstreamer based video players. There is no onscreen gui for control, however everything is keyboard based which is perfect for the gemini.

If people are interested, I could try to package it up, or just tgz it (there are 2 executables - ffmpeg and ffplay). Works brilliantly as command line viewer.

On another note, if anyone is interested in compiling/porting SDL apps to sailfish, I can give a quick howto to get things working, and steps to porting. There are lots of SDL apps around, and sailfish needs native apps  The qml front end is simple to create and using a native ide (tIDE), you can program, compile, test and package right on the gemini.

12

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / Dosbox

« on: August 09, 2018, 07:47:45 pm »

After playing around for a while, I have managed to get dosbox compiling on the gemini. I modified the renderer so that it is landscape inverted, and it worked. I haven't tested sound yet, and there are some scaling and keyboard (layout) issues, but it is basically functional. I'll see what I can get done this weekend, and maybe write a small qml front end. I'm sure there are lots of issues, like touch screen that I haven't seen yet, but the good news is that it is running on the gemini!

When it is in a stable state, I can post it for people to test if anyone is interested. I'm sure there are lots of things that will need to be tweaked. As a matter of interest, I did all the compiling/editing on the gemini under sailfish. Same with ffmpeg.

13

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / Camera update

« on: August 05, 2018, 09:26:34 pm »

Hi all,

For those who hadn't noticed, PC has released some library files which fix the camera orientation (without the need to modify the qml files). You can flash a new sailfish image (ouch), or just download the zip and extract to the correct places (lib and lib64). I can confirm that they work as expected - although if you modified the qml file, you will need to revert the changes as they are no longer needed.

I was playing with the camera a bit over the weekend and have noticed a few things. It is definitely not a high quality camera  You can, however, take some very nice, clear macro shots. The big surprise is that when you digitally zoom in, the focusing gets clearer. I also got some good results from the following: zoom in, focus by tapping the screen, quickly zoom out and take the photo. You only have 5ish seconds before the focus lock disappears.

On the Gemini screen, the photos look quite good. Zooming in, or displaying on a big screen shows up the camera quality however. For scanning documents, letters etc it is actually quite good. Mine can focus only a few cms from the lens.

Enjoy.

PS. go to the support.planetcom.co.uk site, and select firmware to find the camera files.

14

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / Warning: Don't update QtWebkit libs

« on: August 01, 2018, 06:48:34 pm »

I installed webcat a while ago - it is a good second browser running webkit rather than gecko. It can plug holes when gecko doesn't render correctly. The author suggests updating to QtWebkit 5.212, which he has created. I tried these on the Gemini and they are a no-go. I didn't poke around extensively, but they just display a blank page. Luckily I followed the instructions and kept a copy of the old libraries, so I am back to normal. This is just a warning for other curious sailors thinking of updating QtWebkit. If you don't keep a backup, you might find it difficult to revert. I have one if anyone gets in that state.

15

Gemini PDA - Sailfish OS / Compiling apps for Sailfish

« on: July 19, 2018, 06:39:01 pm »

Hopefully you are reading this even with the silly title. One thing I love about sailfish is that it is a linux distro, and as such can do things like compile third party apps. I compile on the gemini, and it is actually pretty good. With 10 processors, you can compile things quick smart. Anyway, I have compiled ffmpeg, which can be used to convert media from almost any formats. It also has a very basic video player which uses SDL. It works really well except for the sound (silly pulseaudio....). Does anyone have experience getting SDL2 sound working on sailfish? I was going to wrap a nice QML gui around it so it can be used as a generic video player.

Secondly, I compiled scummvm (I love the old point and click games like discworld, monkey island etc). It compiles, but SDL2 on sailfish doesn't natively support landscape, so I am creating a video mode scaler for it. There are a few other issues like sound and touchscreen which need a bit of a push as well, but hopefully I can get a working scummvm soon.

If anyone has any pointers on SDL2 sound on sailfish, please post them. Thanks.