Messages

1

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / A couple of odd behaviors keyboard and lock screen

« on: November 20, 2019, 02:37:09 pm »

I got my Cosmo a few days ago and I've noticed a couple of oddities. One of which is whenever I turn on the keyboard backlight the phone thinks it is charging. Doesn't seem to cause any real issue but I was wondering if anyone else has observed this.

Also not sure if this is hardware or software but it also randomly locks.  I might be writing a message or it could be sitting next me playing a video and it will go to the Android lock screen. It sometimes happens a couple of times in a few minutes and then it might not do it for an hour. I haven't noticed any pattern at all. It happens both plugged in, unplugged, while I'm touching, while I'm not touching it.  This has persisted after doing a factory reset. I might make a post in the Android forum about this.

Any other quirks you've noticed with your Cosmos?

Yep, have noticed the same with my Cosmo i.e the Cosmo suddenly jumping to the Android lock screen in the middle of other activities (e.g. texting, reading a Kindle book, etc.). Has been randomly happening, maybe 4x or 5x per day.

I hadn't noticed the backlight/charging issue, but when I looked it does say 'Charging" and the icon show charging when unplugged and I turn on the keyboard backlight...

Battery life also doesn't seem as good; though I haven't spent time looking into it. For example, reading a Kindle book for 2 hours dropped the Cosmo from 100% to 60% charge left...

SNi

2

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Latest updates on Indiegogo

« on: November 08, 2019, 06:07:31 pm »

Hey, many thanks, SNi, for those pix of comparison, etc.

What's your initial opinion of the hinge?

Also, when watching the How to Use the Front screen video, I couldn't tell if users could access their contacts to dial out, or whether you had to dial from keypad only. Might you have an answer for that?

Thanks again,
Jake

Hinge seems solid, but then I never had any issues with my Gemini... On the front screen when calling you can touch the contact icon and get a list... Scroll through and pick a person, or touch an AZ icon to pull up the alphabet to select a letter and jump to the corresponding contacts...

Hmm, left swipe I get the main menu icons, but when I pick the phone icon it's a little on the iffy side - sometimes nothing happens (I'm tapping the phone icon) and after a period of time the menu disappears... Tried it a couple of dozen times, perhaps 75% success rate

3

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Latest updates on Indiegogo

« on: November 08, 2019, 01:57:33 pm »

Received UPS tracking number. According to that my Cosmo in transit from Chek Lap Kok, HK with delivery due by end of day tomorrow...

428 from November 5th, 2018 locked, so may get by first anniversary...

SNi

Delivered, unboxed, have it charging... Gah, have to go exchange my MicroSIM for a NanoSIM...

4

GPD Pocket - hardware / GPD micro pc 6" laptop

« on: November 07, 2019, 11:12:49 am »

Despite the chunkiness I really like it... Still pocketable (just), screen resolution good for my old eyes, in and out of sleep quick enough to be close to always on, great battery life for full day's usage, etc.

Some pics at these links:

First look
Second look

SNi

Interesting. I like the comparison with the Zaurus. How is the keyboard and overall performance ?

Keyboard - not as good as the Zaurus, better than the Gemini... Not touchscreen but the layout of track pad on right and mouse keys on left works very well. A few keyboard things to 'retrain' - switching from Gemini means changed position for comma, dash, plus; number keys split into two rows vs. one; etc. Nothing major.  Overall, I'm surprised that i like it as much as I do (even carrying around in my pocket...)

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Latest updates on Indiegogo

« on: November 07, 2019, 11:03:28 am »

Received UPS tracking number. According to that my Cosmo in transit from Chek Lap Kok, HK with delivery due by end of day tomorrow...

428 from November 5th, 2018 locked, so may get by first anniversary...

SNi

6

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Latest updates on Indiegogo

« on: November 03, 2019, 08:02:17 pm »

428 from November 5th, 2018 locked, so may get by first anniversary...

SNi

7

GPD Pocket - hardware / GPD micro pc 6" laptop

« on: October 25, 2019, 12:07:11 pm »

Despite the chunkiness I really like it... Still pocketable (just), screen resolution good for my old eyes, in and out of sleep quick enough to be close to always on, great battery life for full day's usage, etc.

Some pics at these links:

First look
Second look

SNi

8

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / Random Turn-off when battery is less than 50%

« on: July 08, 2019, 07:34:00 pm »

Mine has recently started to "turn off" as well. However, it does not appear to have anything to do with the battery level. It has only happened when I have been using the phone... After a couple of minutes the Gemini suddenly is dead, requiring a Esc longpress to come back to life.  Still on 7...

SNi

Hi guys,

I am using mi Gemini as my daily driver. I use Android, because it seems to be only full featured OS so far.
Recently I noticed strange behavior.

My Gemini is sometimes randomly turning off. It happens when battery is about 38%. But it happened about 30% too. But never when batter was full.
If device is in idle mode, it is OK. But when I am doing something - browsing in Firefox for example, or in the middle of call with someone - Gemini screen just turns black. Then I must turn it on by long pressing "On" button. It boots up Android. And if I do same thing (run Firefox) right after boot, it mostly crashes to black screen again. If I wait for few minutes after boot it is in most cases OK (for some time), sometimes I must charge battery and then it is OK.

Anyone with same issues? Or any thougts? From mine point of view it seems to be some problem with battery or with Gemini itself. Because it happens only on energy-intensive activities (which I suppose having phone call or running big app like Firefox is).

9

Gemini PDA - Android / Android 8.1 for the Gemini to be available later this week

« on: May 09, 2019, 12:29:29 pm »

The official Android Oreo firmware update is now also available for flashing: http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Gemini_Firmware.  The online partition tool has not been updated yet as time of this writing, unfortunately. Hopefully this will be done soon.

I downloaded the latest file and followed the instructions at http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/A..._Flashing_Guide. Completed successfully! After this my Gemini went into a loop:  Vibrate... First Planet splash screen (Tux)... Dark... Vibrate... First Planet splash screen (Tux)... Dark (again and again). After two hours of this "loop" I  gave up. I copied the 'old' files back into the Flash Tool and went through the process. After this my Gemini recovered to 7.1.1 and started fine.... Well except that the second time I forgot to uncheck 'user data' so have lost all my settings, etc.

Bottom line: back on 7.1.1 with a 'as new' Gemini...

10

New products and alternatives / Foldable tablet (phone)

« on: October 31, 2018, 02:48:44 pm »

Not particularly an alternative; however this looks interesting... (well, cool at least!) Royole Flexpai:  To get info re availability I added one to the shopping cart, however, when I got to entering an address it did not have 'United States' as a choice in the country drop-down (though it did have 'u.S. Outlying Islands')

11

Gemini PDA - Android / Firmware Update 2018-10-09

« on: October 21, 2018, 01:03:02 pm »

Ah, I see. Those with partitioned Gemini (like me) should not use the Android firmware from Planet support page, but the firmware downloadable from page with partition tool. The first one is (or was at the time I downloaded it) lacking rooted boot image. Which somehow in combination with custom scatter file messed my wifi.  Meantime I solved my problem by fresh install of not rooted stock and rooting by myself (using TWRP and Magisk). Now it seem to work OK.

Yep, you got it!

12

Gemini PDA - Android / Firmware Update 2018-10-09

« on: October 21, 2018, 01:02:04 pm »

Upgraded... Grr, WiFi won't turn on... just sits at this screen.  Any thought/ideas re what to do?

OK, so when I downloaded and used the "LATEST - Gemini x27 Android FOTA4 08/10/2018 - MD5: e524742864bf683932c8e9d6d7f21abf" from the 'PC Gemini Firmware' page it borked my WiFi. However, when I went to the 'PC Gemini Partition Tool' page and downloaded using the 'Download Base Firmware button and used that file it did not bork the WiFi, so now I appear to be good to go.

There apparently are slight differences in the files you get between these two...

13

Gemini PDA - Android / Firmware Update 2018-10-09

« on: October 19, 2018, 06:39:04 pm »

Upgraded... Grr, WiFi won't turn on... just sits at this screen.  Any thought/ideas re what to do?

14

Gemini PDA - Android / Firmware Update 2018-10-09

« on: October 11, 2018, 02:07:35 pm »

Here is the doc I was referring to: http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/D....2FLinux_Gemini

Thanks, I knew about that one and have even read it multiple times (unconventional, I know).  It doesn't have the latest firmware available or, if it does, I can't see the link.  Just in case it's my old eyes if anyone can point me to the link I'm missing that'd be appreciated. Also, this is the procedure for completely reflashing the phone rather than just applying an update, which would mean spending an evening setting the phone up to work the way I want it to.  Again.

Rosie

You're in the right direction... My understanding is that if someone has made their Gemini multi-boot or rooted, then they have to do updates as per the link's instructions. The issue is that the latest firmware is OTA and not yet out on the Gemini Firmware page... Why these two things can't be made available simultaneously is a mystery, but I believe we just have to wait!

15

Gemini PDA - Android / Screenshots of Gemini Home Screens

« on: August 17, 2018, 05:08:50 pm »

@SNi: Portabase! Hadn't known that had been ported to Android. A wonderful app. As Windows CE user, I had to move to HanDBase--there were never a Portabase for CE.

Wow, Portabase...what good memories I have of it.

It works OK, but has some quirks... Not sure why, but Fn plus other keys don't seem to work in Portabase even when I have them working on my Gemini! So no colon, dash, etc. It's annoying but not fatal! I can save my files to the cloud, thus can share databases across my Gemini and desktop.