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Pocket Popcorn Computer: Linux in Your Pocket
- noobermin 7y agoLooking at the rest of the landscape, I wish them luck.
- k_sze 7y agoYeah. Same sentiment. If I wanted to buy a hackable mobile Linux device, I don't see why I would buy this instead of a PineBook Pro (when it comes out). I would really hate typing on a silicone keyboard.
- flukus 7y agoThe pinebook is a laptop with a 14" screen, this is aiming to be far more portable with a 4.5" screen (can we even get phones that size anymore?), so they're not really in the same category. It's competitors are more like the GPD pocket (https://www.gpd.hk/gpdpocket2 https://www.gpd.hk/gpdpocket2) which I've been umming and ahhing over getting for a while as a machine I can do some coding on while commuting or laying in bed. The silicon keyboard probably allows it to be smaller without fat fingers becoming an issue and this looks like a better form factor for my usage than the clam shell of the gdp. My big issue would be whether or not it allows for multiple keys to be pressed at once.
- darcyparker 7y agoI agree about the silicone keyboard. I can understand many mechanical keys types will not be feasible in a small form factor. But there are good mechanical key designs that are small to choose from. For example, the ones on HP calculators (ie HP48GX...) The DM42 (a modern HP42S clone) has nice mechanical keys. https://www.swissmicros.com/dm42.php https://www.swissmicros.com/dm42.php
- shakna 7y agoI loved my PocketCHIP, right up to when the software stopped getting updates, and the company ghosted everyone with hundreds of waiting orders. I still have it, but getting it working again is a couple weekend's of work. (Which makes me somewhat doubt the simultaneous claims of mainline Debian _and_ based on the same underlying hardware as the CHIP.) I love the form factor that these kinds of computers present. However, the promise of a decent production line will always ring hollow. Many of these companies have popped out, had a small run, and vanished, leaving the customer with a paperweight or a security risk.
- noobermin 7y agoNot quite a pocket pc, but famously and recently, the librem 5[0]. My comment below wishing them luck hinted at this, it's almost expected for them to falter during delivery, ghost everyone and disappear because it has become a sadly familiar pattern around these open source electronics in small factor (phones, pocket pcs and the like). [0] https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-purism-and-the-librem-5-part-1 https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-puri... HN comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21369733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21369733
- remotecool 7y agoI bought a couple of these and installed nes and SNES emulators with a full library of roms for my nephews. They loved it.
- makomk 7y agoThe big problem with mainline support for the CHIP is that it uses raw flash directly connected to the SoC - and to make matters worse, on many boards that's MLC flash which is particularly nasty and is very firmly not supported by mainline Linux. This seems to dodge that problem by using eMMC with a built-in controller.
- elagost 7y agoUpon seeing this project I immediately searched the HN thread for fellow PocketCHIP owners. Mine's still on my shelf next to a few other handheld Linux portables that showed promise, but ended up with poor support and no updates. The real clincher for me is eMMC storage - with no way to back up or modify the storage other than their web-based flasher, the CHIP was a headache and a half to deal with, compared to other microSD-card-based SBCs, which are simple to backup and restore when needed. I'd love to have a device like this with the longevity of a Thinkpad (still using mine from 2012) or at least my Nexus 5 (2013, and still in use!) but it seems after a year or so these all just get abandoned.
- shakna 7y agoMine's lying half dead in my drawer. It needs to be reflashed. It really was exactly what I wanted - apart from the terrible support which turns it into a dreaded chore. I used it enough I had to repair the ctrl+shift keys (well, the caps) from clear overuse. Though, one of these weekends I'll get around to using these [0][1] to make it work again. The web-based flasher really was the pits to deal with (forced to flash via Chrome was such a terrible experience). Thank goodness someone got a hold of the actual flasher before it all went up in smoke. [0] https://archive.org/details/C.h.i.p.FlashCollection https://archive.org/details/C.h.i.p.FlashCollection [1] https://github.com/SaltyCybernaut/PocketCHIP-flash-utils https://github.com/SaltyCybernaut/PocketCHIP-flash-utils
- xwdv 7y agoGotta be honest, wish they had stuck with the clamshell design, this will not fit in my pocket, and if it doesn’t then what’s the point I could just carry another device then.
- afandian 7y agoIs there any history of the product development?
- hanniabu 7y agoMaybe I overlooked it, but I didn't see any dimensions. Anybody know the expected length/width?
- taneq 7y agoIt has 'a 4.95" 1080p LCD display' and it looks about 1.8x wider and maybe 1.2x as long, so... roughly 5" square?
- armitron 7y agoI don't see this succeeding. Silicon keyboard will be a pain to use. Case is too bulky to carry on person. LORA/GNSS seems like a solution looking for a problem. Screen is too small for dev work. This doesn't manage to sit comfortably in any of the popular portable computer categories and I don't really see a niche for it.
- freedomben 7y agoI've got a keyboard much like that one, and I thought it would be a pain for anything beyond simple character presses, but surprisingly it isn't that bad. However I don't see it succeeding either simply on the price. It's too high for the specs. I wouldn't do that for anything less than 4 GB ram.
- onion2k 7y agoScreen is too small for dev work. I use Termux on my phone with a bluetooth keyboard occasionally and it works really well for light dev work. I wouldn't want to work in it all day, but if you're just hacking a shell script or some nodejs stuff you don't need a massive monitor.
- tomcooks 7y agoTermux with tmux and mosh to connect to a VPS can turn my phone into a valid substitute for most of my work
- ageofwant 7y agoThe $300 LoRa model is what takes it from meh, to kinda cool, maybe even worth it for me. Might even be useful for high-end 'pager' or data capture apps perhaps.
- snops 7y agoThey don't say who makes the SOC, just "1.2 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU", which is a lot higher spec than the GR8[1] used in the prototype. This has implications for mainline kernel support etc. [1] http://linux-sunxi.org/GR8 http://linux-sunxi.org/GR8
- mike_d 7y agoWouldn't that most likely be the Snapdragon 410?
- ac29 7y agoSounds like Allwinner: "Our tools will allow you to flash, backup and clone any Allwinner-based device including but not limited to C.H.I.P., C.H.I.P. Pro, PocketC.H.I.P., Popcorn Computer, Kettlepop and various Banana Pi or Orange Pi devices" [0] So, maybe something like the Allwinner H5? [0] https://community.popcorncomputer.com/t/popcorn-web-tools/107 https://community.popcorncomputer.com/t/popcorn-web-tools/10...
- praptak 7y agoSmartphones solved the portable monitor problem. What humanity needs now is a truly portable keyboard. Something that you can carry as easily as a smartphone and that lets you type as conveniently as on a good laptop keyboard. Are there any promising attempts at this?
- zxv 7y agoThe twiddler is a chording keyboard that leaves one hand free and with the strap, can be used while walking. https://twiddler.tekgear.com/ https://twiddler.tekgear.com/
- larme 7y agoNot as portable as you might like, but I carry a vortex core[0] with me to program on my phone. It weights around 440g and is very programmable. [0]: http://www.vortexgear.tw/vortex2_2.asp?kind=47&kind2=224&kind3=&kind4=1033 http://www.vortexgear.tw/vortex2_2.asp?kind=47&kind2=224&kin...
- praptak 7y agoThese people know what they are doing. Even while optimizing for size, they kept the full set of control keys on both sides of the space key(s).
- mike_d 7y agoAnyone interested in this might consider the GPD MicroPC. It has become my go-to "fits in a cargo pocket" computer. They had a battery controller issue initially with the Indiegogo batch, but that has been solved on the ones you can get from Amazon now.
- noobermin 7y agoWas looking at these micro pc's and one of the more annoying things is that `|' is not in its usual location. I was hoping to install linux on one and having the pipe in a nonstandard place might take getting used to.
- Grumbledour 7y agoI feel the keyboard on these kind of computers in general need much work. They feel very low effort and look bad in comparison to many 90s palmtops. What also bothers me is the high price of these kind of computers. While I am sure there are people who appreciate that kind of power, I rather have something much more low spec but at a massively reduced price. Having a command line and simple tools for writing/coding does not need much horse power and a sub $200 would be much easier to justify on a second or third computer as $500+
- bovine3dom 7y agoI have a GPD Pocket. The keyboard does take some getting used to. More problematically it's essentially unusable if you have chunky fingers due to the small key size. It's fine for me, but about 1 in 3 of my male friends really struggle with it. It's perfect for travelling for me. I just wish it was slightly speedier and that it had a better trackpoint (which later models have sadly removed entirely).
- regularfry 7y agoThe GPD win2 looks quite fun, if you're into that sort of thing. Looks like the same sort of keyboard as the Nokia n900.
- 7y ago
- nephrite 7y agoWhen I see such a device, I always wonder if it can work w/o battery using AC adapter.
- milkers 7y agoI would prefer a bigger screen instead of a physical keyboard.
- kweks 7y agoA similar device that exists, has a 'real' keyboard, 4G/Wifi/BLE and a metal clamshell case is the https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1 https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1 I've been running Android on it, but it also runs Debian apparently very well. 400dpi screen, enough to have 2 / 3 consoles open at the same time. It's most definitely saved my bacon a few times.
- flukus 7y agoLast I checked no 4g/SMS/calls with debian. Same old driver story of why we only have android phones and not Linux phones. Fixing that was/is the big promise of the librem 5.
- peterburkimsher 7y agoCan it dual boot?
- hp49 7y agoIt can triple boot :) Any of the following, if I'm not mistaken: Android / Android rooted / Debian / Sailfish / Kali
- peterburkimsher 7y agoVery tempting. Having it as an Android phone most of the time, but rebooting into Debian to mount other peoples' devices or do video out sounds like the kind of device that might finally make me switch from my iPhone 4S. I don't need the physical keyboard though, and I'd want a USB-A port and HDMI port instead of USB-C for everything. So perhaps there are other devices that might suit me better. Still, it looks very attractive. Kind of like the OQO Model 2 I used for a few months before it died on me.
- ThePowerOfFuet 7y ago>my iPhone 4S That hasn't been secure to use on the internet in a long time.
- tonylemesmer 7y agoI've acquired a Hyperkeyboardpi[0] kit, not yet built. But essentially its a keyboard add on for a raspberry pi which when paired with a Hyperpixel 4.0 touchscreen from Pimoroni makes a little handheld terminal. It's designed for a Pi 3 but I'm trying a Pi 4. I'll see how I get on. The keyboard kit is only available in Japan but there are shipping companies that will forward it for you. [0] https://www.telnet.jp/~mia/sb/log/eid317.html https://www.telnet.jp/~mia/sb/log/eid317.html [1] https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/hyperpixel-4?variant=12569485443155 https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/hyperpixel-4?variant=1256...
- elagost 7y agoThis looks quite nice. Are you outside of Japan? If so how did you acquire the kit?
- tonylemesmer 7y agoIn the UK. I got a friend to fetch one and bring it back.
- peterburkimsher 7y agoMy pockets are already full, but I'm still interested in adding new features. Video and mains power are my current challenge, and I'd like to know more about whether the Kettlepop module inside the Pocket Popcorn computer has HDMI or VGA support. Right now this is what I carry. Right belt clip (from a scrapyard, looks like it was designed for the Nokia 3650): 1. Third Rail smart battery, integrates well with my iPhone 4S case and has microUSB out for other devices. 2. microUSB male to USB male, 3D rotating adaptor wire. 3. Thin microUSB male to USB female, to get power out of the Third Rail. 4. MicroUSB female to Mini USB male. 5. MicroUSB female to USB C male. 6. MicroUSB female to iPod dock connector male. 7. Lightning female to microUSB male. 8. Dock connector female to Lightning male (Apple OEM because smaller ones stopped working after iOS 8). 9. Kokkia i10s Dock male to Bluetooth, with track info and controls. 10. USB C male to HDMI female. 11. Headphones. 12. Bluetooth remote and FM radio with headphone port (Sony Ericsson MW600). 13. Triple retractable chopsticks (I use these more than you'd think!) 14. Mini pen (Zebra T-3) Left belt clip (Speck Canvas sport): 15. iPod Video 5.5G, with DIY Converse sticker on the clickwheel. 16. Victorinox SwissCard (the scissors are so useful, though the knife was confiscated in Kuala Lumpur airport while transiting before). I changed the iPod's hard drive for a Kingspec 128GB SSD, which gave me a lot of internal physical space. That's where I put the Linux computer, and more. 17. Toothpick (for lifting the iPod battery connector, fixing lost screws in friends' glasses, etc) 18. SD female to microSD male x2 19. 512GB SD with a backup of my laptop 20. PQI Air Card (shares SD over WiFi to my phone, so I can read camera cards). 21. MiniDP to HDMI adaptor (with the plastic case removed to make it smaller). 22. EspUSB Tiny WiFi keyboard that fits inside a USB port (please message me if you want to talk about manufacturing these) 23. CoreWind WiFi G25. The Linux computer! It has WiFi, USB host, and can install imobiledevice and mtp-tools to mount phones. "Technical difficulties" that I can solve: a. Eating (13) b. Writing (14) c. Opening envelopes (16) d. Listening to music (15 + 11) e. Charging your phone (1 + 3 + 2 + 4/5/6/6+8) f. Mac to HDMI (10 or 21) g. Copying your files from a computer (iPod as a USB disk, 15 + 2 + 6). h. Having a backup of my files if my bag (with both my laptop and external drive) gets stolen (19) i. Using an iPhone as a wireless microphone (audioGraph software for iPhone mic -> line out, then 9 to 12 to audio line in) j. Using iPhone as a clicker, mouse, or Chinese/Korean/Japanese/Arabic/Russian/Thai keyboard on a computer without the engravings (22) k. Copying files from USB to WiFi (23 + 1 + 3 + 2) l. Copying files from SD card to WiFi (18 to 20 to 18 to 23, and 1 + 3 + 2 for power) What I can't do: m. Mac to VGA (this was a problem at a church in Taiwan) n. iPad Lightning to VGA (this was a problem at a church in Switzerland) o. WiFi to VGA (might solve m + n). Raspberry Pi Zero W can be configured to use AirPlay, and can do VGA over GPIO. EspVGAX is also interesting, but I'd have to paste text into the browser for every slide. p. WiFi to HDMI (maybe with the OrangePi Zero 2 mini, which also adds Ethernet) q. Mains and/or 12V charging (plugs are just too big though)
- rasengan0 7y agoWhy not Pyra? https://www.dragonbox.de/en/pyra https://www.dragonbox.de/en/pyra I've been waiting years but you new to the queue have less wait, preorder now! As for Gemini PDA, err.. battery life, and US keyboard mapping :-(
- kingosticks 7y agoIs 'US keyboard mapping' a different thing to a US English keyboard layout? The webpage offers the latter.
- spurgu 7y agoYeah it comes with a ton of different keyboard layouts.
- mikorym 7y agoTrying not to be ignorant here, but what is the use case? Are there no Linux tablets (with a keyboard)? It kind of looks as though you would use this if you are a very tech savvy electrician...
- yitchelle 7y agoTo extended it further, what is the business case here? Without a business case to service, would someone buy this only for the Company to be dead or to abandon the product?
- nejo_blam 7y agoI recall some raspberry case projects that would be similar, imho.
- afandian 7y agoSomething I'm interested in is a knock-about computer for child with a text editor and a programming language. Robust enough to put in a pocket. A hinge, or larger machine, or something more expensive, would be too risky. A Raspberry Pi is great and cheap but a bit fiddly. Of course the 'computer' experience should be more diverse thant this, but having a dedicated machine feels like the equivalent of having book without distractions. When I was a child I had a second-hand BBC Micro for distraction-free programming. We had a Mac for other fun stuff, but I kept coming back to the BBC. I'd love to be able to provide that experience. The keyboard looks unsuitable for programming (even though it has the squishy lineage of the ZX Spectrum), but I'm very tempted.
- contingencies 7y agoI also desire the ideal of education for children, so am perhaps biased, but genuinely I believe it is an underserved market. Look at the cash flowing at Makeblock and similar startups. It's definitely something that could work, if the ecosystem / materials are substantial enough. Consider BASIC era: C64, etc. It's workable. There will always be a need for low level comprehension. ASM is a thought process, not a skill per se. Co-develop an oldies interface as a replacement for Sodoku, with Zachtronics to broaden the market. AFAIK this would really gel with: eg. Jaron Lanier, Alak Kay. If there’s any object in human experience that’s a precedent for what a computer should be like, it’s a musical instrument: a device where you can explore a huge range of possibilities through an interface that connects your mind and your body, allowing you to be emotionally authentic and expressive. - Jaron Lanier Inverse vandalism: Making things just because you can. - Alan Kay Adults think that the best thing you can do for a child is to turn the child out like them. Think about that, that's got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever. - Alan Kay By far the best way to invent a healthy future is to invent the children who will invent it. - Alan Kay I made up these slogans because I discovered most adults couldn't deal with paragraphs. - Alan Kay ... from https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
- afandian 7y agoThese quotes are gold. Thank you!
- Teknoman117 7y agoAnyone else getting TRS80 Model 100 vibes from those renders?
- randomerr 7y agoThat was my first thought. Followed by this is a smaller Pi-Top https://shop.pi-top.com/products/pi-top https://shop.pi-top.com/products/pi-top
- atum47 7y agoThis is really cool. I'm building a linux machine myself, but it's a hacky one. Like most people I'm using a raspberry pi with a touch screen and power bank to power the screen and the raspberry, all in a 3D printed case. I'd like like to see picture of the final product, so I can check out the quality.
- AnthonBerg 7y agoDoes anyone know the effective speed of the USB ports? Could they carry an SSD's output?
- oeuviz 7y agoThis is very close to the netbook product category, such as the Eee PC by Asus or the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 or similar. Slightly larger than that popcorn thingy, but still very portable and could actually fit a larger pocket. I still own my IdeaPad S10 from 2008 and it runs just fine.
- kozak 7y agoUSB-C headphones? Why not throw in a real 3.5 mm port? For me it's not just about having to use a dongle: USB-C doesn't provide a reliable enough connection for a wearable device.
- yummypaint 7y agoYeah for me this instantly kills any possibility of seriously considering buying one.
- rtkwe 7y agoKeeping component count low? To do a 3.5mm jack you have to include a DAC of some sort. USB-C headphones come with their own.
- kozak 7y agoTypically, USB-C headphones don't have a DAC, they just pass analog audio through the USB-C connector.
- rtkwe 7y agoThat depends a lot on the headphones and phone you're using there's annoyingly no real way to know exactly what usb-c audio method your phone and headphones are using and there are some annoying incompatibilities. Either way they can use the USB-C jack to send digital data to headphones and cheaper ones just won't work because they're built for the analog passthrough version of usb-c audio.
- _pmf_ 7y agoI've had a Sharp Zaurus C760 running Linux; beautiful machine. This reminds me of it.
- gwillz 7y agoI'm really sad to see the GR8 gone from the world. A while ago I was building some cool products designed around it. It was just so neat and did all the tedious, not-fun things of board design.
- croon 7y agoCan this or any similar device also be used as an external monitor? I built a new home server the other day, and as I didn't want to lug around a 40" desktop monitor to the small nook at the other end of the house, I ended up using an old 480p projector as a screen, despite having so many laptops, phones, tablets etc lying around with perfectly fine screens (with built in battery power to boot!). Is this not a feature anyone else would like? I've been looking at portable screens, and they're starting to appear (Asus Zenscreen), but I just wish I could jack into the screen of another device temporarily at times. Cool device, and would be even cooler if I could use just the monitor on it.
- phkahler 7y agoWhy cant you remote login to the server? From your phone?
- croon 7y agoAt first you need to get far enough that you have an sshd running. Down the line you might need to make BIOS changes, fiddle with the storage controller card, or unbork GRUB. 99% of the time remote is fine though, which again is why it's stashed away in a nook at the other end of the house.
- rerpha 7y agowhat does this do that a smartphone doesn't? If anything, is it too niche? Really can't see this taking off.
- base698 7y agoNot spy on your sexy time texts to your wife and recommend you buy condoms is a killer feature I could get behind.
- arbitrage 7y agoStill waiting on several vaporware pocket computers. I'll add this to the list.
- upstandingdude 7y agonot even one prototype picture :/ yeah ....
- el_cujo 7y agoI like the idea of these tiny computers, but really anything with a blackberry-style thumb keyboard is just a non-starter for me. It looks cool, but if I sit and think about actually using it for even a second I know I wouldn't like it. It's a shame I don't see more of these kinds of products that utilize a foldout keyboard like the thinkpad 701C and instead roll with the thumb keyboard, but then again maybe the moving parts of having the pop-out bits is failure-prone and not worth doing either.
- cr0sh 7y agoI personally miss the slide-out keyboard of my old G1 phone (that, and the trackball). While technically still a "thumb keyboard" - which you probably wouldn't like - it was still wide enough to not make my thumbs cramp while composing emails and text messages, which I find anything narrower to do to me. Plus - it was easy to access when you needed it - then slide it back, and there's your phone again.
- xellisx 7y agohttps://www.fxtec.com/pro1/ https://www.fxtec.com/pro1/