4 ms·

Pine64 Announcing Pinebuds and Pinepods

28 points by ndsipa_pomu 5y ago

zibzab 5y ago
> People are frequently asking us to create more mainstream devices such as an inkjet printer or a microwave All other days in the year, Xiaomi (and to some lesser extent Nokia) is ahead of you in this department.
- ndsipa_pomu 5y ago
  I'd like to see them do a temperature controlled kettle or possibly a coffee machine, though I understand kettles don't get used so much in the U.S. due to the lower voltage.
  - vlmutolo 5y ago
    It seems like the important metric would be the kettle's power output, not the voltage. A kettle running at a lower voltage can still have the same power output (wattage). My kettle is 1.5kW. I'd be surprised if consumer kettles ran much higher than that. EDIT: TIL about 3kW European kettles and what I'm missing out on.
    - elFarto 5y ago
      Most kettles in the UK are 3kW, which is right at the limit of how much you can draw from a regular socket with a 13A fuse.
    - ndsipa_pomu 5y ago
      Here in the UK, my kettle's a 3kW one (with limited temperature control) and most domestic ones will be over 2kW. By my quick calculations, it runs as 12.5A on the usual 240v supply. To get a 3kW on 110v would draw over 27A which would likely be impractical for a standard kitchen appliance.
gruturo 5y ago
In case it's not abundantly clear from the content of the article, I encourage you to look closely at the date.. it's an April Fool.
- justusthane 5y ago
  I don't think that it is. I don't think they'd include all the "seriously"'s, as well as the various details such as the PinePod running on the same chipset as the PineBuds and the scant information about the PinePod (wouldn't they make something up if it was April Fools?).
  - cshimmin 5y ago
    At the end of the article: "Oh, I almost forgot, those are the actual buds in the header picture at the top of the page, and they are already functional. The unicorn is real too. "
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Yeah they said they're serious so all this April fools talk is just wrong. Haters gonna hate. Give me my unicorn.
MerelyMortal 5y ago
Seriously though, all the microwaves I've ever used have had crap interfaces. I've mulled the idea of doing a Kickstarter for microwave I design, but it's probably beyond my capabilities.
- s_fischer 5y ago
  The best is when the microwave is still perfectly capable of functioning, but the membrane keypad starts to go bad and then you can't actually use the microwave anymore. Want to repair just that part because it's the most unreliable and most likely to break? Well LG only sells the entire door as a replacement part and it's $200 despite the fact that the original microwave costs $400.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  My whirlpool flat-base microwave has a perfect interface. Just a dial too set the time and the middle is a huge start/stop button. Can't get much easier than that IMO.
s_fischer 5y ago
Is this a just a real product release post, themed as an April fool's prank? I found the whole thing to be extremely confusing. Unless I'm misunderstanding it, the idea of pinebuds makes perfect sense considering some of the other devices they've created. On the other hand, some of the language they used, such as how they mentioned browsing the apple store as R&D, makes this kinda seem like a joke.
resoluteteeth 5y ago
If this is an April fool's joke why put "seriously" in the title? If this is not an April fool's joke why announce it on April 1? I'm guessing that maybe the earphones and music player are real and the microwave and other weird stuff tangentially mentioned is supposed to be a joke but it's unnecessarily confusing.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  > If this is an April fool's joke why put "seriously" in the title? > If this is not an April fool's joke why announce it on April 1? Obvious. They didn't want to wait 3 days to announce it on Monday. Someone else could have stolen the idea by then. But they knew it's April fools day so they said "seriously" to clarify that it's serious and not a joke. They even showed a Dev board render so it must be real. Everyone knows if there's renders there must be real products. $199 is too steep for me though :( And delivery is exactly a year away. I don't want to wait this long!!
BillButter 5y ago
But making a printer actually makes a lot of sense. No more stupid printer BS, like needing all colors to print black. Microwave doesn't really make sense.
- 8jef 5y ago
  I want my PineJet printer
GekkePrutser 5y ago
Do you get that pink unicorn doll with it? If so I'll definitely buy it!!

28 points by ndsipa_pomu 5y ago

> People are frequently asking us to create more mainstream devices such as an inkjet printer or a microwave All other days in the year, Xiaomi (and to some lesser extent Nokia) is ahead of you in this department.

ndsipa_pomu 5y ago
I'd like to see them do a temperature controlled kettle or possibly a coffee machine, though I understand kettles don't get used so much in the U.S. due to the lower voltage.
- vlmutolo 5y ago
  It seems like the important metric would be the kettle's power output, not the voltage. A kettle running at a lower voltage can still have the same power output (wattage). My kettle is 1.5kW. I'd be surprised if consumer kettles ran much higher than that. EDIT: TIL about 3kW European kettles and what I'm missing out on.
  - elFarto 5y ago
    Most kettles in the UK are 3kW, which is right at the limit of how much you can draw from a regular socket with a 13A fuse.
  - ndsipa_pomu 5y ago
    Here in the UK, my kettle's a 3kW one (with limited temperature control) and most domestic ones will be over 2kW. By my quick calculations, it runs as 12.5A on the usual 240v supply. To get a 3kW on 110v would draw over 27A which would likely be impractical for a standard kitchen appliance.

gruturo 5y ago

In case it's not abundantly clear from the content of the article, I encourage you to look closely at the date.. it's an April Fool.

justusthane 5y ago
I don't think that it is. I don't think they'd include all the "seriously"'s, as well as the various details such as the PinePod running on the same chipset as the PineBuds and the scant information about the PinePod (wouldn't they make something up if it was April Fools?).
- cshimmin 5y ago
  At the end of the article: "Oh, I almost forgot, those are the actual buds in the header picture at the top of the page, and they are already functional. The unicorn is real too. "
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Yeah they said they're serious so all this April fools talk is just wrong. Haters gonna hate. Give me my unicorn.

MerelyMortal 5y ago

Seriously though, all the microwaves I've ever used have had crap interfaces. I've mulled the idea of doing a Kickstarter for microwave I design, but it's probably beyond my capabilities.

s_fischer 5y ago
The best is when the microwave is still perfectly capable of functioning, but the membrane keypad starts to go bad and then you can't actually use the microwave anymore. Want to repair just that part because it's the most unreliable and most likely to break? Well LG only sells the entire door as a replacement part and it's $200 despite the fact that the original microwave costs $400.
GekkePrutser 5y ago
My whirlpool flat-base microwave has a perfect interface. Just a dial too set the time and the middle is a huge start/stop button. Can't get much easier than that IMO.

s_fischer 5y ago

Is this a just a real product release post, themed as an April fool's prank? I found the whole thing to be extremely confusing. Unless I'm misunderstanding it, the idea of pinebuds makes perfect sense considering some of the other devices they've created. On the other hand, some of the language they used, such as how they mentioned browsing the apple store as R&D, makes this kinda seem like a joke.

resoluteteeth 5y ago

If this is an April fool's joke why put "seriously" in the title? If this is not an April fool's joke why announce it on April 1? I'm guessing that maybe the earphones and music player are real and the microwave and other weird stuff tangentially mentioned is supposed to be a joke but it's unnecessarily confusing.

GekkePrutser 5y ago
> If this is an April fool's joke why put "seriously" in the title? > If this is not an April fool's joke why announce it on April 1? Obvious. They didn't want to wait 3 days to announce it on Monday. Someone else could have stolen the idea by then. But they knew it's April fools day so they said "seriously" to clarify that it's serious and not a joke. They even showed a Dev board render so it must be real. Everyone knows if there's renders there must be real products. $199 is too steep for me though :( And delivery is exactly a year away. I don't want to wait this long!!

BillButter 5y ago

But making a printer actually makes a lot of sense. No more stupid printer BS, like needing all colors to print black. Microwave doesn't really make sense.

8jef 5y ago
I want my PineJet printer

GekkePrutser 5y ago

Do you get that pink unicorn doll with it? If so I'll definitely buy it!!