[NTLK] Pine64 Devices

[Jeff Sheldon]

All,

Some of us have talked at times about a dedicated rollout of Linux or
Android with Einstein baked in for deploying on devices.  If anyone
hasn't been watching what the Pine64 folks have been doing in recent
months, now's a good time.

Most notably, they've developed a low-cost tablet (PineTab), phone
(PinePhone), and smart watch (PineTme).

The phone, for instance is $150 USD and has some basic features, but
no operating system at this time.  You can either install an OS on
internal memory or boot "externally" off a mounted SD card.  Which
means you can actually use the device as a phone and boot into an
Einstein environment.

I don't know how the performance would hold up, but this is the first
real series of mobile devices that a regular person can install an
operating system on without jailbreaking or using a heavily modified
boot image.

Einstein + Linux + Yocto + PinePhone/PineTab would be a very nice
environment for Einstein to potentially live on, in theory.
Relatively inexpensive, an open design, and modern design.  Take a
look:

https://www.pine64.org
https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/
https://www.pine64.org/pinetab/

These devices are community driven and not necessarily 100% commercial
grade (meaning a dead pixel or two is possible on the screen), hence
the cheap pricing.  Still, well worth the investment as a possible
series of devices for Einstein. I don't know of any other range of
modern mobile devices that would make it so easy to afford and carry
on the Newton experience.


-Jeff