[NTLK] Pine64 Devices

[David Arnold]

I bought one of their 11” Pinebook laptops, but have decided to sell it,
because the trackpad just wasn’t viable for real-world usage.  The rest
of the system was cheap, but fine.  Even the trackpad was probably
reasonable for a USD99 device, but it was unbearably frustrating when
compared to my MacBook …

I’ll likely get both a phone and a tablet when they’re released.  The
company has been pretty good so far in terms of delivering, although
their turn to pre-announcing things isn’t a good sign, in my view.

I’d be happy to contribute a few nights and weekends cycles to getting
a decent Einstein image together.

One thing that might make such a device additionally attractive is
that you could run various proxy services on the Linux side to support
NewtonOS in the modern world.

I think the phone is likely out early next year, and the tablet perhaps
a few months after that?




d

> On 6 Dec 2019, at 09:46, Jeff Sheldon <jeffsheldon at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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
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