Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

Announced today :
https://c1.iggcdn.com/indiegogo-medi...zqeaifgvoe.jpg
https://c1.iggcdn.com/indiegogo-medi...g4uvqfvqoi.jpg
https://c1.iggcdn.com/indiegogo-medi...c6mihylnya.jpg
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cosmo-communicator#/

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

Compared to Gemini PDA :
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/g...le-device--2#/
- almost same dimensions :
Cosmo : 17.14(W) x 7.93cm(D) x 1.6(H)cm
Gemini : 17.14(W) x 7.93cm(D) x 1.51(H)cm
- same weight, approx. 320g;
- same internal screen, 5.99 inch, 2160x1080, 403 ppi;
- external display, 2 inch, 570 x 240, 300 ppi;
- CPU Mediatek P70 (8-Core);
- 6GB RAM x 4GB, 128GB x 64GB of internal flash;
- external camera with 24MP;
- backlit keyboard.

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

I'd rather like to have Official Full SFOS support on the Gemini instead of a new device. And as rcolistete pointed out there are a lot of similarities between the Gemini and the Cosmo. The only thing I actually do miss on the Gemini is a backlit keyboard.

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

So happy they add a backlit keyboard. I appreciate the extra screen as well. Don't really need the camera but nice. The nfc and fingerprinted reader not sure if I trust on a device that defaults to android.

So do these devices require android blobs or can I run a clean machine with only Debian/Maemo-Leste/sailfish (I know this also uses android blobs).

x

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

Currently Android is required if I'm not mistaken, but they promised that to change in the future. That was for the Gemini though.

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

IMO, that will never change. Or at least not while they use MTK. I get that none of the current major SoC maker is not interested in linux as 1st class citizen but still, there are lousy ones and the terrible ones and MTK is at the bottom of them all.
Qualcomm is probably the best choice but we can see how that goes with sailfish, a year and a half after the announcement and with the device from SONY open program there are still HW related issues that don't exist on android part of the story. :(

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

I am not sure if Gemini/Cosmo keyboard is any good (I trust Nokia N900/N950/Neo900/Fxtec more in this regard). Backlight is not bad, but I would wish for RGB backlight. Programmable.

External touchscreen is interesting, and has got to be capacitive to be protected against scratches, but I do hope that the internal huge touchscreen is resistive, for pressure-sensitive drawing. And external display should have lots of physical buttons around it, from accept/reject call, to volume wheel of speakers and microphone, to scroll arrows/navigation wheel, to half-press camera button.

External display better be OLED, for ease on eyes, and readability in the sun. Internal display could be black-and-white e-Ink, for books and emails and web pages?

Fingerprint sensor, LTE, Bluetooth, NFC are nice.

In short, where is the source code for the hardware, so that somebody could clone this device into something MTK-less and more Linux-friendly?

Thank you. Best wishes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per aspera ad astra...

[EDIT]
Fxtec is pretty similar: AMOLED screen, 6GB RAM with 128GB storage (EMMC, presumably), stereo-speakers on the side, 3.5mm (TLS) headphone jack, fingerprint reader that's not integrated into the power button, and of course the big wooping sliding keyboard.

But all the same, I can understand desire to hide the large screen from external scratches, by making it into a communicator form factor. But generally, I prefer slider. And, I miss resistive touchscreen. And RGB backlight.
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
Yes, external display is AMOLED, thanks for that at least. Internal display is Colour FHD+ (18:9), probably LCD I guess? 18:9 aka 2:1 sounds fairly nice - hip to be square. Space Grey Metal sounds very annoying - how difficult will it be to change it to something light, like shiny silver? Absence of talk/stand-by time is frustrating. FM radio is likely receiver-only, no transmitter. 3.5mm jack, is it going to be TRRS, or five-contacts? Any mention of volume buttons/wheel or 2-stage camera shutter key?

And will it run Maemo Leste? And will it be possible to put resistive touch screen on main display?
[/EDIT2]

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

Gemini keyboard is excellent. It has exactly the same feel as the original Psion, and I love it.

Sadly, it's probably the only good thing I have to say about the Gemini :(

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

Is anybody from Cosmo Communicator/Gemini looking at this thread? Because active support for running Maemo Leste would be appreciated.

[EDIT]
It's rumoured that Mediatek chips have firmware that should be open-source, being derivation of GPL-licensed code, but Mediatek doesn't release it.

https://www.xda-developers.com/have-...e-license-fee/

[Edit2]
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/...iatek-devices/
[/Edit2]

If it applies to this particular chip as well, I would appreciate it if Cosmo Communicator put pressure onto Mediatek to release source code, and all tools require to build the code and flash it onto the chip, to Cosmo Communicator - and buyers/owners of these devices.
[/EDIT]

Thank you. Best wishes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per aspera ad astra...

Re: Planet Cosmo Communicator
 

There was a Cosmo Communicator update a couple weeks ago that I overlooked at the time. I've just pasted in what I think are the highlights, but the interested can read the whole thing here.

Who's gonna have a device in a retail customer's hands first, F(x)Tec, Purism, or these guys? Faites vos jeux . . .