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For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Been keeping my eyeballs peeled on these guys.
Now they come out with the facts.. They are now recanting and backtracking... apologizing that their "claimed" $9.00 micro computer won't be costing no $9.00 ... it'll be $8.00... :D BUT ... the preorder at $8.00 will only last for a short time starting on cyber monday... then the preordering will continue after the promotional at the original $9.00 stated cost... http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=...e&e=a7e97d01f1 what the hell... for $8.00 I'll stand in line... for a handful of them... :D Just need a couple of pocketchips as well and then wrap everything up... for under the x-mas tree... and feign surprise whilst opening them on x-mas day :) |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Pocket Chip: 4.3" 470px x 272px screen w/ resistive touch
-Drool :p -- but on the other hand, it is 49 USD ex. import taxes. Experience has learned me that with same patience as needed for chip release I can score an N900 for the price. But the chip has HDMI display option at 64 USD for chip HDMI + Pocket chip options, and contrary to N900 chip is insta-hip.. Decisions ... ;-) |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
hehee...
I know.... drool indeed... and yeah... bells and whistles... hdmi...pocketchip..etc...'bout $50 to $100 (at most for 2 full units and accessories ...I think it was...) which ain't too shabby... and yeah you can grab a used n900 for the same as 2 of these chips fully loaded for sure... n900 is what it is...a great device in it's own right and ability... but natively running linux on the chip with hdmi and resistive touchscreen pocketchip ain't bad either. Means I can get rid of half my laptops that are taking up space.. but I think these boys are on the right track with "cereal box computers" ( that being my most likely completely muddled and probably misquoted concept of remembering... someone in the dim past came up with ...saying that "One day the tech will become so cheap it'll be the "free toy surprise" in your box of kids cereal"....) This splits the entire wasp nest of costly systems wide open ... here is disruptive technology at it's finest. Hm... y'know... It's only a matter of time .. until China starts grinding out their version... trying to undercut for market share... Actually-actually... It seems the chinese are indeed starting off "with" their hands in the mix already...of course... since the development at page bottom says "Made in West Oakland & Shenzhen" smart. I am curious to dig deeper and see the degree of "east-west" collaboration here. This kind of product will get cheaper ..but it may take a while to accomplish that... hmm. I think these guys are well ahead of the competitive curve for a long while to come. |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
I preorded 2 chips + pocketchip on KS :)
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
I want one! A handheld computer that runs real frickin' software, not this multitude of annoying apps! ;)
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Raspberry Pi -> Banana Pi -> Orange Pi.
PocketChip -> PocketFish -> PocketMushyPeas? |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Chip based N900 KIRFs in a few months then...
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
I got an email from pi*****i this morning. There's now a Raspberry PiZero costing just £4.
https://shop.pi*****i.com/collection...pberry-pi-zero Looks like a cost reduced slimline 1st gen Pi. But £4! Edit: insert M O R O N for ***** or try https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/pi-zero/ |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
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Why does it look better? Take a look at this - apparently the C.H.I.P. as based on the Allwinner R8 Cortex A8 processor and Allwinner products have really bad open source driver support, which means that for example Kodi is not likely to ever run on it. The PiZero should be really different in that sense. |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Hasn't CHIP get bluetooth and wifi though?
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
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On the other hand PiZero has HDMI built in, a MicroSD slot for storage and you can plug a wifi dongle in. Plus compatibility with existing GPIO addons and HATs. Advantages and disadvantages in both designs of course. I'm off to find a copy of MagPi magazine now as apparently they've covermounted the PiZero. |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Choices, choices...
:D Hm... I must admit that the pizero has great advantages and disadvantages to the chip. as some have already pointed out. and past those specific points... there are also the points that the pizero is a little limited (at this moment ) in the number of alternate distros it can run. I'd consider the pi2 before pizero ...just on that basis alone... (even though the pizero ...all by it's wee lonesome without gear is pretty darn cheap..:D) since arch 'll run on the pi2 (which impresses me) and a few others if I remember the specs... also.. the pi's don't have a good "running without a cord" (running on battery) track record ...yet... So in that regard the mobility, (yes optional) hdmi, wifi, bt, the enhancement of just popping it in the pocketchip, having a qwerty pad and colour touchscreen are a bonus ... along with the statement that it "should" run light Linux-based distros... does make for a good argument to get a chip.. Nodevel's astute observation on "Allwienners" (:D) R8 Cortex A8 processor and it's lackings does balance things out there and make me do almost an about face back to the pi2... almost... arghhhhh! choices, choices chip or pi2? pi2 or chip? or one of each? :D hmmm.. gotta think on that. orrrrr.... I may just chillax and sit back enjoy my n800's and n810's (which pretty much fulfill ..give or take...what these guys are offering...) and wait and see... |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Y'know, the funny thing is that I don't really see a choice here. Do you want to hack on hardware? The Pi is the way to go! On the other hand, do you want a portable device you can carry around with you? I've seen folks hacking together their own Pi devices, every single one of them different from the next, and most of them a bundle of boards with wires sticking out all over the place. The PocketChip, on the other hand, looks like a sturdy, standardized, easy to use portable container for the Chip.
Myself, I'm not a hardware hacker. I've been torn for a while now between the beautiful, powerful, and totally-locked-down mobile devices put out by the major manufacturers, and the open, easy-to-program, and nightmarishly do-it-yourself hardware packages for the Pi or BeagleBoard or what-have-you. The PocketChip seems to finally bridge the gap between these two choices. :) |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
+1
Yup...gotta agree with you Copernicus... sound statement |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
hehee
yeah.. just finished reading it myself... we seemed to have jumped the queue on them concerning the pros and cons... well... that posted link of mine there is ... about as useful as... battery acid flavoured bubble gum |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
The million dollar question is could some reincarnation
of Fremantle run on this platform ? (As opposed to Ubuntu Touch) Having a hardware keyboard and a resistive screen puts it wayyyy out front of everything else. Hopefully someone reviews it here when it finally gets shipped..... |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
I'm considering getting a couple of them...
and of course getting maemo running on it would be a bonus eh? mind it would be more akin I'm guessing ..to say... old mer or perhaps freemantle. Be interesting to see what can be done with them. |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Well. Ordered 2. So will see whats next lol
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Yeah, I ordered one as well. :) Have to see how much effort it takes to port my apps to it...
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Seems possible. Lots of sources already avail. Here the kernel source:
https://github.com/NextThingCo/CHIP-linux?files=1 |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Hey, just got a heads-up that the CHIP is about to ship. Bare CHIPs should start appearing by around the beginning of July, and probably will take at least a month to ship the entire batch of pre-orders. PocketCHIPs appear to be on a pace to be ready around the end of July / beginning of August. Info here.
I guess it's time that I should pull down the CHIP SDK and start messing around... ;) |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
my PocketCHIP is on it's way to me over oceans :)
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Well, it turns out that some Maemo software is already showing up on the PocketCHIP. One of the devs says that they are using vala-terminal as their terminal app...
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
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Hey, finally got my PocketCHIP! Well, it's a cheap single-board computer housed inside a cheap portable container with a cheap low-res screen attached. But it's surprisingly sturdy! And it's just nice to have a straight-up standard distribution of Linux in my pocket. (Debian, in this case.)
I'll have to see how hard it is to port or develop software for this thing. :) I'll attach an image of the device. Also, a link to the full-size pic on my Google Drive account (seems that Google no longer allows embedded views of images in Drive accounts...): Link to Google Drive Pic EDIT: Oh, and a warning for those in the forum who might be interested in buying one of these devices: it does NOT, I repeat, does NOT come with a wall charger (or even a USB cable)! ;) |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
And after a couple of weeks is this toy really usable ?
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Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
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-- This device ships with Debian Linux. If you order a PocketCHIP, it includes a "GUI" that shows six icons for six demonstrator apps: Terminal (access to the terminal), PICO-8 (a game engine), SunVOX (a music creation app), Help (an HTML page), Write (Leafpad), and Browse Files (a file manager called PCManFM). There's also a limited settings screen. That's it. If you order the CHIP SBC by itself, you get no GUI at all. (Of course, you can install your own.) I've pretty much stopped using the PocketCHIP GUI, and just use the terminal to manage the device. Then again, that's kind of what I prefer. :) -- The PocketCHIP's screen resolution is 480x272 pixels, so many ordinary apps are going to have trouble fitting onto the screen. (Although Firefox does quite a good job of using that space effectively. I was kinda surprised at that. :) ) -- They don't yet have a driver set up for the Mali GPU. So, videos and gaming are extremely limited. NTC says that they are working on this; but no precise timeline (that I know of) yet. -- The CPU is pretty darn slow. Of course, I'm mostly running desktop apps on my machine; but then, that's pretty much all that's available right now. :) So if you're looking for a portable experience akin to an iPhone or an Android, you'll want to look elsewhere. :) I'm doing fine with it, though: ++ So far, I like the keyboard (although lots of other folks complain about it); the size and the tactile feedback feel very nice to my thumbs. Editing files in vim is quite nice. :) ++ But, if you don't like the keyboard, a bluetooth keyboard will work just fine -- I tried it myself. Or, even easier, just plug a USB keyboard into the provided USB port. I've tested that too. (A mouse works too!) ++ Along those lines -- probably the easiest thing to do is to just plug a USB hub into the machine. The PocketCHIP can only provide a limited amount of juice to external peripherals, so a powered hub is probably best. I've still been messing around with this, but I'm probably going to set up a permanent "dock" for my PocketCHIP, so that I can use my favorite keyboard and mouse with it. Works with USB hard drives as well. I guess pretty much any USB device that works under Linux will work on the PocketCHIP... ++ The PocketCHIP's network settings app was too limited for me (I couldn't set a static IP address). So, I simply went to the terminal and ran nmtui; voila, network up and running. It really is the full-blown Debian distribution. ++ The battery is lasting me longer than I would have expected (hours even!). But, I have to admit I've not tried to completely drain it yet. My personal use-case so far has been to treat this thing as an extremely portable desktop computer that I'm using at various static locations, rather than something I use while in transit. So I end up having it plugged in most of the time. Still, it's the best I've seen any SBC do in power management yet. In sum: this is a single-board computer housed in a fairly convenient portable case. If you have a reason to take a single-board computer around with you, this thing is delightful. If you just want to run some portable apps while on the go, this thing will be useless for you. :) |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
Sounds cool and I went to order one right away but was stopped by the $69 price tag. For a toy I do not really need, at the time when I am still recovering financially from extravagant expenditure a few months ago, I had to suppress the urge and reluctantly close the browser tab :(
Fortunately, a better look at the side and back of the product (all pictures I had seen before were frontal) has made my decision a bit less painful ;) |
Re: For the Budget minded : The C.H.I.P. now is open for preorder Nov. 30th! woo-hoo!
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What this means is that you can replace or upgrade parts as you like. There are already half a dozen keyboard modifications / replacements floating around for it, and several folks have been trying to replace the touchscreen with something more high-res. Lots of other hacks have been appearing as well. :) (So far, the only modification I've made to mine is to add a lanyard. ;) ) |
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