The world needs more slabtops. They're my favourite form-factor of all time for writing anything creative. Feels like a typewriter.
Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
11–20 of 70 posts
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#12The world needs more slabtops. They're my favourite form-factor of all time for writing anything creative. Feels like a typewriter.
What are some others?
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#13The world needs more slabtops. They're my favourite form-factor of all time for writing anything creative. Feels like a typewriter.
What are some others?
The classic TRS-80 Model 100, Cambridge Z88, QuickPad Pro, AlphaSmart Dana. There's a bunch more too. I'm somewhat of an enthusiast for this form-factor, this and typewriters are a hobby for the missus and I.
Douglas Adams used a Cambridge Z88 for writing! Prior to laptop batteries becoming decent once swappable batteries became less common, serious journos frequently used to turn to the slabtop even a decade ago.
There's something very human and intimate in the usage of it, despite modern clamshells obviously having better viewing angles and giving you a better posture. They feel very natural and intuitive, in the same way a pen and paper does.
The older ones are also frequently very easy to read in the sunshine, and the batteries can last a long time.
The AlphaSmart Neo 2 gets 700h of battery life, but is more of a word processor with extras like applets.
Also huge nerds for ThinkPads, but that's another, non-slabtop story.
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are some others?
The classic TRS-80 Model 100, Cambridge Z88, QuickPad Pro, AlphaSmart Dana. There's a bunch more too. I'm somewhat of an enthusiast for this form-factor, this and typewriters are a hobby for the missus and I. Douglas Adams used a Cambridge Z88 for writing! Prior to laptop batteries becoming decent once swappable batteries became less common, serious journos frequently used to turn to the slabtop even a decade ago. Th…
Are there any slabtop’s still being made? All of those that you listed are discontinued.
I do like the idea of having a very small, limited OS. I’ve often thought I’d love an updated Psion 5. With modern batteries and displays, you should be able to get months out of a set of batteries or battery charge.
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Didn't know they existed, they look great! I'll consider them for the next one, which is probably gonna be beefier.
They are great as they have cuda cores etc., the only downside is you have to use their ubuntu image to utilize all the features as the drivers are proprietary, you can install other distributions but you will lose that functionality. If you are looking for an -almost- as powerful SBC (with m.2 support as I see you have it in the original design), give a look at Rock5-B (1), I didn’t test it personally unlike nVidia…
There's a yocto layer for Jetson - which gives you highly customizable OS. Yocto does have steep learning curve, so that's a showstopper.
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
The classic TRS-80 Model 100, Cambridge Z88, QuickPad Pro, AlphaSmart Dana. There's a bunch more too. I'm somewhat of an enthusiast for this form-factor, this and typewriters are a hobby for the missus and I. Douglas Adams used a Cambridge Z88 for writing! Prior to laptop batteries becoming decent once swappable batteries became less common, serious journos frequently used to turn to the slabtop even a decade ago. Th…
Are there any slabtop’s still being made? All of those that you listed are discontinued. I do like the idea of having a very small, limited OS. I’ve often thought I’d love an updated Psion 5. With modern batteries and displays, you should be able to get months out of a set of batteries or battery charge.
There was a demo of a Linux OS that simply boots to vim and that’s the only thing you could do on that machine. It would be perfect for this use case.
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
The classic TRS-80 Model 100, Cambridge Z88, QuickPad Pro, AlphaSmart Dana. There's a bunch more too. I'm somewhat of an enthusiast for this form-factor, this and typewriters are a hobby for the missus and I. Douglas Adams used a Cambridge Z88 for writing! Prior to laptop batteries becoming decent once swappable batteries became less common, serious journos frequently used to turn to the slabtop even a decade ago. Th…
Are there any slabtop’s still being made? All of those that you listed are discontinued. I do like the idea of having a very small, limited OS. I’ve often thought I’d love an updated Psion 5. With modern batteries and displays, you should be able to get months out of a set of batteries or battery charge.
The READY Model 100 is the most recent commercial one to my knowledge, that was crowdfunded initially and then sold via their online store, but is currently unavailable to buy further units of.
There's other things like the Freewrite if you just want a word processor, but I'd recommend the much cheaper (albeit discontinued) AlphaSmart Neo 2 over that, especially for the battery life.
Everything else these days is largely hobbyist DIY projects who occasionally make a PCB or chassis/case available.
I'd love for the segment to grow again. It's admittedly niche, so that's quite unlikely.
Loved and love Psion!
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#18I love the look, but can someone explain to me what sort of things you would do with a computer of this form factor? Why do people keep building them? Is is just looks? Or is there something they're good at.
To be clear, I'm not looking for something you can't do already (your phone does everything), but something that a cyberdeck computer would _excel_ at.
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#19Do your photos have to be so gigantic?
Re: Show HN: I built my first Cyberdeck
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are there any slabtop’s still being made? All of those that you listed are discontinued. I do like the idea of having a very small, limited OS. I’ve often thought I’d love an updated Psion 5. With modern batteries and displays, you should be able to get months out of a set of batteries or battery charge.
There was a demo of a Linux OS that simply boots to vim and that’s the only thing you could do on that machine. It would be perfect for this use case.
Linux is pretty heavy compared to something like EPOC that the Psion used. That machine would run 20 hours on a pair of AA batteries.
We’ve come a long way since then. Surely a month on a pair of AA batteries should be possible?