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Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

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Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#181

Post by imtringued »

MagnumOpus wrote: post #175
popped wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea that's kind of insane isn't it? I wish there was a lite version of the Web with enforced resource constraints

There is - you can just install NoScript to block all scripts and stop video autoplay in Firefox setting. Presto - a slim web. (Sites that need JS often have a slim alternative - there are superfast "lite" or "mobile" sites for GMail, Reddit, Facebook and many more.)

Is there something less aggressive? Firefox already stops auto play based on a permission. If you explicitly click on a video then it allows you to start the video within the mouse event.

There are lots of reasonable use cases for JavaScript. Think of something purely event driven like sorting a table by clicking on columns or an input field with autocomplete where you see a preview of results as you type.

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#182

Post by imtringued »

bigiain wrote: post #155
throwaway41597 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really cool! Could you give specifics about the typical low and high of the battery cycle, please? (from XX% to XX%).

I'd been intending to aim for 20%-80% cycles, because I read that's "good for lithium batteries". The timer switch I grabbed to do my proof of concept only has 15min resolution (it's a weird old mechanical one where you move plastic pins in the stop/start time rings). I recall setting it to 45mins because the docs says the iPad gets 80% charge in 1 hour, and it'd occasionally run down and switch off, so I bumped it u…

I have a six year old phone that still runs on the original battery. The capacity is pretty low but still lasts for 2-3 hours of active usage. Just charge it for an hour per day and you'll be fine.

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#183

Post by myself248 »

pinfisher wrote: post #29
zozbot234 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I'd like to know is if it will work with the battery compartment empty on AC power only. The Pinebook laptops can work without a battery while connected to AC, but not out of the box. A simple hardware mod is necessary to enable this, that's documented by Pine.

That is unusual. I have never had a laptop that would not work without a battery present.

That's unusual for modern machines. It was de rigeur from the first portables up to about 2005, as I recall.

I was rudely surprised by my first Core 2-era machine that wouldn't boot without a battery installed, because prior to that, from Pentium-based Toughbooks back to the 486-based Noteflex back to various 8088 and even pre-x86 machines (PC8201A, club100 represent!), they were all absolutely fine running from the power inlet alone with no battery.

The Zenith MiniSport was the sole exception because the power jack was actually physically on the battery, but you could still gut an old dead battery and make a dummy, and it would run from the brick just fine. (This is documented in the very first issue of Brian Mork's excellent Minisport Laptop Hacker zine, available wherever fine textfiles are sold.)

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#184

Post by naugtur »

exikyut wrote: post #157
jareds wrote: post #47

Does anyone know if there custom OS has a screen reader? I'm totally blind and this is priced at the point where I'd like to play with it assuming it's usable for me.

Wow, what an interesting question. Open source first-class accessible tinkerer/maker-oriented hardware design. That gets me wondering... what would be the ideal here? I don't have much experience with blind-oriented usage but I get the impression blind users only keep screens around for when software/the OS falls apart and orientational cues completely break down... but perhaps sighted assistance is needed less often…

I've seen a computer in 2008 that was like the bottom part of a laptop and between the keyboard and where the hinges would be it had a 3 row braille display. It was pretty old at the time and quite thick, with modern technology could be as thin as a tablet.

These things have a very narrow audience so they're one digit more expensive than their regular counterparts.

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#185

Post by greenshackle2 »

squarefoot wrote: post #120
greenshackle2 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With regards to dead pixels, every vendor I know of has terms like this, it's just hidden in the warranty small print, not on the store page: https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/solutions/ht035306 https://appleinsider.com/articles/10/11/05/leaked_apple_dead...

I wonder what are the odds of finding dead pixels today. I saw lots of them in the past, and in a few cases they were really nasty to stand (imagine a pixel stuck at full brightness in the center of a screen mostly containing dark terminals) , but admittedly in the last 10 years or so I can't remember of a single one. However, although all vendors bury the dead pixel disclaimer, being so open about it makes one wonde…

Just a thought, it's a PITA, but you can do it yourself by buying one, if it has dead pixels resell it and buy a new one.

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#186

Post by wpietri »

raghava wrote: post #176
wpietri wrote: post #13

Very interesting! I've been looking for cheap wall-mountable touchscreens so I can have permanent, single-purpose interfaces and displays. For example, I have a KanbanFlow board to track my work, and I use an old tablet mounted to the wall next to my standing desk. I was thinking I'd get cheap Android tablets and root them, but I'd much rather support something where it's built for user control from the beginning.

Why not a Raspi Zero W with a USB ready monitor? The price point is almost similar and the build will be more modular. Or even just a buncha USB/HDMI based screencasting devices, synced to a cast-server which casts content based on recipient nodes? Had seen a simple conf room notification system on those lines (which just mentioned who has blocked the room, when is the next blocked meeting by whom, calendar etc)

More modularity isn't a plus if I don't intend to swap the modules around; for me it's just added clutter and headache. And if I understand what you're proposing with screencasting, that's less modular. A tablet is a simple, standalone unit that can be repurposed for a variety of things. And I'm after interactivity, not just static screens.

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#187

Post by t0astbread »

popped wrote: post #173
als0 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2GB is a bit limiting for the modern web unfortunately This saddens me...

Yea that's kind of insane isn't it? I wish there was a lite version of the Web with enforced resource constraints

I think the web in and of itself isn't the problem. I haven't checked but I don't think any JS framework asks for gigabytes of memory. The problem is browsers prioritizing speed over everything else.

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#188

Post by slantyyz »

bigiain wrote: post #146
slantyyz wrote: post #2

I noticed this has a removable battery, which makes this very interesting to me. What I'd like to know is if it will work with the battery compartment empty on AC power only. I'd like to have "smart" displays wall mounted around the house with dashboards on them. I've read about so many instances where people used wall mounted iPads and Android tablets where the batteries would swell after a period of use.

> I've read about so many instances where people used wall mounted iPads and Android tablets where the batteries would swell after a period of use. Made that mistake myself. I now have a wall mounted iPad with the charger plugged into a timer powerpoint that only switches on for 1hr a day. Been running like that for 5+ years now without issue. (I'd planned for that to just be a proof of concept, and to use a wifi pow…

That is a great idea. I wish I had thought of that myself (even though I already do something similar with a USB powered cordless phone that stops charging when I sleep my system).

One of my use cases is to monitor my surveillance cameras, which drains my batteries quickly, but I have unused wemo switches that I could put on a schedule to just cycle power more frequently for intermittent charging.

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#189

Post by pathartl »

SahAssar wrote: post #131
pathartl wrote: post #111

I love what Pine is trying to do, but man those A53 CPUs and Mali-400 GPUs are really pretty crummy. Similarly spec'd Allwinner chips were on the PlayStation Classic and Nintendo Classic microconsoles.

Those were running emulators though, running native software will be more efficient.

The community has ported a bunch of native stuff and it still performs poorly.

Re: Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard

#190

Post by tpxl »

ricecake wrote: post #161
pengaru wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I purchased directly from their web store, not via a forum group buy or other means. They have my contact information, and I have not received a single peep to inform me on the status of my purchase. Just radio silence. If I'm expected to go root out some forum thread to monitor progress on things I purchase from the pine64 store, that's worth noting here to inform everyone's expectations.

You said they didn't give a shipping update. They did. Doesn't matter if you don't like they way that they did so.

They gave a shipping update to forum users/readers. I have also not received an update since ordering on 11th of May. Like the parent said, an e-mail would be nice, they have it.
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