Pinephone Keyboard Update • Hacker News Board

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#11

Post by megous » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:09 AM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #10

As I understand it, the keyboard is a bottom half and a top case, which means that the seam ( https://i.imgur.com/3uedtMo.jpg ) is entirely in the control of the keyboard. If that is the case, why the the corner radii differ? It seems somewhat sloppy to have the edges meet at different places like that.

It will be easier to open, perhaps?

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#12

Post by megous » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:17 AM UTC

lukevp wrote: post #3

That keyboard seems incredibly thick. Does it have an extra battery or something? Or is that just for key travel?

It has battery with twice the capacity of the one that's in the phone itself. That's a bit crazy :) In total this combo will have ~33Wh.

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#13

Post by megous » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:18 AM UTC

Someone needs to optimize the kernel console rotation on arm64 with some neon. :)

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#14

Post by mewse-hn » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:37 AM UTC

jraph wrote: post #4

I was considering getting one of these keyboards when they are available. I was actually looking forward to it. It would make typing texts way easier and the big battery compensating the weak one in the Pinephone would be great. It would probably be the main selling point for me. It would also make a nice protection for the phone. However, I read someone today rightly pointing out that: - the screen (and the notifica…

Working from home as an IT guy I've been spending my whole day using ear buds and an iphone screen for texting. I've been considering grabbing a bluetooth keyboard to make life easier but this form factor would be nice as sort of a mini terminal to respond to texts and take calls on earbuds. It definitely would be awkward putting the phone against your noggin with the keyboard attached.

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#15

Post by s3r3nity » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:38 AM UTC

Nice to see we've come full circle back to Blackberries =)

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#16

Post by TheUnelisted » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:41 AM UTC

jraph wrote: post #9

TheUnelisted wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a Bluetooth headset i think it would be okay for calls, and infact the keyboard might make it much nicer for texting. As for notifications: You can't see notifications from apps on the PinePhone anyways unless you disable suspend, as the crust suspend firmware only detects wakeup events from signals sent by the hardware. So while the modem can send a signal to wakeup the device when there's a call or text, and t…

> With a Bluetooth headset i think it would be okay for calls I don't think so, for the reason that I won't necessarily have the time to pull the headset from the bag and pair it to the phone when receiving a call. Assuming I even have a bag on my back… with my headset in it. A headset or earpieces with a jack cable would probably be slightly better but that still makes me rely on such a thing, and on being able to q…

As for the headset, i would suggest looking into a pair of bone conducting bluetooth headphones, such as the Aftershockz, as they have a built-in microphone and also are open ear design as they obviously aren't normal headphones. So you can use them in the car or anywhere, and keep them on wherever you go. I personally just bought a pair and used them already to listen to some music off my PinePhone.

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#17

Post by Black101 » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:44 AM UTC

s3r3nity wrote: post #15

Nice to see we've come full circle back to Blackberries =)

And Blackberry is pretty much out of the phone business as far as I know.

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#18

Post by heavyset_go » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:53 AM UTC

Cool. I'd kill for a Pinephone with a Fxtec[1] form factor, though.

[1] https://www.fxtec.com/pro1x

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#19

Post by easton » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 2:58 AM UTC

TheUnelisted wrote: post #7

xbar wrote: post #2

Very promising. Psion-killer?

I sure think so. Less a killer though and more of a real continuation of it. Not to say the Gemini, Astro Slide, etc isn't continuing it, but Planet Computer's devices run Android and not mainline Linux like the PinePhone does (sure you can run Linux, but only with an android kernel).

Also this won't cost $300-500 like all of those others do, which of course means you get a slower phone but since this is probably more of a Linux tinker toy so far, not too bad.

Re: Pinephone Keyboard Update

#20

Post by mastrsushi » Sun, Apr 25, 2021, 3:08 AM UTC

Why aren't people making touch interfaces for dragging together shell scripts? Mobile Linux should make use of the modularity of the Unix Environment, along with today's smartphone technology.

A big part of NextStep's design was an OO environment in a Unix OS. Those ideas later helped create the most successful Unix consumer operating system, macOS.

Command line on a smartphone is uninspiring. There needs to be something that reflects on today's technology. Like how NextStep reflected on GUI and OOP.