Earlier quoted context omitted.
What would you consider to be a MVPC (Minimum Viable Pocket Computer)?
A 6.5+" android smartphone with an external keyboard. My Note 10 Plus does everything I need on the go.
FxTec Pro1 ?
Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
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Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#72Love this modularity of swapping the compute modules!
Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#73I love seeing these projects but can't imagine what in the world I'd do with one of these devices. Small computers that don't benefit from the mobile UX tradeoffs and don't quite have keyboards or screens or a hinge to support putting it down and typing on it. They're cute though. If you had one, what would you be doing with it?
What would you consider to be a MVPC (Minimum Viable Pocket Computer)?
A detachable DOCK with keyboard, additional battery, 3 or 4 USB ports, Ethernet, HDMI, SD socket(s), headphones socket, etc., which can be attached to any smartphone via something like VESA mount for displays and TV-s. To use the keyboard, I prefer just slide it, to use like a notebook, out OR rotate it and the phone to form a cross, to use it like a portable gaming console.
This way, I can select a phone with good specs, then install LineAge with Linux terminal, and use the phone as a PC for development, note-taking, texting, etc.
Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Edit: in the industrial world equipment like this is not in racks/server rooms. A rack by any other name . . . :-) TBH I was thinking of not just the trad. IT server room racks but also of cramped radio comms "cupboards" by towers and of production circuit | industrial control access panels / locations in both indoor "warehouse" production and outdoor mineral processing circuits .. Always handy to have a small know…
I’ve been meaning to get a flipper zero, but I would love to see that device with a standard gig Ethernet port. The flexibility would be amazing. PoE for bonus points. However, for ultimate utility I think the next iteration of my packet scraper will be a dual NIC’d SBC so I don’t have to worry about hubs or ‘managed’ switches with port mirroring.
NanoPi R4S is nice and might be of interest to you. The RK3399/OP1 chipset seems well supported by mainline. Only potential drawback is the second GbE LAN is connected using USB3.0 internally on the mainboard. IIRC the XHCI protocol fixes the EHCI (USB2.0) CPU usage polling problem, and the interface can indeed reach close to line speed.
Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#75Just get a Gemini PDA or another retro-smartphone device from Planet Computers.
Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#76Really cool. I have a very light 13" notebook now, but I often think he is to large and also he does bend quite a bit all the time in a full bag. It's sad nobody does something like HP Elite X3 Lap Dock. I really would one, but when it came out Windows Mobile was already shut down, so .. The idea is great, all processing power and storage in the phone, the Lap Dock is just a keyboard and a display, wireless connected…
There is the nexdock. Doesn't support Miracast but you can use it with Samsung Dex or some other thing.
Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#77When will I finally live a life where my work iPhone is plugged into a USB4 dock with mouse, display and keyboard and it makes my whole work desktop? M2 is already here, why can't we do this?
Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#78Can we stop with this absolute fantasy about PCs that "fit in your pocket"? The medium is the message, the form is the functionality. Smartphones have been "pocketable PCs" for more than a decade already, but are dumbed down because their inputs and outputs are limited. You can't type effectively, your screen is small, your battery is limited. Would you want a command line interface on your Smart TV using only a remo…
Well.. I mean, I've been using $100 PCs-on-a-stick for about a decade now, plugging them into hotel room TVs or my projector at home or wherever I go... just need a cheap wireless keyboard/trackpad. I use that for about half my home entertainment viewing as well. Definitely no need to strap hardware to my head to game/code/surf on a big screen with a tiny device.
Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#79Can we stop with this absolute fantasy about PCs that "fit in your pocket"? The medium is the message, the form is the functionality. Smartphones have been "pocketable PCs" for more than a decade already, but are dumbed down because their inputs and outputs are limited. You can't type effectively, your screen is small, your battery is limited. Would you want a command line interface on your Smart TV using only a remo…
> Can we stop with this absolute fantasy about PCs that "fit in your pocket"?
No, because it isn't fantasy and i want those PCs that "fit in my pocket" - after all they do exist, see GPD's pocketable PCs.
> Smartphones have been "pocketable PCs" for more than a decade already
Smartphones have their on OSes, UX, applications, etc. The point of projects like GPD Win or the one linked above is to run the same programs, OS, etc as you'd run on a regular laptop or a desktop PC.
And this is something that can be useful, even if it isn't at the same frequency as a smartphone - they do not have the same use after all.
Personally i have a GPD Win 1 which is pretty much the same form factor as the pocketable PC linked in the article (actually it is better IMO because the joysticks and back buttons it has are used very naturally to move the mouse cursor on the desktop and act as a mouse). I do not use it daily but whenever i want to go somewhere briefly and need a PC (e.g. i need to show a project of mine to someone), i pick that up instead of my laptop: it is much lighter (its weight barely registers), it fits in my fanny bag next to my smartphone and provides pretty much the same functionality as a regular laptop - it is just weaker and slightly more awkward to type on. But i'm not going to write code for hours straight on it anyway, so it doesn't matter. However i do use the keyboard frequently, for command line or shortcuts or whatever, and it is miles better than something like Termux and/or the virtual touchscreen keyboards you'd find in smartphones (which with swipe typing are decent but fail at everything else).
The main issue with the linked PC is that it is ARM instead of x86 which IMO limits its utility. I can run any old application on my GPD Win 1 and for my own applications i can just copy the binaries to it directly but for something like the MNT Pocket i'd need to cross compile just for it and it is limited to stuff that i can do that.
Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket
#80When will I finally live a life where my work iPhone is plugged into a USB4 dock with mouse, display and keyboard and it makes my whole work desktop? M2 is already here, why can't we do this?
Heat dissipation mostly, phones aren’t designed to shed wall powered thermals.
You can do this today with an iPad Pro with keyboard cover.
Also, pretty much nobody wants this. Most people who use work computers have them provided by the workplace. The workplace does not want the employee phones running the call center apps with customer data, etc.
I for one do not want any work data physically present on any personally-owned device.