The Pyra Linux Handheld Computer Has Now a Working Prototype

http://pandoralive.info/?p=5519

by ekianjo • 10 years ago

130 81 10 years ago

pandoralive.info

dsr_• 10 years ago

I thought TI stopped OMAP production. Where are the SOCs coming from? The back of an old warehouse?

ekianjo14• 10 years ago

OMAP5 are still being produced for the automotive industry.

benologist7• 10 years ago

Came across this yesterday which is also a tiny laptop/gamepad except it'll probably come out sooner and it's cheaper, faster, intel atom, and Windows 10. The Pyra has some advantages over it but it's more expensive, older hardware, and probably over a year away still.

http://obscurehandhelds.com/2016/02/gpd-are-back-with-someth...

tluyben22• 10 years ago

That one does is not mass produced either right? I guess I am the only one who finds Ratpoison on Linux far better than Windows any day which is what I use on my Openpandora and it does allow me to be productive.

benologist7• 10 years ago

It's a new device expected to launch in October, from a company that makes handheld consoles - http://www.gpd.hk.

They launched this well-received (albeit in the sense that all of this is very niche) clamshell Android device last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV80_oiacgs

JoshTriplett2• 10 years ago

I'm having trouble imagining typing on that keyboard at speed. The Pyra seems slightly better in that regard, though still a little too wide for two-thumb typing.

Past a certain width, your thumbs can't reach from the edges to the center. In the case of both of these systems, reaching much past the thumbsticks seems awkward; for instance, typing either 'h' or 'j' on the GPD, or 'g' on the Pyra.

ekianjo14• 10 years ago

Exactly. The keyboard has been a hot topic of discussion for the Pyra because it's that one thing that Pandora users care about. GPD has put a keyboard on their device "because you need it for Windows" but it really looks like an afterthought when you look at how bad their design is. They still have time to improve on it, but the render's version is just awful.

benologist7• 10 years ago

If you had to type on either device in a serious capacity you'd be handicapped until you plugged in a keyboard and mouse.

bigbugbag7• 10 years ago

Do not expect to be typing fast on the pyra, you will be able to type alright just not as fast.

DanBC• 10 years ago

I'd be interested to see how well Linux runs on this.

I think the Realtek ALC5645 is still work in progress, for example.

ekianjo14• 10 years ago

The Pyra has some advantages over it but it's more expensive, older hardware, and probably over a year away still.

If you think GPD is going to release first... they are only showing renders so far on their indiegogo campaign. Pyra is already at the stage of a working prototype and had a first manufacturing pilot run in December. They are way more ahead.

CraigJPerry• 10 years ago

I think that is a very clever form for this device. I don't want to detract from Bunnie's laptop because that is such an amazing device from the story of it its inception to the real world implementation, but I think this is likely a better form factor.

I can imagine happily using this one.

nextos3• 10 years ago

I'm eagerly awaiting for the Pyra to get ready.

It's not perfect, it's far from free hardware, and it's not a very good form factor for a phone replacement. But I rarely take any calls, so it's good enough for me.

And the ability to install whatever OS I want trumps everything else. I'm tired of phones where updates depend on capricious manufacturers. I want a real Linux and not a bunch of apps. I can't wait to see a tiling window manager running on that thing.

ekianjo14• 10 years ago

And the ability to install whatever OS I want trumps everything else.

Agree, along with the ability of actually developing and compiling, and running your software directly on the same device. There's just nothing else out there in this kind of form factor.

tra3• 10 years ago

I dont mean to be dense, but are you expecting to use this a smart phone replacement? A mobile workstation - laptop replacement?

Create• 10 years ago

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/PC110 http://www.tankraider.com/DOSPALMTOP/ibmpc110.html

bigbugbag7• 10 years ago

Somewhere along the way it slipped from an IBM product to a limited series of a device born out of a community to fulfill their own needs. To me those are two very different things.

luos• 10 years ago

I am planning to buy a similar setup, just a tablet with a keyboard running Windows 10, I wonder how expensive this laptop in a box would be.

Quite expensive but may be worth it, I am looking at this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teclast-Windows-Andriod-Tablet-Prote...

AdrianRossouw• 10 years ago

i had an open pandora, and loved it. can't wait for the pyra.

hackuser2• 10 years ago

Could you provide some more information on how you used it and on what you liked and didn't like?

bigbugbag7• 10 years ago

Mostly entertaining myself: used for retro emulation gaming, web surfing, remote admin over ssh, music (10h of battery), watching videos, tinkering with an exotic platform.

Being asked for input about what features it should have beforehand was very nice. 10 hours of battery is something I really enjoyed while on-the-go. Having a keyboard is convenient and a major upgrade from my previous handheld (gp2x), along with the ability for homebrew apps. The software repository is great. SDXC support, 2 slots.

It is a little too thick to my taste, the OS is not designed for a small touchscreen and feels awkward at times, I had an issue with the analog sticks sensitivity on the desktop (pyra has improved sticks).

Keep in mind that the pandora was not intended to be a consumer product but a limited run by a community member for a community of handheld enthusiasts of a device made to address perceived flaws in the GP32 and GP2X handhelds. The objective was to grow from a handheld gaming console to a fully capable pocket computer running on opensource.

chei0aiV2• 10 years ago

Mainly, I use it as a tiny PC that I carry with me on the go. I use Linux at home, so I essentially have the same software on the Pandora as on my desktop. I can comfortably browse non-mobile websites, email, edit documents with LibreOffice, SSH, remote into work (my workplace uses a Java applet for remote access so can't do it with Android). I can also set a virtual resolution in X11 so that the screen acts as a panning viewport so that more things fit. And of course I can play games on it (although I'm not much of a gaming enthusiast.)

Like:

- Battery life: 10 hours is actual screen on, wifi on time I get

- Size: fits comfortably in my pocket

- Physical keyboard: much easier to enter symbols, doesn't cover the screen

- Accurate "mouse" input (via nub or stylus)

Dislike:

- Keyboard is way too stiff

- Slow nowadays, especially on heavy websites

t0mk• 10 years ago

There's also this: http://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip

(I'm not affiliated iwth the product)

ekianjo14• 10 years ago

Hardly equivalent to the Pyra.

cookrn2• 10 years ago

Zaurus [1] handhelds of the SL-C3(0|1|2)00 models occasionally come up on eBay and support OpenBSD [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_Zaurus

[2] http://www.openbsd.org/zaurus.html

marktangotango• 10 years ago

Ha! The linux pda, I have one of those in a box somewhere. When I got it, I was working a mindless corporate job, and planned to use it do some development during my plentiful free time (at work). That never worked out, needless to say. The most dev I did o it was a j2me text editor that read and stored files to the device. Seems like I installed openzaurus on it back then.

cookrn2• 10 years ago

Feel free to contact me if you're interested in selling it :D (details are in profile)

fsiefken2• 10 years ago

The keyboard for me is less userfriendly then an onscreen keyboard, so I might as well use a regular android phone and chroot into a rootfs (linux deploy) or use it with a handheld or regular bluetooth keyboard. I would be interested in a wifi/bluetooth linux device with AA or AAA batteries and an e-ink display, optimized for long battery life. The android based Onyx Boox has everything except for the AA batteries.

manaskarekar2• 10 years ago

The keyboard is less userfriendly then an onscreen keyboard ...

I can see how 'swype'-like features would help the onscreen keyboard, but apart from that I have fond memories of typing on the physical keyboards of old dumb-phones with pretty good speed.

This seems like a great device, and although it may be impractical in some ways, it's got a very Hitchhiker's Guide vibe to it.

I would love to buy it if it's reasonably priced with a great battery life.

ZenoArrow3• 10 years ago

AFAIK battery life for the Pyra is expected to be around 10 hours, which is good for a handheld games console (for comparison, the new 3DS XL has about 3.5 to 7 hours battery life).

As for the price, it'd depend on what you meant by reasonable, but isn't going to be an impulse purchase for most. You may wish to consider the Pandora, which is the predecessor of the Pyra, you might get lucky with finding one for a reasonable price on eBay.

ekianjo14• 10 years ago

The keyboard is less userfriendly then an onscreen keyboard

Really? Like, you prefer your fingers to run over glass than something you can actually press ?

I would have said the exact opposite, because I absolute hate using Smartphones and tablets to type text.

fsiefken2• 10 years ago

I do understand the tactile feedback is nice. A long time ago I got an HTC pocketpc with slide-out keyboard for the same reasons, but I felt the clicking also slowed me down. For the small screen on that particular device the tedious stylus and finger entry was slower, so the keyboard was a plus. But with bigger mobile screens nowadays finger or stylus entry is less of an issue (especially with smart entry hacks). For keyboard entry for typing longer e-mails or ssh access I now only use an external keyboard where I can use 10 fingers instead of 2 thumbs - for the same reason I prefer a frogpad to a twiddler for one-handed entry.

fao_• 10 years ago

Looks rather interesting, but I am not sure of the benefits that it has over the pandora. As a side note, I find it amusing that they used GIMP for the heat testing.

fractallyte3• 10 years ago

Right now a Jolla phone (with Sailfish OS and Android compatibility) is a readily available handheld native Linux computer. It even comes with a terminal application! Since it runs a variant of openSUSE, there's a whole lot of other software that'll run without problems - emacs, midnight commander, wget, etc.

Add a bluetooth keyboard - one day, perhaps even a TextBlade (https://waytools.com/) - and this comprises a serious computing and communications tool.

skykooler2• 10 years ago

It is too bad the TOHKBD[1] is sold out. It would be perfect for this.

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2028347278/tohkbd-the-o...

awqrre2• 10 years ago

It even comes with a terminal application!

Linux without a terminal wouldn't be Linux

wolfgke3• 10 years ago

Linux without a terminal wouldn't be Linux

Linux without a terminal wouldn't be GNU/Linux.

bigbugbag7• 10 years ago

well, the bluetooth keyboard kinda defeats the purpose of having a handheld in the first place.

fractallyte3• 10 years ago

As an owner of Psion's 5mx and Revo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Revo), I've experienced the absolute minimum in a touch-typing keyboard. These machines offered, to me, the very best form-factor for a small computer (the clamshell design was ingenious). Sadly, nothing like these is currently available.

Conversely, a smartphone with bluetooth offers the flexibility of a touch-enabled computer with optional keyboard - one that's suitable for actual real typing!

So instead of an all-in-one solution, perhaps there's a case to be made for modular components too?

ekianjo14• 10 years ago

Right now a Jolla phone (with Sailfish OS and Android compatibility) is a readily available handheld native Linux computer.

The point of the Pyra is not just to provide a GNU/Linux distro, it's also to provide physical controls and not just a touch interface. If you focus only on the OS you are missing half of the point of the device.

trm42• 10 years ago

Even though Sailfish OS is quite nice and Linuxy, the original Jolla phone was published on 2013 and even then its hardware wasn't that good (especially the display), so until there's some modern hardware actually running Sailfish and the price is ~400 €, there's no point of talking about any Jolla/Sailfish phones :(

fractallyte3• 10 years ago

I'm very late to the smartphone party, but I've read that although the Jolla hardware is weak by today's standards, the OS makes up for it by being light and sleek, even outpacing a modern Android device.

My phone cost <€200, with FedEx delivery included.

eveningcoffee• 10 years ago

http://pandoralive.info/?page_id=2828 states that Display: the LCD is still in discussion currently. [...] but it was found to only work properly in portrait mode.

It feels a bit strange that a display could only work in portrait mode, so perhaps you can elaborate it a bit more?

Edit: because a half HD device feels a bit dated.

ekianjo14• 10 years ago

They use now a rotator chip to turn it into a landscape mode lcd.

hackuser2• 10 years ago

I've come across several open handheld projects. Does anyone know which are available, practical, and supported (at least by active user communities)?

* Padora and Pyra, both by Pandora: https://pyra-handheld.com/

* Jolla phones, running Sailfish OS: http://jolla.com/

* IndiePhone by Aral Balkan; I think this one might be defunct: http://indiephone.eu/ / http://indietech.org/

* GSMK CryptoPhone: http://www.cryptophone.de/

* Revolution by GeekskPhone (which has some connection to PGP?): http://www.geeksphone.com/

* GTA01 and GTA02 by OpenMoko; obsolete? http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GTA01 / http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GTA02

* GTA04 FOSS by OpenPhoenux; successor or otherwise related to OpenMoko?: http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/

* Neo900 by (OpenPhoenux?); "aims to provide a Fremantle (Maemo 5) compatible successor to the N900: http://neo900.org/

* Fairphone; focuses on 'fair trade' supply chain: https://www.fairphone.com/

* Camelephon: Android stripped down for security?: http://chamelephon.com/

bigbugbag7• 10 years ago

I don't know for the other but the pandora has a fairly active community, look at the wiki and software repository:

http://www.pandorawiki.org/

http://repo.openpandora.org/ (community project)

Also forum: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/categories/pandora.198/

-edit-

from wikipedia:

Where source code is available, instead of emulation source ports were created for the Pandora; notable examples are Jagged Alliance 2 and Homeworld.

The Pandora community is also notable for the development of tools required to achieve several successful static recompilations of complex binary software to the Pandora platform. For instance, in 2014 a ARM architecture version of the 1998 video game StarCraft was generated by static recompilation from the original x86 version. In 2015, a similarly port of Diablo II followed.

0xcde4c3db• 10 years ago

The only devices on that list for which I could find credible order pages are the Jolla and FairPhone 2, which seem to have limited distribution and carrier compatibility outside Europe. Pandora is definitely released and has a solid community, but is seemingly not shipping anymore, probably because that would tie up money earmarked for Pyra production. Pyra is quasi-available in a prototype/developer/fundraising version; production version probably to ship later this year. The GTA04 and Neo900 are board-only products (i.e. you need an OpenMoko or N900 to install them into) and don't seem to actually be shipping right now anyway.

bigbugbag7• 10 years ago

The pandora was supposed to not be available once the produced units were sold. If you really want one, it won't be long before some of the people buying pyras sell their pandoras.

gravypod• 10 years ago

I'm very interested in using this for emulating all of the now "old" gaming consoles. Stuff like SNES, NES, PS1, gamecube.

The controls are there and the hardware should be good enough.

znpy• 10 years ago

I used to own an HP Jornada 728, and run NetBSD or JLime Linux off a compact flash card.

It was an amazing device, it's very sad nothing of the kind has been produces.

Folks at jlime.org (Kristoffer, IIRC?) were designing some custom FlashRom boards in order to have better hardware control and not need windows ce to boot linux. I haven't checked in years, who knows if they got anything to actually work...

The Pyra Linux Handheld Computer Has Now a Working Prototype

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