[HN Gopher] Review: Beepy a Palm-Sized Linux Hacking Playground
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Review: Beepy a Palm-Sized Linux Hacking Playground
Author : teleforce
Score : 71 points
Date : 2023-08-09 11:30 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (hackaday.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hackaday.com)
| alectroem wrote:
| I deeply desire one of these that also has 4G LTE. The idea of a
| portable linux shell that could also make phone calls by typing
| in something like "call 773-202-LUNA" just sounds super
| appealing!
| [deleted]
| calgoo wrote:
| To me it's to opposite! I'm looking for a device that does not
| have a baseband on it. I can always hotspot + vpn if I need
| access to the outside world, but no direct access to the
| device. Add some encrypted chat software, and got the perfect
| communication device.
| pgeorgi wrote:
| https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-wifi-only
| was an option but sadly they pivoted to devices with baseband
| only...
|
| There's https://pyra-handheld.com/ but it's semi-existent
| not-quite-vaporware for about a decade already (props on the
| staying power of looking to get this project finished,
| though!)
| pezh0re wrote:
| I wonder if you could build on Jeff Geerling's work:
| https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2022/using-4g-lte-wireless...
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| You know you can do that on Android with termux, right?
|
| https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux-telephony-call
| spicybright wrote:
| One project I think about a lot but will probably never do is
| build a DIY smart phone, writing all the UI and features
| myself.
|
| There's people on youtube that have done this. They're
| basically off the shelf parts and a raspi glued together in an
| awkward brick of wires and electronics.
|
| I'm interested in learning how to get the hardware all working
| together, but also making wacky UI that deviate from normal
| smart phones.
|
| Too bad I'm lazy!
| johnea wrote:
| > if you add Android and Chrome OS into the mix, there are
| millions and millions of people who are using Linux on daily
| basis and don't even realize it.
|
| This is even more true than the article states.
|
| The largest demographic of linux users is certainly "people who
| own a television".
|
| Almost all modern TVs run linux...
| uxp100 wrote:
| I've been enjoying toying around with my beepy, but the display
| is pretty miserable. I'd say you almost need outdoor light to
| enjoy it. Lights on inside it's fine, usable, but lots of tilting
| to get the best angle. And I'd love just a little larger size,
| maybe another row of text and some more columns.
|
| When the device was announced some naysayer here on HN said, hey,
| that display is lame and the raspberry pi is a bad choice for
| battery applications, mcus with better options for deep sleep
| could make this a device with a battery life measured in days,
| not hours. And despite calling them a naysayer I'd say they are
| completely right.
|
| I don't regret buying it anyway, though.
| kragen wrote:
| i think i was the naysayer you're talking about
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35980709) and i have one
| slight correction
|
| i think the display is _fucking awesome_
|
| just. not for this. for applications where its lack of
| backlight and grayscale mean you get a significantly longer
| battery life, or smaller battery, or no battery at all
|
| being able to maintain the display on 50mW means you can run it
| off a cr2032 coin cell for 17 _months_
|
| if you pair that with a cpu that's using some similar amount of
| power, probably due to being in a low-power deep-sleep mode
| 99+% of the time, you can get a month or two of interactive
| computing out of a coin cell
|
| that's _motherfucking amazing_
|
| but that is not this product
| theodric wrote:
| I also got a Beepberry (which arrived as a Beepy, so I should
| probably stop deadnaming it) and I generally concur with your
| analysis. I'm definitely not getting anywhere near the top end
| of the projected battery life scale with a Pi Zero 2 W
| installed, nothing much useful fits on the display, and I have
| to sit under more light than I'd like hitting my eyeballs to
| read the screen.
|
| Incidentally, there exists now a functional analogue - complete
| with scavenged BB keyboard - sporting an ESP32 and a backlit
| screen in place of the Pi0 and memory LCD: the Liligo T-Deck. I
| don't need one, and I won't write software that runs on it, but
| I still want one because cute LoRa thing.
| kragen wrote:
| my comment on this three months ago got upvoted to the top of the
| thread, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35980709
|
| basically, i said the ultra-low-power screen is wasted by using a
| cpu that uses ten thousand times as much power
|
| it would make more sense to use either an ultra-low-power cpu or
| a screen that takes advantage of the orders of magnitude more
| power available, with features such as backlighting, grayscale
| (the memory lcd is really only black and white with no shades of
| gray), or even color
|
| summary from the thread:
|
| > _unfortunately, their current design seems to have a fatal flaw
| that renders it useless for its intended purpose [ 'a weekend
| chat device' according to erohead], but one that's easily fixed_
|
| > _my comments are not shitting on it; they explain how to fix
| it, providing information the original designers were evidently
| unaware of, so that they can ship a product that fulfills its
| intended purpose, which would probably make them a few tens of
| thousands of dollars. up to them if they want to do it or not; i
| 'm not an investor. if they don't, probably someone else will_
|
| comments here from people who are trying the device seem to
| support my calculation that the battery only lasts a few hours
| rather than the intended weekend
| theodric wrote:
| The screen/keyboard interface/etc. connects to the Pi Zero via
| GPIO, not USB, so it should be...I won't say trivial, but
| entirely feasible to swap the Pi for a uC. Some folks on the
| Discord instance have already shown examples of other devices
| connected to the Beepy motherboard (and one person even posted
| a Pocket CHIP wired to a Pi, which is a nice bit of
| continuity).
|
| tl;dr I'm certain this is coming
| kragen wrote:
| that sounds fantastic, and i look forward to seeing the
| results
| captn3m0 wrote:
| I'd love if the old Symbian QWERTY phones made a comeback. I had
| a cheap Nokia X2-01 (https://m.gsmarena.com/nokia_x2_01-3610.php)
| running S40, and it did XMPP, E-mail pretty fine.
|
| Just make those with a slightly more powerful/modern SoC and let
| me run Pidgin.
| edent wrote:
| My experience with SQFMI's Watchy has been disappointing. As
| noted in the review - there is close to zero documentation.
|
| There is a Discord (that they rarely appear in) where people try
| to make sense of the random collection of buggy software - but it
| is a chore.
|
| I like tinkering and exploring. But I get the impression that
| they think their customers _appreciate_ the level of disrespect
| SQFMI show them.
| uxp100 wrote:
| The out of the box experience for beepy is better, standard
| raspberry pi linux plus some drivers, with a script that
| installs them. Watchy had a supposed easy way to install watch
| faces that I could never ever make work, had to join the
| discord and use some other method that worked with only certain
| faces.
|
| But I think the appeal is that these little basically
| unsupported boards are inexpensive and do have a community that
| will help, hidden away on discord.
| marcodiego wrote:
| > [...] if you add Android and Chrome OS into the mix, there are
| millions and millions of people who are using Linux on daily
| basis and don't even realize it.
|
| Actually, if you consider Android, that would be around billions.
| rcarmo wrote:
| Hmmm. I posted this a day ago
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37045886), and I'm
| surprised to see it again.
|
| Anyway, the reason I found it interesting is that it uses a
| repurposed BlackBerry keyboard, which I'm sure will have great
| effect. Most modern mini-handhelds have dismal input methods.
| guessbest wrote:
| I got a few second hand, vintage android and windows mobile
| devices with those pop out keyboards and getting used to the
| physical keyboard was more difficult than I remember. For
| instance everytime I pushed the keyboard with my thumb the device
| moved ever so slightly. It was difficult to press the keyboard
| and not slightly shift the screen
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(page generated 2023-08-09 23:01 UTC)