Beauty competition.

[Grench]

If the Pyra was going to look like an iPhone then I might cancel my pre-order.

Steve Jobs was a turtleneck wearing hipster and the iPhone had a dumbed down UI. It's a large slate of glass with big brightly coloured icons on it. That's professional? That's the kind of UI that a toddler would use. The iPhone treats it's userbase as if they're mentally retarded. It's simplified and limited and the only good thing about it's UI is that simple people like toddlers and Steve Jobs admiring hipsters can use it.

And ever since, big phone makers have been trying to copy it across their entire lineup. Samsung had the ultimate 'not an iPhone' in their Galaxy Note line-up through the Galaxy Note 3. It was the ultimate 'nerd phone'. It had a real headphone jack, microSDXC support, a garaged stylus, a (then) giant screen, a user removable / replaceable battery, HDMI support through docking, AND a microUSB port able to roll data at USB 3.0 speeds. Starting with the Note 4, they have progressed to where the Note line is 'just another phone'. Hell, they even made all of the accessories white and made white cased versions of their Note phones with glass backs. I loved my Note 3 - and every Note device they made after it kept compromising the features that actually made it special.

I don't need my device to be razor thin, I need it to have decent battery life. Waterproof can be handy on occasion, but I'd rather be able to use wired headphones and be able to swap the battery out every year or two.

My current device is a Planet Computers Cosmo. No stylus, but the touch type usable physical keyboard makes up for it.

All that said, I don't see the Pyra becoming my regular in-the-pants-pocket device. Everything about the Pyra is great - except how thick it is. The thickness of it is actually a plus for gaming comfort. But - in a front pocket of a pair of pants it looks like you're either smuggling bricks or worse. That said, I don't see any way that the Pyra could be made any thinner and retain all of the ports as we want and like them, let alone the great big battery pack and durability of construction, etc. The device is the size it needs to be in order to house all of the flexible and functional equipment that makes it so wonderful. But, maybe, someday, if the Pyra in current form sells 10,000+ units, maybe a 'Pyrathin' might be able to be made as a thinner device with only microSDXC slots, only USB C ports, etc - which -might- get it down to 2/3 of the current thickness - which might not even be worth the costs of doing it.

 

[RZR]

If the Pyra was going to look like an iPhone then I might cancel my pre-order.

Steve Jobs was a turtleneck wearing hipster and the iPhone had a dumbed down UI. It's a large slate of glass with big brightly coloured icons on it. That's professional? That's the kind of UI that a toddler would use. The iPhone treats it's userbase as if they're mentally retarded. It's simplified and limited and the only good thing about it's UI is that simple people like toddlers and Steve Jobs admiring hipsters can use it.

Well, there's no danger of Pyra turning into iPhone I'm afraid:

An IPhone is a mainstream device, designed to be sold to a user who just wants the device "to work" and to "do the things I want it to do" easily. And it's a hell of a device at its purpose.

The Pyra is a niche device, designed to be sold to a user who wants to get the most out of it, and that is expecting to modify/configure/code it to fit his own purpose.

Different use case and different public I'm afraid, but of course both must look great, something the Pyra solves thanks to its coating.This user:


Is an IPhone user, not a Pyra one. Now let's suppose you are telling your fellow workmates/family you've just spent 800€ in a Pyra, with these being IPhone users the conversation would be something like:

Spoiler: This

(mate)->So you spent the price of an IPhone 11 in a what??
(U)->A Pyra, it's a UMPC that runs Debian.
(mate)->A.... What?? that runs what??
(U)->UMPC, like a notebook but smaller.
(mate)->A.... notebook?
(U)->Mackbook Air but not from Apple.
(mate)->So that runs W10 right.
(U)->Nope, Debian.
(mate) takes one step back, stares at you as if you were a pink dog...
(U)->Ermm... Linux?
(mate)->Alright... So with that thing... you can actually call, text, use whatsapp, and all that?
(U)->Sure, but you first must use the terminal to install...
(mate) (Holy sh*t his mouth moves but I can't... wait that's got to be geeky stuff... shutting brain off in... 5, 4, 3....)
(U)->...and then you set a cronjob to....
(mate) (smile and nod)->That's cool mate, so you can run iTunes on that... thingy??
(U)->The hell... why would I....
(mate)->To listen to music....
(U)->Errr.... No but you can play that from the SD.
(mate)->Wait what? so you download music from...
(U)->No, I do have records, rip them and play them wherever I want.
(mate)->Is that legal?
(U)->Sure, but we were talking about...
(mate)->...the Mackbook Air you just bought.
(U)->Wait no, it's a Pyra not a....
(mate)->Sure... See you mate.
(mate) (leaves looking over the shoulder from time to time, in case you decide to follow him and melt his brain with more geeky stuff.)

With all due respect to IPhone users of course.
I have friends who are IPhone users and they know it is what it is, and they love it just for that, but don't expect to upload anything to it or do anything moderately complex with it. That was just a bit of hilarious irony.

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Is an IPhone user, not a Pyra one. Now let's suppose you are telling your fellow workmates/family you've just spent 800€ in a Pyra, with these being IPhone users the conversation would be something like:

I do not really enjoy technical conversations with people who are not interested in it. If someone asks then I might just say that the Pyra is more customisable, that it does not spy on me or that it does not artificially limit me or I might give other easy to understand reasons that give a decent idea of why I prefer a Pyra over an iSpyGlass.

Yes. Of course. All due respect.

Ahem.

Indeed, all due respect.

Though the iPhone does have one major advantage over the Pyra; that being it's outward-facing camera. It's really unfortunate that there was no room for it. Personally I would have preferred a bulge on the lid. Maybe someday there will be an PyraPhat which is even fatter and includes an outward-facing camera.

 

[Kev2442]

Maybe ED can get one out to Linus Tech Tips. He is probably the biggest demo guy out there and might have enough reach into the retro gaming community.

I don't know if any youtubers focus on retro gaming and those sorts of devices, but there must be some that at least crossover. That and the linux channels would be a great way to get the word out.

Please don't. Not now at least. Reviewers would sure make for a big advertisement, but we just can't do that until the Pyra is at least somewhat finished. As in : low-power support, available calls and SMS/MMS (including contacts display, emojis, text size counter, archives, missed calls, ringtones...), hardware drivers, and the such. Android virtualization would also be a great plus.
Big communities mean big impact, and we can't afford making a bad impression. This device is peculiar enough already, better not make heads turn while it's not layman-friendly or it will backfire in nasty ways

 

[Phlyra]

Please don't. Not no<

Why not?

 

[Kev2442]

Why not?

Sorry, it got sent before I was finished writing it...

 

[levi]

An IPhone is a mainstream device, designed to be sold to a user who just wants the device "to work" and to "do the things I want it to do" easily. And it's a hell of a device at its purpose.

To be fair, we all want our devices to work. And the only reason the iphone does what they want to do is that they've been trained to use that interface, just as linux geeks have trained themselves to use that system more or less effectively. If we'll be using the mate DE then that's basically a copy of the Amiga workbench, or Windows 98 or at a stretch RISC OS - it's a standard WIMP system. The only difference is that iphone users have willingly trained themselves to use a system that does everything over the network, so that ISPs can see exactly what you're up to at all times, and that linux can be seemingly willingly obtuse at times before you train youself to use it effectively.

 

[PowerGod]

Spoiler: This

(mate)->So you spent the price of an IPhone 11 in a what??
(U)->A Pyra, it's a UMPC that runs Debian.
(mate)->A.... What?? that runs what??
(U)->UMPC, like a notebook but smaller.
(mate)->A.... notebook?
(U)->Mackbook Air but not from Apple.
(mate)->So that runs W10 right.
(U)->Nope, Debian.
(mate) takes one step back, stares at you as if you were a pink dog...
(U)->Ermm... Linux?
(mate)->Alright... So with that thing... you can actually call, text, use whatsapp, and all that?
(U)->Sure, but you first must use the terminal to install...
(mate) (Holy sh*t his mouth moves but I can't... wait that's got to be geeky stuff... shutting brain off in... 5, 4, 3....)
(U)->...and then you set a cronjob to....
(mate) (smile and nod)->That's cool mate, so you can run iTunes on that... thingy??
(U)->The hell... why would I....
(mate)->To listen to music....
(U)->Errr.... No but you can play that from the SD.
(mate)->Wait what? so you download music from...
(U)->No, I do have records, rip them and play them wherever I want.
(mate)->Is that legal?
(U)->Sure, but we were talking about...
(mate)->...the Mackbook Air you just bought.
(U)->Wait no, it's a Pyra not a....
(mate)->Sure... See you mate.
(mate) (leaves looking over the shoulder from time to time, in case you decide to follow him and melt his brain with more geeky stuff.)

With the Pandora it was like:

(mate)->That's a Nintendo DS !
(U)->No, it's a computer.
(mate)->But it's the same as a Nintendo DS !! It's a cheap copy of it, it doesn't even have dual screen !!
(U)->You don't just play games with this, it can do everything a computer is able to do... that's why it has a keyboard.
(mate)->They could have just drawn the keyboard in a second screen then !! It's stupid !!
(U)->I just told it's not just for gaming, here you can type without looking at your fingers...
(mate)->The Nintendo DS is better than this... you should have really got that...

I am expecting the same with the Pyra too...

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

The Pyra is the Dragonbox SS (Single Screen) and it's made in Germany.

BTW is anyone else bothered by the fact that Nintendo tried pretending that the DS was not the successor to the GBA? At the time it really pissed me off. The DS is just a GBA with extra hardware added, it even contains the same CPU. In fact the DS is more like the GBA than the GBA is like the GBC because the GBC is one of the Z80 Game Boys while the DS and GBA are of the ARM Game Boy line.

Nintendo stripped the Game Boy title from the Game Boy DS and then released the GBA Micro after the GBA to pretend that the GBA would have a "real" successor. But the DS is just a GBA with extra hardware added, so what would a "real" GBA successor look like if it's not that? What is a GBA successor if it's not a similar device from the same company that improves upon the GBA and is different enough to not be a GBA?

And of course I was right: The DS is the successor to the GBA and was a Game Boy all along as is evidenced by the fact that the Game Boy line supposedly got scrapped. Well it did not get scrapped, it just continued with the GAME BOY DS.

The DS is a Game Boy no matter how much Nintendo's stupid marketing division wants to pretend that the Game Boy DS is completely different from the Nintendo Advance.

 

[matzesu]

O know „me again „ but I think whe shouldn’t the Pyra call „SS“ as it’s a German Product, and the SS was a Paramilitarian Group from the German Nazi Party in the 1930thes to Mid 1940thes ..
Nothing you want to put in link whit the Pyra ..


Whit best regards, Matthias

 

[Kev2442]

The Pyra is the Dragonbox SS (Single Screen) and it's made in Germany.

I might not buy something german named "SS", but you do you

Allow me to disagree on the Game Boy DS. Its name was to push its main difference : the Dual Screens. The DS is quite a different device to the GBA when it comes to actual gameplay (well it differs from game to game, but Wario Ware : Touched ! and Brain Age wouldn't be the same on GBA) so it was quite needed to name it another way to make it stand out in the eyes of your average Joe.

It would be like "not the son of the GBA, but its successor in spirit".

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Allow me to disagree on the Game Boy DS. Its name was to push its main difference : the Dual Screens.

DS stood for "Dual Screen". The "DS" part of the name emphasises the dual screens, not the "Nintendo" part. So "Game Boy DS" completely preserves that emphasis.

The DS is quite a different device to the GBA when it comes to actual gameplay (well it differs from game to game, but Wario Ware : Touched ! and Brain Age wouldn't be the same on GBA) so it was quite needed to name it another way to make it stand out in the eyes of your average Joe.

It played like a GBA with extra features. So games that depend on those features would not work properly on it's predecessor that lacked those features. There's nothing weird about that. The N64 was named consistent with it's predecessor yet could you imagine playing Super Mario 64 on a SNES? Besides, what sense did it make to name the DS like a home console, is the DS really more like the Wii than it is like the GBA?

Post automatically merged: Jun 8, 2020

O know „me again „ but I think whe shouldn’t the Pyra call „SS“ as it’s a German Product, and the SS was a Paramilitarian Group from the German Nazi Party in the 1930thes to Mid 1940thes ..
Nothing you want to put in link whit the Pyra ..

OK, so "Single Screen" is not a good name. I guess we should go with "Solo Screen" then.

 

[levi]

I was right: The DS is the successor to the GBA and was a Game Boy all along as is evidenced by the fact that the Game Boy line supposedly got scrapped. Well it did not get scrapped, it just continued with the GAME BOY DS.

The DS is a Game Boy no matter how much Nintendo's stupid marketing division wants to pretend that the Game Boy DS is completely different from the Nintendo Advance.

Well, as I recall I didn't pay much attention to the marketing spiel at the time, apart from the games as they were announced. But looking at the hardware, it seems pretty obvious the DS continues the GameBoy advance line, because it has a port to play the same game carts. But I guess Nintendo needed to keep the lines separate because they launched the GameBoy Micro after they'd launched the DS, and it couldn't play DS games.

For me the main thing the DS changed with its touchscreen was the Picross games. I started with those on the DS, and couldn't understand how anyone could play that sort of game using cross hairs controlled with a joystick interface - ugh!

 

[ible]

the target audience is important. i don't think it would be bad to loan out units to more developer-friendly channels, but definitely until we have better software it would be bad to send out units for review to people who are expecting a more consumer-ready device.

 

[Neelix]

Not to mention LTT tends to be all about the latest stuff, or why old stuff is no longer relevant. I suspect that if they did get a review unit, their focus would be more on the age of the CPU and how it compares to modern smartphones in benchmarks rather than what the Pyra as a unit can actually be made to do.

- Neelix

 

[PowerGod]

Ohhhhhh, you know what? I could never figure out why I did not like Linus and that show at all. You connected the dots for me, I always hated how they look at even just slightly older hardware.

Okay got it. You are right. I try to look at what people produce online from a positive perspective and sometimes miss the obvious things.

Yeah maybe LTT might not be the greatest channel to start with at the very least. Starting with other channels and laser focusing in on the very tight niche users and groups makes the most most sense. If there is enough traction, maybe THEN something like LTT can be considered as an option, or maybe even not at all.

Great insights guys.

I remember a video where he was assembling "old hardware" to make a PC for retro gaming... well, that "old hardware for retro gaming" was more powerful than my main PC at the time !!

 

[theredbaron]

I remember a video where he was assembling "old hardware" to make a PC for retro gaming... well, that "old hardware for retro gaming" was more powerful than my main PC at the time !!

Up until I built a pc 2 years ago, I rocked a netbook (eeepc 901 (2G of ram and a celeron cpu at 900mhz) for years, then an aspire one (4 G of ram and an atom at 1.66ghz). Getting doom 3 to run on that old eeepc was fun.

" Old hardware" is still good, especially now that Moores law is pretty much dead.

Sent from my H3123 using Tapatalk

 

[PowerGod]

Up until I built a pc 2 years ago, I rocked a netbook (eeepc 901 (2G of ram and a celeron cpu at 900mhz) for years, then an aspire one (4 G of ram and an atom at 1.66ghz). Getting doom 3 to run on that old eeepc was fun.

" Old hardware" is still good, especially now that Moores law is pretty much dead.

Sent from my H3123 using Tapatalk

Maybe wasn't clear what I meant, and unluckily I can't find the video were he was referring with "old", components taken from the rubbish, that were at max 2 years old.... and used those to make a "pc for retro gaming"...
In my point of view he seems to have pretty high standards.... If I had to do a pc for retro gaming, I would have taken a Pentium 4 or lower... because everything after that is still NOT retro at all.

 

[Phlyra]

Ohhhhhh, you know what? I could never figure out why I did not like Linus and that show at all. You connected the dots for me, I always hated how they look at even just slightly older hardware.

Okay got it. You are right. I try to look at what people produce online from a positive perspective and sometimes miss the obvious things.

Yeah maybe LTT might not be the greatest channel to start with at the very least. Starting with other channels and laser focusing in on the very tight niche users and groups makes the most most sense. If there is enough traction, maybe THEN something like LTT can be considered as an option, or maybe even not at all.

Great insights guys.

What about TLG The Linux Gamer?

 

[Grench]

My main computer for the last ~6 years has been an HP Z800 workstation. Those were first released in 2009, so it is roughly 12 years old. Six years ago I bought mine for $400. The Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics card that is in it now cost me more than that though. I don't consider that machine to be "retro". Now, my old PC XT with the AST 6 pack plus card with a 5.25, 720K 3.5 and a 60MB HDD with EGA graphics - that one I consider retro.