Pyra ancestors poll

[SAS]

What are you currently using as Pyra ancestor? What is determining your choice - e.g. size & pocketability / hardware keyboard / stylus / connectivity options / available programs / OS / etc?

 

[ClockworkCoder]

Nothing. There's nothing I have that's even remotely close to what the Pyra offers.

 

[ible]

same for me, i don't have anything as cool as the Pyra

 

[ckblackm]

Pandora... pocket sized... runs Diablo II.

 

[levi]

Pandora... pocket sized... runs Diablo II.

True, but versus a Pyra it's missing:
- faster wifi
- accelerometers
- barometer
- optional 4G
- optional GPS
- a second core
- backlit keyboard
- at least four times the RAM
- futureproofing

It remains to be seen though just what we can play on our Pyras.

 

[rSl]

 

[SAS]

same for me, i don't have anything as cool as the Pyra

You have the Pyra ;- ?)

 

[ckblackm]

True, but versus a Pyra it's missing:
- faster wifi
- accelerometers
- barometer
- optional 4G
- optional GPS
- a second core
- backlit keyboard
- at least four times the RAM
- futureproofing

It remains to be seen though just what we can play on our Pyras.

Wasn't the post about what we're using as an ancestor for the Pyra and why? I don't understand the point of your post.

 

[levi]

True, I forgot slightly which thread I was in. Sorry about that!

 

[kuru]

My daily driver is a Galaxy Note 3. Still the perfect smartphone (edit: without keyboard) for me. I use the stylus a lot for notes/idle scribbling, can change the battery without any hassle and it's got an IR blaster.
I moved on from the n900 due to the broken micro USB connector and scratched screen.

I seldom use the Pandora anymore. Sometimes I play text adventures on it or use it as music player when I need headphones.

For laptop/netbook I'm using a Lenovo Yoga S1. It's a light and power efficient convertible with, again, a built-in stylus. By now they're quite affordable second-hand. It's one of the models plagued by keyboard imprints in the screen. I don't know how much pressure it takes to cause those, but a lot of second-hand units have marks on the display.

 

[Eight Bit]

Funny how my 2013 HTC One M7 feels a lot older than my Pandora... It does play video's and browses websites more easily though.

 

[Nintendo]

Nowhere near as cool as Pyra...but I'm using a Nintendo Switch right now.

 

[Askarus]

Nowhere near as cool as Pyra...but I'm using a Nintendo Switch right now.

I'd say same for me.
My most used mobile device right now are
- Nintendo Switch
- Blackberry Priv (has keyboard)

I'd say the Switch is pretty close to what I want my Pyra to be.
Something I can carry with me but I can also put in a dock and use it on a big screen.
If it's useful I might even mod cut a hole in the case where the heatsink is and try to add some external cooling.

 

[SAS]

My daily driver is a Galaxy Note 3. Still the perfect smartphone (edit: without keyboard) for me. I use the stylus a lot for notes/idle scribbling, can change the battery without any hassle and it's got an IR blaster.

I am also using SG Note 3 daily as an 'always on / always connected' device. Stylus (and LectureNotes and Write) make note-taking a breeze and F-droid gives something new to fiddle with when needed...

However - please, say I am wrong - I do not expect Pyra to replace it as 'always on' device - mainly for the seamless transition between mobile data / known wi-fi networks and battery consumption in standby / screen-off mode. Most days with the Note3 data connection (wi-fi / 3G) is always on; couple of e-mail accounts are synced every 2 / 6 hours; 2 XMPP accounts are always connected; no GPS; no bluetooth; no incoming phone calls; occasional outgoing calls; some light browsing and some reading - so usually - less than 60 minutes screen-on time. I hardly reach 60% battery. Can one expect something similar with the Pyra :- ?)

 

[levi]

My Pandora ended up being a charge overnight device, and stayed on at all times - I could eke it out a little longer when travelling or something, but for that I had to actually turn it off at times. I'm hoping the Pyra can get to that stage once it's been developed and tuned to within a hair's breadth of perfect, but initially I expect it to be more like my Nintendo 3DS which if you play light gaming on for a couple of hours, you need to charge it again for about the same time before you can use it again. Luckily you can charge it from any microUSB cable, so you can easily arrange to charge it at the office and overnight at home should you need to relatively easily.

 

[skeezix]

Pandora still has a great soundsystem and huge storage, and of course the crazy community. (I'm still using old Debian mods for it, not kept up to see if anyone more recently has done it...)

Batteries are getting long in the tooth but still works alright ..

edit: for Other; I rolled my own super crappy computer from scratch, but she works! See old 'zikzak' posts or hit up www.zikzak.ca if you're curious (don't bother); I need to get a new keyboard and remake mini-laptop form of it, but I've been fiddling with gutting some kids toys for a laptop shell, or get one of the overpriced r-pi laptop 'kits' and use that, to make my life easier.

 

[levi]

I subscribed to your youtube feed when you were taking videos of zikzak, but since then you've only really put out a handful of drone videos, which I've watched happily, but aren't quite zikzak.

 

[skeezix]

yeah, thats why I stepped back from dev here after the Pandora; I have so little free time, that any projects of mine take foreeeeever to get anywhere. I've been trying to get back to more of that, as the kids get older, but not there yet!

Latest shenanigans is turning an old DC motor from a photocopier into a weedwhacker, affixing it to the front of one of my robot cars, with a plan to drive it via goggles on first person camera view into weeds; who wants to cut grass by hand like a chump? But even goofier shorter term works like tht I've not gotten to :/

Last zikzak work was working on learning FPGA and Verilog and such, so that I could use a low end FPGA (XC6SLX9) as the GPU; I got HDMI out from the FPGA (!) as a standalone demo, and assembled a lame little LCD VGA/HDMI/composite monitor for myself so that I could have a monitor for testing, on my bench, that didn't take up much room. I had considered working on a new upscaler, as theres not a lot of those out there and they're always way too pricey and fiddly, but in the end.. no time, and if I made one, it'd cost a fair amount for me to ship, so wasn't worth it. I think some open source upscalers have come along as well..

So, zikzak-wise, I should get back to working on th FPGA as a video card. Sometime

 

[ingoreis]

I do use the Samsung Galaxy Relay 4G and using it for Messaging,Netflix,Viewing my Musicvideos and even Star Trek Timelines work on it :-D

 

[Grench]

I recently had to replace the Galaxy Note 3 for my entire family - they had won theirs out - then I had replaced ports & buttons - then they wore them out again. GREAT phone.

Now we're all four on LG V35 ThinQ phones with Google Fi. Good phones, but I miss having a stylus. I don't miss Samsung's Android App bloatware bonanza. The LG phones via Google Fi were shockingly and happily void of most bloatware.