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Planet Computers demoed the Cosmo Communicator, a clamshell PDA [Personal Digital Assistant] which can run Android/Linux or GNU/Linux, at CES. It is expected to be on the market by June 2019. The device has a miniature keyboard, essential for a PDA, and many additional features including the ability to operate as a dual-SIM phone. It also features dual displays: a 2-inch AMOLED which is visible when the device is closed and a larger (5.99-inch, 2160×1080) LCD touchscreen LCD panel visible when the device is opened to access the keyboard.
- Size:
- 171.4 x 79.3 x 16mm, 320g
- Software:
- Android 9 Pie; Linux OS dual boot (user choice)
- SoC:
- MediaTek P70 Octa-core SoC @ 2 GHz
- RAM and storage:
- 6 GB of RAM with 128GB of storage; microSD card slot
- Battery:
- 4,220mAh
- External Display:
- 2-inch (570×240) AMOLED
- Display:
- 5.99-inch (2160×1080) LCD
- Connectivity:
- Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC
- Ports:
- 2 USB Type-C ports, 3.5mm headphone jack
- External camera:
- 24 MP
- Internal camera:
- 5 MP
- Miscellaneous:
- Dual nano-SIM, eSIM support, fingerprint gestures
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Clamshell PDA Running Android/Linux or GNU/Linux
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(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday January 11 2019, @03:19PM (10 children)
No. In the heyday of the PDA's many had external keyboards available. But some, like the Newton, were connected by cable and dongle - the basic interaction with it was touch-screen only. I'm sure one could dig up WinCE examples that never had a keyboard. IIRC the initial Palm offerings didn't have a keyboard then Palm built a couple... I still use my wireless Bluetooth Palm keyboard with my tablets today since some enterprising soul must have written Android drivers for them.
And PDA's simply morphed into smartphones and tablets when it became more economically viable to include them. A touch iPod is still effectively a PDA that is more known for its MP3 playing capabilities. Pick up any Droid tablet or iPad and add a keyboard (especially a keyboard-case) - how is that any different from what we see here aside from screen size? And those did indeed take a bite out of the desktop market.
None of which diminishes the good news. I like the concept of it, it reminds me of my Jornada 720 back in the day. OTOH, there's no way I'm paying $799 for such a device unless it has a phone built into it.
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(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday January 11 2019, @03:37PM (6 children)
The fact that you can run GNU on it without a lot of overhead. On Android you need to install GNURoot Debian and XSDL apps, which I've read are slow. (Correct me if I'm wrong though.) On an iPhone or iPad, it's even more expensive, as you incur a recurring payment for a VPS and a cellular data plan to connect thereto.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday January 11 2019, @04:06PM (5 children)
Not really sure - I've never bothered to try and run pure Linux on my droid devices. They do what I need them to without it. But you've got me curious to try.
But no, you don't need to pay for cellular service when you own an IOS device - you can still connect to WiFi without a cellular data plan in place. If you're dead set on Linux then yep you sure would need a VPS.
And you have a point, so I'll focus my question a little better: What things would the average PDA user who is device agnostic get out of laying down $799 for this instead of laying down $649 for a galaxy tab S or any other phone platform which can fulfill all the needs of a PDA? Second question: If I REALLY wanted the linux experience why wouldn't I spend less on a rootable android phone and hard keyboard and install linux on it?
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 11 2019, @04:54PM (1 child)
I loaded Manjaro or some-such Debian Linux onto my Nexus 5 - it was a horribly slow experience, very few useful applications on the desktop, the command line was usable, but why would you want command line in a phone-form-factor?
Thanks for teasing out the price - yeah, at $799 it's going to be just as competitive as a next-gen Palm Pilot would today, i.e. not.
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(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday January 11 2019, @05:39PM
Interesting... It's on my bucket list of todo's to try and root something Android-y and drop Linux on it to have tried the experience and without other immediate purposes in mind. Sounds like I didn't miss a whole bunch.
I've experimented with trying to word process on tablets and phones (and going back to Palm T|X, Jornada 720, Newton MP2000, and come to that TRS-80 Model 100 as a 'laptop' that wasn't one as we came to eventually understand it). The sticking point always seemed to be getting whatever I typed into whatever use purpose I had in mind, whether that was printing, publishing, or archiving in a way that I could rely on for years to come. (Though running email on the MP2000 via a plug-in modem card was awesome). Always too much effort to just using a straight IBM laptop (including the Tandy 1100FD - heavy and not much battery but one of the best I ever used for just banging words out IMVVHO).
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday January 11 2019, @07:18PM (2 children)
You can connect through Wi-Fi only where there is coverage. Public transit in my city happens not to provide Wi-Fi to riders. Many stretches of the routes I have ridden have no open hotspots, and even on those that do, the bus moves too fast for the device to associate, authenticate to the captive portal, and get any substantial interaction in.
Not much. This device is for users who aren't "average", such as people who need to use applications not ported to Android without giving "when I get to a desk" excuses all the time, or people who miss netbooks and want a substitute in order to work on lightweight programming projects while away from home.
In order to preserve the warranty on the hardware, and/or to use entertainment software that detects and blocks use on rooted devices.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday January 11 2019, @09:40PM (1 child)
I think I misunderstood that you were asking about two separate things when speaking of needing a cellular plans and a VPS for trying to use Linux on an IOS device and the answer is twofold. No, I don't need a cellular data plan with an iPhone any more than with this device. Or rather I'd either need one on either or none on either. Second, yes, I would need either a VPS or if I had a spare laptop laying around I could engage its VNC capability and share it to my iPhone [wordpress.com]. The cost of a used unit to do this would be negligible I think - if I wanted to try it I could do so for free right now but YMMV. Or buy a MUCH cheaper phone and a much cheaper laptop and make the functionality happen at a much lower cost than this.
But you've made my point. This is a niche product with a hefty price tag. I still think it's really cool. Is it economically viable? Nope, even though I wish it well and hope it does succeed and hope I'm wrong. In fact, it will be interesting to see if it actually launches or not.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Informative) by damnbunni on Saturday January 12 2019, @09:19PM
Given that this is basically an upgraded version of their Gemini PDA with the three most requested features added - an outside camera, backlit keyboard, and outside screen - and the Gemini has been shipping for a while, I'm confident the Cosmo will ship.
I have a Gemini, and I love it. It's my main phone. I use a Pebble with it, so I get my notifications that way and can make calls without having to open the keyboard, but for 'main phone' use I'd consider a smartwatch of some sort essential for the Gemini.
The "tiny keyboard" is fine. It's almost exactly the same as the Psion 5's. I have big hands and no problems typing on the thing. I could see it being too big for small hands when you're holding it and thumb-typing, though.
And the Gemini's optional camera unit is utter ass. If you have a Gemini and are considering it, don't bother. It's obvious the thing was never intended to have one. It suffices for taking pictures of receipts and the like, but that's about it. The inside cam produces much better pictures and is fine for video calls.
A clamshell keyboard PDA/phone is certainly a niche product, but it's a niche they basically have all to themselves. Their whole pitch for the Gemini wasn't really 'We have wonderful dreams and brilliant designers and will make the best thing ever' so much as 'We miss the Psion 5, so we got the Psion's keyboard and hinge designers to work on an updated version, and we have businessmen who know how to get stuff made in China.' It's that last part that so many crowdfunded hardware projects are missing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday January 11 2019, @04:46PM (1 child)
It says it can be a phone:
The price is high, but maybe not so high considering how much of a niche this is (mass market laptops get into this price range easily, and so do high-end smartphones).
So what price is right? $400? $200? If the thing utterly fails (as we would expect for a Linuxy device) and there is a firesale, I might jump on it like a Medal of Honor winner onto a grenade.
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(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday January 11 2019, @07:11PM
Nice catch on the phone aspect - missed that. That does change things up a bit, and might well make it nice for someone who knows what they want in a high-end phone. I'd be really pleasantly surprised if any carrier offers a per-month plan on it. If it comes to production it might just be the device I switch to for the next couple of years.
As to the right price you know as well as I that this is tricky. What will the market bear for an experimental platform device, and how long are you willing to hold on to it for? Buy it nows on MessagePads (2000s / Emates) are around $200 on EBay. Vaio VGN at $325 and $275 for an OQO 2 asked for on ebay. If I were doing it (not sure I would) I'd think $150 would be easy up to about $300 you're holding it for awhile. (And I see that the Apple Messagepad / Emate pin sellers are still on eBay but have now upped their prices considerably....)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Friday January 11 2019, @05:05PM
The Palm PDA, I have from my dad doesn't have a mini keyboard either. It's ancient and even runs on AAA batteries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PalmPilot [wikipedia.org] A keyboard isn't a necessary feature of a PDA.
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