Lets create the PineCom

[Arwen]

@barray & @zer0sig I'd say that their should be 2 x M.2 slots, 1 x 2230 & perhaps one 2230/42. Then leave off any builtin WiFi & Bluetooth. Let the user decide which modules they use/buy. Pine64 could make a simplified M.2 2230 with WiFi & Bluetooth as a purchase option for those that don't need more, (and know that it was tested).

Unlike a cell-phone, this PineCom could be thicker, both to support M.2 cards and to have a bigger battery.

[notpod]

Would like to have GPS for sure.

I would buy instantly.

[globaltree]

I would like it to never sell out.

[bookhydra]

Is stylus support and handwriting recognition worth trying for?

[rimko]

To be honest i don't really see any use-case for my need but the project sound cool
The leak of USB-C alt make me a little sad.. convergence ability it for me a strongest feature of pinephone in my opinion.

[zer0sig]

@barray & @zer0sig I'd say that their should be 2 x M.2 slots, 1 x 2230 & perhaps one 2230/42. Then leave off any builtin WiFi & Bluetooth. Let the user decide which modules they use/buy. Pine64 could make a simplified M.2 2230 with WiFi & Bluetooth as a purchase option for those that don't need more, (and know that it was tested).

Unlike a cell-phone, this PineCom could be thicker, both to support M.2 cards and to have a bigger battery.

@Arwen I definitely like this idea. Would be interested in being able to get different modules for different communication types or potentially an NVMe SSD.

Also wouldn't mind it being larger or thicker, especially if it improved expansion options or cost less to design. Honestly, something like a large blackberry would be pretty cool IMO, with a roughly phone-sized screen but a keyboard big enough to touch-type on. Of course, a sliding or flip-open keyboard could work but it'd be cool for it to have some clear differences from the phone which will already have a flip-open phone soon and making a slightly bigger keyboard designed for more use would be cool though I don't know how difficult or expensive a separate keyboard design would end up.

[r10game]

I really want a Linux mini-laptop with long battery life. The PinePhone is so far the closest thing to this dream.

Unlike the PinePhone however, the PineCom will not feature a modem but rather rely on WiFi, IoT LoRa and LoRaWan for communications. The device will also be smaller at (5” LCD panel or less)

These two are complete deal-breakers for me. That just means that I still need to carry a phone with me for connectivity, and if I need the phone anyway, why not use the phone's bigger screen? So essentially the PineCom becomes a very expensive keyboard.

Maybe I don't understand the target group for this device. Could you clarify that?

For me to be attractive it needs a modem (not necessarily the same as the PinePhone) and a ~7" screen.

absolutely ı agree

[diodelass]

This thread is a total disaster. In sixteen pages, all we've seen is a bunch of people - myself included, I suppose - coming in to drop their wildly differing and rather inflated expectations for what this device should look like, and almost always with an "I'm not interested in this at all if it doesn't include these things" note tacked on. From reading all of these, it kind of seems like no conceivable device could possibly cover the majority of everyone's needs at any price point, let alone an affordable one.

I'm going to take a step back from my previous post concerning SDR and experimental radio, since there's clearly not a huge amount of interest in that here, or at least not enough to make the cost of the required hardware and design complexity worth spending. At this point, what we really need is any kind of coherent direction at all. In short, what IS the PineCom? Some people want it to be a smartphone, some people want it to be a tablet, and many others want it to be their own very specific concept for a new type of mobile device, which doesn't match up with anyone else's vision for it.

All we know from the outset of the thread is that this is supposed to be something like a PinePhone but with a LoRa transceiver instead of a cellular modem. It remains unclear to me what the utility of this would actually be, and from reading the posts here, it seems like most people don't have a clearer picture of that than I do.

Rather than continue to deliberate over how many cameras this thing needs and what size the screen should be, I propose that we try to agree on what the intended purpose of the PineCom actually is in the first place. We are absolutely, definitely going to need to do that if this project is going to go anywhere.

[KC9UDX]

This is a little out of control, but it is what brainstorming is. The only thing we don't have is Pine64 narrowing the criteria down over time

[mattswest]

First time on these forums, saw this thread and got excited, then started reading this thread and got disappointed.

It seems to me that the whole point of this device is that it would have different use cases than the PinePhone.

We’ll soon be starting work on the PineCom - a privacy-oriented handheld communicator that shares the PinePhone’s pedigree but offers a distinct and different feature set.

I feel like a lot of people's comments miss that point.

All we know from the outset of the thread is that this is supposed to be something like a PinePhone but with a LoRa transceiver instead of a cellular modem.

I don't think it is meant to be like a PinePhone. I think as some others have suggested, I think it's meant to be like a Meshtastic device, but one with a 5" display so it can be used on its own without having to pair it with another device.

It should definitely have GPS, a camera to scan QR codes would be nice but it's more of a convenience, and a smaller display would increase battery life but 5" is already gonna be smaller than a lot of people will want. It should be optimized for battery life as well as LoRa signal strength; don't shy away from adding an external antenna or making it thicker for a larger battery because of aesthetic reasons. Physical buttons over a touch screen would conserve some energy, although that's obviously a large design departure that would affect compatibility. A notification LED would reduce turning on the screen to check for messages.

I'm really excited about this device, can't wait to see what gets made.