Who is the target audience of the PineNote
#1
I own a PinePhone. It is basically a toy, I was happy to see a new phone with a removable battery, unlockable, runs Linux, SD card, etc. And the price is OK, not great but OK. It's fun to play around with, and it's nice to know it will receive new distros and features for years to come, and I never have to worry about it being bricked by a dead battery. The SD card gives so much flexibility to installing OSs and moving data around.

I'm in the market for an E-Reader, so I was excited to see the PineNote listed. My excitement has dropped to 0 after seeing the specs and price. Non-removable battery? No SD card? Who is your target audience?? No Linux enthusiast wants a throwaway device that's locked to internal memory only. $400? That is totally uncompetitive with existing Android E-Readers. And without removable battery and SD card the PineNote has nothing that sets it apart.

The stated reason why SD cards cannot be included is that the case does not allow it. So use a different case? Do you really think your customers care more about a flashy metal "premium" (your words) case than having a device that lasts more than a year or two and has an SD card? I'm disappointed that Pine would even put their brand on a device like this.
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#2
Your issue appears to come down to being too inept to flash the eMMC over USB, which is a you-problem. If you think "So use a different case?" is actually possible, you clearly do not understand how much tooling for things like these costs.

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#3
(08-04-2022, 08:31 AM)pinesucker Wrote: I'm in the market for an E-Reader, so I was excited to see the PineNote listed.
My excitement has dropped to 0 after seeing the specs and price.
Non-removable battery?
No SD card?
Who is your target audience??
No Linux enthusiast wants a throwaway device that's locked to internal memory only. $400?
That is totally uncompetitive with existing Android E-Readers.
And without removable battery and SD card the PineNote has nothing that sets it apart.

I AGREE

And I would add, SMB upgradeability and 
even a "only screen" model to atach or as BT / WiFi device to connect to a phone would be better, cheaper, and would have more sells.

And if possible color e-ink BT / WiFi devices with a cheaper 8" model and the 10+" one.
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#4
I would absolutely be interested in a model with an SD card reader, or one that costs less, but despite having immature and very limited software, I'm happy to have picked this up, because it helps encourage PINE64 to innovate (and puts me in a great position to be one of the first people to try new Linux builds for it). I had read that some hardware changes were already planned, I'd hope that I'll be able to do something with this in time, even if not necessarily something I'd expect.

This device is not like an ordinary e-reader. It is far more powerful than most, and it's more of a hobbyist/developer platform for open linux e-reader development than a mass market retail device. Obviously that's not for everyone. I haven't been able to do much with mine yet but I do like how nice the build looks, even if it limits some of the potential applications.
------
it doesn't get happy
it doesn't get sad
it just runs programs
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#5
I had thought that I might be part of the target audience of the Pine Note because I own a Remarkable writing tablet, one which I get much daily use from, but at the same time I am frustrated with because I cannot modify its software AND because every once in a while Remarkable will, without asking, automatically upgrade its software and change how it works.

I find the Remarkable tablet useful because I can use it in sunlight, because it is easy on the eyes, because it has a long battery life, because it is set up to read and annotate pdf's and epubs, because it is lightweight, compact, and portable. It gets considerable use.

However, if Remarkable should decide to impliment DRM on my tablet I would be stuck with DRM on my writing tablet. In the past as they improved the software I lost the ability to reliably load EPUB and pdf files to the tablet through a usb cable. Instead the files were to be added to the tablet through the net using a system called Connect. I have declined to use Connect because in order to use it I need to sign an agreement that I will not use it to upload illegal files to the tablet. The alternative is to use a webpage that does not question the legality of my files but limits the size of the files that can be uploaded to 100M. Why should I need to transfer files from a computer to the tablet through the net? (As I am far from rich and I spend much of my time in research I cannot afford to purchase the all the files that I need to peruse and study, sometimes only for a brief look at a file to see if it might be useful). I can easily split files larger than 100M and upload the parts to the Remarkable, but I cannot reassemble them on the Remarkable because the linux system on the tablet is locked down. No command line. No way to add software. And in many ways the Remarkable's user interface is slow, restricted, and awkward, and I cannot change that. I impatiently wait for the Pine Note to become available again.
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#6
(08-12-2023, 11:26 AM)RandB Wrote: when your toilet tries to connect to your phone`s wifi

You succintly summarized why we need FOSS. And now, FOSH.
I have seen, over time, more and more products (and also, even, public services) falling into the delirious mania you just described.

I was once uncaring about hardware. But my eyes have been opened that it is the final frontier we must breach to liberate the world from totalitarian overreach.
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