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The Year in Crowdfunded PCs: Who Succeeded? Who Failed? (zdnet.com)
Sean Portnoy, writing for ZDNet: The ever-maturing PC industry hasn't deterred manufacturers large and small from embracing crowdfunding as a method of bringing new systems to market, whether they need the funds to produce their new product, or just want to gain publicity and guarantee some upfront sales. Not every launch on Kickstarter or one of its rivals is a roaring success, but enough are to keep the campaigns coming. It was no different in 2017, as several companies offered new devices for crowdfunding, although some of them were clearly drawing inspiration from the past. That includes the Gemini, which answers the question: What would a PDA look like in a world filled with smartphones that have essentially replaced it? That answer is a clam-shell handheld with a physical keyboard, 5.99-inch screen, and Android and Linux dual-boot capability (along with built-in Wi-Fi and 4G option to keep up with the times).
As unlikely as you might think such a device would be attractive in a world of iPhones, tablets, Chromebooks, and other portables, the company behind the Gemini, UK startup Planet Computers, easily surpassed its campaign target on IndieGogo, raising over $1.1 million. Another tiny computer, the GPD Pocket, doesn't look all that different from the Gemini, though it doesn't try to market itself specifically as a PDA. Instead, parent company GamePad Digital (or GPD) defines it as a 7-inch Windows laptop, complete with 8GB of RAM, 128GB solid-state drive, and full HD touchscreen. The list goes on.
As unlikely as you might think such a device would be attractive in a world of iPhones, tablets, Chromebooks, and other portables, the company behind the Gemini, UK startup Planet Computers, easily surpassed its campaign target on IndieGogo, raising over $1.1 million. Another tiny computer, the GPD Pocket, doesn't look all that different from the Gemini, though it doesn't try to market itself specifically as a PDA. Instead, parent company GamePad Digital (or GPD) defines it as a 7-inch Windows laptop, complete with 8GB of RAM, 128GB solid-state drive, and full HD touchscreen. The list goes on.
GPD pocket is a nice idea, basically tablet designed for use with a keyboard. I find touchscreen typing or voice entry to be onerous, so this is a cool device. Only question is, will it run Ubuntu, or would I be stuck with Win 10 if I buy it? And I'm not in love with the nipple-mouse placement -- should be more central to the keyboard, not the very edge (IMHO).
The year in crowdfunded palmtops.
There are no PCs involved in this article.
Fail, fail.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
While they may had gotten crowd funded, it doesn't guarantee success in the long term.
A lot of these designs seems to bring back a slightly updated version of an old design. Sometimes this works, but often it fails miserably. Because these nostalgic features that were removed, were often removed for a good reason. And the people who want this feature returned are such a small group that they cannot sell enough to keep the business going.
Yes sometimes a winner will come out. But often with the change of technology the way we use it has changed as well. So such a nostalgic feature isn't as needed as we really thought it was.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Grow up. Also, nobody criticized people for being white, so the tone of your post suggests you might be a white supremacist.
... when you can use other people’s money with no strings attached?
#DeleteChrome
He's obviously trolling. I suspect the tone of the thread-starting-post keyed him off to the SJW status of the poster. So, he threw in the "okay to be white" comment as a Scanners-like plot to cause their head to explode. You took the bait and it worked great for him.
However, the point is that racial issues are not coupled with software and programming topics. This idea that any SJW has the right to trample on someone's work or ideas because they disagree with their unrelated ideals as a person isn't acceptable to everyone. People have value systems that weight different issues. That includes how much someone feels like taking up the sword of racial justice versus doing something else that they think is important. Not everyone gives a flying fuck about your cause and they won't acquiesce to trying to couple things they care about to your stupid politics. Put more bluntly: some people don't give a fuck and that's their right.
OMG - APK said BLACK WTF?
One project I've been watching (late as usual) is the Superbook (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-superbook-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-laptop-f)
It looks like a small laptop with a screen and keyboard but it has no brains. It uses your smartphone as the brains and more importantly, storage for all you stuff. It has a battery to charge your phone and run the Superbook.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Who succeeded? The charlatans who got the money.
Who failed? The suckers who gave it to them.
Next!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Theses palmtops/netbooks have limited appeal on the wider consumer market. The GPD Pocket costs ~$400 to $500 for an Atom CPU and 7-inch screen.
But the major manufacturers sell basic 11-inch laptops in the $200 range (sometimes less if on discount). And for a similar price to the GPD Pocket you get better CPUs and larger screens.
Damn it all, does the world *really* need more pocket-sized computers? I'm still waiting for modular, user-upgradeable large DTR laptop to appear. I'm so sick of having to upgrade entire machines, or use a desktop if I want to game (since I certainly can't afford a gaming DTR.)
I understand that most people these days desire sleek, disposable ultrabook crap with soldiered CPUs and GPUs and disposable proprietary batteries, but surely I'm not the only one who'd love to seesomething like this? Doesn't anyone do LAN parties any more? It could use miniITX; hell, the thing could be half a foot think and use a standard ATX power supply and weigh 17 pounds for all I care, just as long as it has an integrated screen, cheap commodity battery (for UPS purposes only, not for sustained use) and keyboard (pref with user-swappable mechanical switches) and can be carried in a bag with one hand...
Wish we had some sort of site to vote for crowdfunded things that no one has even proposed yet, just to demonstrate the interest.
Every laptop comes with a fixed, built-in keyboard. You can't change it, alter it, or do much of anything to it (other than replace it with an identical keyboard). However, there are hundreds of possible layouts for different target demographics. The hot-swappable laptop keyboard is the next revolution in laptop design...only that laptop manufacturers are either too stubborn or too stupid to attempt it. "Why would anyone want full size arrow keys as well as Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, Insert, and Delete?" I dunno...maybe to move the keyboard caret on the screen because they are writing software?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jornada_(PDA)#Jornada_680
There appear to be more of US then there are of you.
It's just that simple. If the market really had demonstrated that a large number of people really wanted to swap out their CPUs (assuming they had any idea what they were) or add RAM (What? A truck?) or any of the other geeky things that tickle you, we'd see them.
You are hiding in an incredibly small niche. That's fine and dandy, even potentially uplifting.
But it's not profitable.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
It's just that simple. If the market really had demonstrated that a large number of people really wanted to swap out their CPUs (assuming they had any idea what they were) or add RAM (What? A truck?) or any of the other geeky things that tickle you, we'd see them.
The GPU and battery are the major ones, of course.
You are hiding in an incredibly small niche.
1. Have you SEEN some of the niche-y shit that's succeeded on Kickstarter?
2. Better yet: have you SEEN the kinds of crap keyboard enthusiasts get up to at places like Geekhack, Deskthority and Massdrop? Ludicrous custom keycaps, recreating 30 year old buckle spring keyboards, modding Cherry MX switches by hand and then reselling them, successfully lobbying Cherry and Gateron to produce new switch types, people paying $700 for vintage beam spring keyboards or the fabled ALPS blues...
3. People who LAN party but can't afford a DTR laptop is not *that* small of a niche. (Not that I LAN any more; I just want a more powerful and more capable machine that I can easily move around and customize.) Let me tell you, it's a major pain in the ass to have to wrestle an ATX tower, LCD, keyboard and mass of cables into a trunk. And then if someone trips over a cord or you have a tiny flicker of a brownout, you're reset. (Unless you brought along a 10 pound UPS with you as well.)
What I'm describing could be done with off the shelf parts. It should be considerably easier for someone who had the right connections to put together than a palm-sized device. There is also precedence for it; a very long time ago (before my time), there used to be something called a "luggable" in the days before laptops were practical. And people bought them.
Are you poor? Maybe I didn't make it clear enough: I'm poor. Poor geeks do actually exist and we do appreciate things being less-disposable. There are probably more of us than there are of you, though I grant you not all of us would be willing to put up with a DTR lapzilla like I'm envisioning.
If the market really had demonstrated that a large number of people really wanted to swap out their CPUs (assuming they had any idea what they were) or add RAM (What? A truck?) or any of the other geeky things that tickle you, we'd see them.
"If people really wanted to have cameras in their phones, we'd have seen them by now"--ColdWetDog in 2001.
It wouldn't be quite *that* popular but I'm almost positive PC gamers alone could make it profitable.
What you are looking for a is a "Lunchbox PC". Think of it as a small tower PC with a screen and foldout keyboard attached to the side. There are a few companies making them. As a very niche product they are expensive, and they are aimed more at industrial users who want something they can lug around with a bunch of hardware interface cards crammed inside of them, but I don't see any reason why one couldn't be made into a gaming PC if you wanted.