• aMockTie@piefed.world
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    10 hours ago

    I don’t need it… I don’t need it… I don’t need it… I don’t need it…

    (M.2/NVMe, LTE and 5G, GPIO)

    I don’t…

    (Planned support for LoRa, Meshtastic, and FPGAs)

    I…

    (Everything open source, useful for me at work, employer will pay for)

    Sold!

    It doesn’t seem to be especially performant for games based on the videos they’ve put out, but a solid handheld with these specific features, and separate from my mission critical work android phone will hopefully be very useful.

    • CarrotsHaveEars@lemmy.ml
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      4 hours ago

      No. You don’t need it.

      Just get a used ThinkPad for work, and whichever handheld game console if you want to play while on a trip.

      Run Linux on ThinkPad. It’s open source too.

      • aMockTie@piefed.world
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        3 hours ago

        I already have a work laptop running Linux, but it doesn’t support GPIO or LoRa without additional dongles/accessories. Working on industrial equipment while occasionally in remote locations, makes this device appealing to me specifically.

        I’m also fortunate to have my employer willing to foot the bill, especially when they can also see the utility of this device in our line of work.

        If you don’t work in this specific niche, your mileage will obviously vary.

        • CarrotsHaveEars@lemmy.ml
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          3 hours ago

          Great! Go for it then.

          I don’t know what’s LoRa though, but can’t you just plug an Arduino board to the computer’s USB port and get a bunch of GPIOs? It’s cheap. It’s durable.

          • aMockTie@piefed.world
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            3 hours ago

            Already done!

            LoRa is a low power radio communication protocol that is very useful for warehouse and farming equipment, among many other things. I currently use ESP32s for GPIO, LoRa, and Wifi, and occasionally FPGAs for various tasks. But ad-hoc testing and diagnosis can be a pain for these devices, requiring multiple different dongles, power adapters, and converters.

            If I can consolidate 75% of that gear into a single, handheld device, it will easily pay for itself in productivity gains.