PineTab-V and PineTab2 launch | Hacker News Reader

PineTab-V and PineTab2 launch

pine64.org

22 pointsrichardboegli10 comments

Looks pretty awesome!

What keeps me away from actually buying their stuff is the software ecosystem. Linux is great for development work, OK for everything else desktop-ish, but like 100 miles behind Android.

If they started moving into IoT, and had replacements for the whole Google Home/Assistant/Cloud/Keep ecosystem, maybe, but then there's still games, banking apps, NFC payments, and things like that which probably aren't going to work that well.

I hope they succeed, they seem to be the most promising FOSS friendly company out there, but I wonder if they wouldn't be better off focusing on the bottom up before jumping into phones and tablets. Pinecil looks to be the best iron out there.

Or maybe the phones and tablets are exactly what they need to get people excited, I'm sure not a business major!

Waydroid lets you run Android apps on Linux, which helps close the gap between these software ecosystems.

https://waydro.id

Since Android apps are mostly built for ARM, this is currently more of a benefit for the PineTab2 than the PineTab-V.

I'd still expect lots of issues considering Google probably doesn't really want their cloud services used on open devices even if people manage to make it work

I've tried Waydroid on a phone running Ubuntu Touch. Games perform very well and most FOSS apps work great. SafetyNet causes issues for the proprietary apps that require it, but even in its current state, Waydroid already makes the leap to Linux from Android much easier.

Both tablets feature a 1200×800 10.1” IPS LCD panel

At $159 the price is good but without a better display I am not so sure it will be as useful.

This is indeed awful. 10.1" is quite large for a tablet, yet not even 1080p.

> pre-orders begin on April 13th

PineTab2: ARM, working software, solid Linux support, established community

PineTab-V: RISC-V SoC, experimental, for developers

I am sad about PineTab2 even existing.

It betrays their lack of commitment to the standard ISA.

Can you elaborate on this? I'm interested in the pinetab 2 and already own a pinebook.

When will they offer a retina screen resolution?

My Google Nexus 10, still running strong from more than a decade ago, has a 300dpi screen.

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