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Handheld Computers Anonymous 02/22/2020 (Sat) 06:22:49 No.1789
What is /tech/'s opinion on devices like the Smach Z and the GPD Win series and their potential for software freedom? On the one hand, having the same functionality as a laptop packed into the size of a handlend system like the 3ds could potentially let you do some pretty cool stuff. One blog I saw talked about putting Kali Linux on a GPD Win 2 and using it as a more subtle tool for wardrivng, for example. But on the other hand, they're still (((modern hardware))) so they're probably backdoored to hell and back at the very and won't be able to be 100% pozz free anytime soon absent some firmware-flashing breakthrough. Any recommendations/advice? Where I can get one firsthand in particular? I was thinking about getting one and maybe trying to install something like Retroarch on it to emulate older vidya on the go. Maybe sort through text/images/etc with /k/ and /pol/ stuff too, but that might be a bit risky w/o any idea of what kind of backdoors might be hiding. But I didn't have any luck finding anything available online the last time i tried that wasn't a secondhand offer and I'm not interested in chancing get broken shit I can't fix at a price tag of hundreds of dollars.
Open file (89.97 KB 799x533 GPD Win.jpg)
>image didn't stay attached after having to allow cookies/js to post Fucking palememe 27.9.4 and this redirect error bullshit I keep having on this machine.
>>1789 Make one, it's not hard.
SMACH Z and GPD Win series are pointless to me, especially considering their price. Most PC games aren't suitable to play with controllers analog sticks, and you would need to install (((Windows))) to play them. RAM capacity is also a big problem in GPD Win, as Win 10 idles around 1.5 GB of RAM after a fresh install. Just get an used PS Vita Slim or New 3DS XL, and install homebrew like HENkaku. https://vita.hacks.guide/ https://3ds.hacks.guide/ It's cheaper and better this way, because you're not only getting a neat emulation device, but you can also play exclusive titles for Vita and 3DS/N3DS.
>>1791 Show me yours.
>>1803 >3d print case >buy oshw sbc >buy battery >buy chink usb tiny keyboard >buy screen module >put them together
Seems like you're either stuck with early netbooks or something like the old Toshiba librettos. The latter of which are probably old enough to run old games natively.
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>>1789 Not exactly relevant, I just want to add content to this dead board. I waiting for a few more runs of Pine64's Pinephone for them to work out the kinks.
>>1872 >Actually believing anything the trannies on yospos say
>>1790 These things must heat up like a motherfucker. Too bad we'll never get one with a decent ARM cpu
>>1876 Most decent cpus are botnet.
>>1790 >last based version based >>1789 Define a computer, I think if we are dealing with handhelds then we can say that even a modern phone would do. But why, or why not? Are we dealing with: >anonymity - (((botnet))) (OS/app-level spywares) >hardware - (((bugged))) (backdoored or backdoorable thru DMA attacks) >beaconless - (((beaconful))) (bt/wlan/GNSS/bands) Above shows the polarities, to the left is preferred though it is a matter of sacrificing performance as the more modern the more bot/bugs/beacons. It doesn't matter if it is (((modern hardware))) or not, even most recent desktops have bugged bios, and especially the CPU. Anonymity is another topic, but goes hand in hand with how bugged the system is. Let's say you have a Nokia 8110 4G running a free-er Gerda version but there might still be blobs for beacons like GNSS/GSM/4G. The minimal requirement for Anonymity is WiFi and yeah, wifi is cool and at least very hackable unlike every beacon. >what use is anonymity if you don't even exist in a network There's already tons of Alpine based PostmarketOS devices out there for this kind without the need for blobs. A bananaphone (the nokia one) can manually change IMEI which makes sense if you want to anonymize your SIM usage and still have a sense of anonymity while enjoying the benefits of SMS (as these days, most normshit accounts require SMS verification, Steam games, email, social media). >I perceive those more as a vector of information than for normshit usage. limiting your own accesses (to say exclusively irc, self hosting, and browsing only one imageboard for fucking life) only limits your opportunities or abilities Now moving back to the polarities, most of the reason behind having a handheld computer is: >it's cool and useful but sometimes it's those cyberpunk fashion/hobby with no real usage than cosplaying or larp convention >you can do many things though android already does those lots although bugged/beaconed - there are copperhead/graphene and other distros for that Then with this in mind, I would say even a 10" AOD270 would do in usability/portability's case. You'll have all that battery life and computing power, blobless wifi, possibly beaconed processor though. We can go smaller than 10" but this reduces the productivity of a full-sized qwerty. And as we go smaller the price also grows exponentially and loses the ability for "replacement parts". Other problems to deal with: >does it have blobless beacons (RIL) >does it use free GPU (etnaviv/lima) >is it mainline / have available packages? >are parts replaceable and available?
Open file (51.46 KB 500x500 pc110.jpg)
>>1806 it's not that simple, I've looked into it, the packaging will be hard. first, I can't find any keyboards that are just the right size. either they're miniscule, or netbook sized, not palmtop sized. Also a lot of them are bluetooth with no USB connection so you'd have to do a bunch of stuff to wire it properly. so it seems to me that at least for the keyboard you'd have to do it yourself, this shouldn't be terribly hard if you can use some perfboard or something. They have tutorials online to wire up a matrix keyboard so it's doable, you would have to source push buttons and we would have to find out what kind make the best keys for typing on. >>1894 if you're at 10" that's already a netbook size anyway so I wouldn't really call it a handheld. IMO if you could make a PC110 clone with newer hardware it would be just about perfect. one thing that sucks is all the small screens are lame 16:9 bullshit. I think making one is doable but it will take a lot of design, I don't think it's easy to throw together, at least not anything that will look and feel good.
Yeah I looked on digikey and screens are pretty expensive, usually about $40. Unfortunately they're all touchscreen garbage, but I guess with a stylus it would be alright. also, most of the ones in the 5" range are 800x480 turds. I don't even know if that is going to be usable on most websites. Maybe just barely. Unless you want to spend $160 for the 800x600 screens on there.
Why not use something similar to a raspberry pi? Are they insecure?
>>1789 I remember open handhelds were a big craze in the 2000s, shit like the Canoo and pandora. Most of those devices aren't being made anymore though, and they were almost entirely suited to playing games(no keyboard or mouse-replacement except for like the pandora).
>>2323 Try Alibaba. Chinks have all kinds of gadget and second hand screens. They should be able to modify a tiny remote media keyboard to wired at a low cost.

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