jakfish

Minimal developers (which may prove to be the ultimate appellation for this project) announced they were meeting with Chinese factories on April 12, but have posted no further progress, other than the hiring of tech honcho Simon Brooks, who appears to be a living person, always good. I'd be interested in reading their discord subforum, but apparently, one needs an invite. Is there any way to lurk uninvited in Discord?

Are they available on wayback? Edit: nm. @EskeRahn already suggested such in original post.

Even in my mind, I can't type that fast.

Usually, foreigners vying in someone else's backyard is a playbook for difficulty. Certainly, Planet Computer would agree. Mr. Chen may be native Chinese, I don't know, but the company is based in England, just like Planet, and all that back-and-forth to another country is expensive and can result in industrial obfuscation (I often wondered if anyone at Planet spoke Chinese). Planet also failed because they changed their form factor with every iteration, so the phone was always beta. At least, fxtec tried to improve their original model rather than constantly reinventing the wheel.

What great work. My own fishing line has stayed within its original length, no noticeable stretching. Over at hpcfactor.com, there's a similar exploration: https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=21351&posts=13 Jake

This is so much fun to watch unfold (so to speak). Thanks for keeping the forum posted.

My Minimal is coming with a 2024 Cadillac Seville. After years of Hondas, it'll be good to drive American again. Seriously, though, I'm glad they made and I'll be watching their progress throughout.

I just returned from their Update section: backers are now getting doubled storage (256gb) and a wireless charger. Next up: the phone comes with a built-in icemaker and world peace 🙂

I've been following this as well, and I'm almost positive that, if needed, the developers are going to pony up some of their own money, under the guise of new backers, to make the $500Kusd. It would have a certain Machiavellian sense. I went back and forth about buying a perk, but as @Hook says, there are mounting questions and fewer answers. But I hope the endeavor is legit and should it come to actual fruition, I'd probably buy retail.

Brought my pondering over to discord/pocket titan, and developer rumplestilzken, who very much supports the Minimal sans actual funds, says the reason for the still shots in the videos is because they still don't have working prototype. Yeesh.

Good call.

Yeah, if you examine the "real-time" use in the videos, it's a quick shot of something before the user quickly puts the phone in their pocket. Funny, you should mention the new $325 perk. A search brought up a webpage extolling the phone along with a link for $325, as if the webpage/site were running its own promo. Hmm... Agreed, as well, that August '24 shipments are just that, a dream.

IGG Minimum is picking up the pace toward its 500K goal. They're at 70%. It does appear that current monies are in escrow and would be returned to the backers should the goal remain unmet. If I operate on the assumption that it's not vaporware and the developers are legit, I'm still left with my questions about the prototype, mainly, why don't the demos show more action? There are only seemingly still frames of use, not real-time use. So I can't tell if they're simply pictures pasted on the phone's screen. If Minimal gets close to its financial needs and they release a new video of t

Not to keep flogging a dead horse, but at the Minimal IGG, they have a "fixed goal"--"This campaign will only receive funds if at least $500,000 USD is raised by its deadline." Not certain if Minimal can produce phone without $500Kusd investment, but does that mean current backers' $ is to be returned if goal not reached? Confused by the IGG world...

@HookWow. Thanks for the update. Yeah, that's a precipice that I don't want to jump off. Bummer, bummer, as I would buy that phone in a second, given my lack of need for social media, and the general pleasure of such a screen and kb. If it looks like a duck, and talks like a...

This was my rig. I pulled the custom shell for S5 to substitute a Pixel 4a, and the fishing line is my own primitive workaround to keep it from flipping over. The type on the handle are my key remappings for em dashes, etc.

A most excellent arrangement, and thanks for the imurgs (I was wondering how you would make actual calls, and your pix explain). When I had a Galaxy S5, I found a laptop-ish bt kb for it: a shell built for the S5, and it swung open for typing or you could put the kb against the phone's back for calling, etc. The kb was pretty spongy and I must admit I didn't use it much past proof-of-concept. Your rig seems more useful.

I am so tempted by this device, since I don't use social media or video on my Titan Pocket, and I would love to try that kb. I wonder how something like TextMaker would look on e-ink... But @Hook is very right--they're not remotely close to their $ goal and time is short. I watched their videos, they SEEM like good folks.

On the comment sections--which shows my interest in this thing--there's a fight about its legitimacy. A backer says he and another were banned by reddit moderators for bringing up the developers' past failures and the backer makes similar warnings often found on these crowd-funded projects. It needs a grain of salt, I imagine, but food for thought, not to mention mixed metaphors 🙂 I myself won't put money down now; I would need an actual user's experience to verify that certain key apps could run successfully. But I remain intrigued.

@Hook That's a great find. I very much like the Kindle-ish screen and the tactile kb. Agree, though: it sounds proof-of-concept more than ready-to-rock. I respect their openness that this is a dicey adventure. Price is right, too. If it were Amazon retail, with some user history, I'd be all in.

@Rob. S. An honest write-up of the Slim and its pros and cons. I've been daily driving my Pocket since September and it has not failed me once, phone-wise. Callers can actually hear me--who knew! That said, the square screen can make some internet sites difficult and I'm actually drifting to the idea of a Slim because I stink at typing regardless of the kb and the Slim's rectangular display would probably be an easier thing when browsing. I imagine we will all end up with foldable phones. I've yet to trust the current hardware, but it's bound to become standard. As usual, the more th

That is really too bad. I think my GPD MPC 6" computer has the same battery issue--I've read similar complaints, but at least that battery is relatively easy to pull and replace.

Intriguing idea. For proof of concept, I once ran Windows ARM on a Raspberry 3b+. Dreadfully slow, but it did work--the Lumia seems more responsive. I wonder--if you were running Linux on a Pro1--if a x86 debian container might be easier. I run this on a PinePhone/Manjaro/xfce desktop, and with the container, I can use my beloved MS Word 97 and HanDBase, x-86 programs that I'm not certain would run on Arm, but maybe they would...

This is very intriguing, even to a hardware neophyte like myself. From the last battery link, I'm looking at the connectors--are they the correct ones for fxtec, or is there soldering to be done? Jake

He'd certainly be busy 🙂