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Comment by atdrummond | Hacker News Reader

I loved my Psions.

I truly miss having a smaller form factor computer. If I could possibly an iPhone with an attached physical keyboard, I’m certain that I could do a huge amount of work that I presently do with my laptop. (I know I can get an external keyboard but there’s something far more useful and satisfying about a properly integrated device.)

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The Era of the PDA was completely different and IMHO superior era to today's hyperconnected smartphones.

Yes, today's iPhones and Android devices do much much more, but the devices of older days were much more polished, to the point and streamlined.

iPhone is a great evolution of Palm hardware and design philosophy, but the gamification kills most applications, and oh, the notifications too. Glad that most of the useless notifications are turned off, so I can get some battery life and my attention back.

I completely agree. I’ve done quite a bit to get my phone experience to a useful level but it’s required a level of customization and careful use to create an experience that simply existed properly, out of the box, with the purposeful PDA operating systems of the 90s.

There do exist things like the Gemini and the Astro Slide, which I've always looked at as a potential replacement, but they always seem to just miss the mark. The closest I've come to the same sort of experience was the Nokia N900, which was remarkable in a lot of ways.

I'm still waiting for delivery on the Astro Slide after ordering it over a year ago. As it was on IndieGogo, I can't even get my money back.

Probably best to avoid Planet Computers - they lie about availability and delivery dates.

My contribution for Astro Slide is dated Oct. 2020. They've locked my contribution, so I consider it money burnt. While I was still naively waiting for it to come, I held on to my Gemini PDA for so long, even after its battery had bulged to the point that the back panel covering it had dislodged. After all the troubles it had caused me, I decided to give it up and get a normal smartphone instead. Life has been much better since then.

Same date here, but I don't even think they locked mine. I did give up too, but not on physical keyboard phones. I bought a unihertz titan pocket and I love it.

Keyboard is great despite the top row that is really weird coming from blackberry (but I guess it's because of B patents..). Form factor is weird but I actually like having a small phone, and it's ok for most of my use cases.

I see the Astro Slide 5G is 'NEW - JUST LAUNCHED! PRE-ORDER NOW TO SECURE YOUR PLACE IN THE ORDER LIST!' '£982.80 inc VAT' 'STOCK EXP. JULY 2023'

IANAL, but one might be interested in talking to the class of people who didn't get their purchased product from a company that is apparently mere weeks away from shipping the next revision of it.

The Nokia N950, which only made to a development edition, was much better. Unfortunately, mine met with a watery end.

I have a Gemini. The keyboard - you know, the main selling point - as often as not just goes 'thud' when you try to press a key rather than depressing and registering. The software was abandoned in a half-assed state after one revision. They strung me along for a good 6 months on shipping the USB-C hub and case post-Gemini delivery until I finally told them I was willing to give up on one of the two if they'd just send the other, at which point they magically and suddenly had both and shipped both. The USB-C dock-hub arrived non-functional and with something rattling around inside. It was some cheap AliExpress-grade crap anyway, so I dumped it, but those were early days for USB-C docks so I didn't know at the time. I declined to invest in a camera. I used it to edit a CV once on a plane to London. I did get the job. I guess that was worth the price of admission. It's no Psion, though!

I still have my Gemini and use it regularly. Its keyboard is not merely fine but as good as money can buy from any vendor in the 21st century.

This, for example, was entirely written on my Gemini:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/05/rust_kernel_pull_requ...

My Planet hub is in frequent use and, for example, was used in the creation of all 3 of these articles:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/10/thinkpad_x1c_g10_linu...

https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/21/lenovo_thinkpad_x13s_...

https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/23/lenovo_thinkpad_z13/

None would have happened without it, in fact.

When I wrote to Planet complaining that my keys so frequently rotated in their sockets that they would often entirely fail to depress, their response was that I should wiggle them a bit.

I'm glad you like yours. I don't. Disappointment from delayed beginning to ignominious end.

I do wonder at such wildly divergent experiences.

It was a fairly small production run, I am reasonably confident, so it seems very odd that some units should be well made with no major flaws, and others apparently awfully shoddy.

Ah well. Sorry you had a bad time. I love mine and am considering buying a 2nd to try Sailfish on, and maybe a spare, too.

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