The hardware hacker who brought us the Novena open laptop, the NeTV2 open video development board, and the Chumby, is preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign for a new open hardware device called Precursor.

The goal is to provide a handheld development platform that’s fully hackable and configurable. According developer bunnie Huang, the device has an FPGA which can be programmed to emulate a variety of low-power processors and of the hardware can be inspected, understood, and hacked by a single (knowledgeable) user.

Precursor may not be powerful enough to replace a modern smartphone, but Huang says it has more horsepower than a Palm Pilot or Nintendo DS. Just keep in mind, this thing is aimed at developers and hardware hackers, not end users.

It’s still pretty cool looking though.

Pricing and availability haven’t been announced yet, but more details should be available via the Precursor Crowd Supply page soon.

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5 replies on “Lilbits: A new mobile, open hardware device”

  1. Anyone have any news of a One Mix 4? I was thinking of getting the OneGX1 LTE but I ended up changing my mind. The gamer aesthetic is just too ugly for me to look. I just can’t understand why so many gamers like these kinds of looks.

    Anyway, hoping to see a One Mix 4 LTE with Tiger Lake.

  2. I wonder if the specs for the A1 have been finalized. I like the port selection except for the HDMI. Surprised they didn’t use a full sized HDMI port.

    1. The A1 seems to be one of the interesting upcoming UMPCs. Yeah, the mini/micro HDMI port seems out of place with those other full-sized ports.

      I wonder if One Netbook is also planning to release a new One Mix model as well. Still hoping they’ll get LTE officially into their One Mix line.

      1. Been waiting for any news about a new One Mix ever since they said they’re trying to get LTE built-in and resolve signal strength issues. I wonder if their next one (One Mix 4?) will have it as an option.

        I know someone on the internet is selling hacked in LTE of some of the 2 and 3 variants but I’m not sure about getting those.

        1. There have been a few successful cases of people hacking into 4G via man-in-the-middle attacks (MITM). but it is much more difficult to hack than public Wi-Fi, which attackers mainly have their sights set on.

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