The Psion Series 5 line of PDAs released in the late 90s looked like tiny laptop computers, complete with QWERTY keyboards laid out in a way that even let you touch-type on a device small enough to fold in half and put in your pocket.
While they never really became as popular as the smartphones, tablets, and other portable computing devices that launched in the years to come, they developed a cult following and some folks still collect them… or try to find new uses for old ones. Case in point: Kian Ryan figured out how to get a Raspberry PI Zero to communicate with a Psion Series 5mx, effectively turning it into a retro device with support for running modern Linux software.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
A Psion 5MX PDA and Raspberry Pi Zero join forces to become a modern handheld Linux computer with a touch-type QWERTY keyboard, a sunlight readable display (and some extra wires & adapters hanging out). https://t.co/WVb5qqDE9V
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) June 15, 2022
BeagleBone AI-64 is a single-board computer with 2 ARM Cortex-A72 CPU cores, 6 Cortex-R5F cores, an 8 TOPS AI accelerator, 4GB of RAM, and a bunch of connectors. Hardware design files and documentation are available, and the board sells for under $200 https://t.co/YH28XAq3S9
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) June 15, 2022
EU court overturns a 2018 ruling that fined Qualcomm a billion Euros for antitrust violations (the company allegedly pressured Apple into using its LTE chips for iPhones and iPads). https://t.co/lultjvutNv
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) June 15, 2022
Release 0.6.6 of @biktorgj‘s excellent alternative pinephone modem firmware is out: https://t.co/13YCJn27L5
— postmarketOS (@postmarketOS) June 14, 2022
How to update the modem firmware on the #pinephone:https://t.co/RfX7hHgQby
— Martijn Braam (@braam_martijn) June 15, 2022
Keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Twitter and Facebook and follow @LinuxSmartphone on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news on open source mobile phones.
Oh. I thought that MX5 mod was self contained… This is much less interesting, basically a serial connection and a telnet client. On these grounds my IBM 3151 terminal is a supercomputer since I can just SSH into it. Now I’m not that keen on gutting a perfectly fine retro machine, so I think the MX5 has a CF slot. Try to squeeze a small linux SBC there and connect to that! With the added bandwidth maybe try to run an X.org client too and an X-server on the SBC to get a GUI! Also WiFi.
Cute Psion 5MX meets a Raspberry Pi, but just put a keyboard case on a Smartphone.
yes i dreaming about good mechanical keyboard (chocolate, meybe 60%) psion 5 or sony vaio P enclosure (wide screen) and week working time on one charge
look this https://jm.iq.pl/psion-5mx-z-linuxem-na-pokladzie/ days on 2*AA but cpu slow
MNT Pocket Reform
https://tuxphones.com/mnt-pocketreform-open-hardware-linux-pda-keyboard-arm/
https://penkesu.computer/ yes but too fat for every pocket 😉
similar https://1netbook.com/onemix/ but wide screen
and ALT-GR on right for my language