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Is Pine64’s open hardware losing its luster?

Pine64 has released some of the most interesting hardware aimed at open source enthusiasts in recent years, not necessarily because it’s the best hardware available, but because it’s cheap. PinePhone prices start at $150. The PineBook Pro Linux laptop sells for $220. And the PineTime smartwatch is just $27. Part of the reason Pine64 can take […]

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Lilbits: The $219 Pinebook Pro Linux laptop returns, GNOME is becoming more mobile-friendly, and Google Pixel 7 prototypes in the wild

It’s been a few years since Pine64 began shipping the PineBook Pro laptop to customers looking for a cheap, Linux-friendly notebook with an ARM-based processor. But due to global supply chain issues, it’s been out of stock at the Pine64 Store for most of the past year. Now it’s coming back and should be available […]

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Lilbits: Intel’s Adaptive Boost for Rocket Lake chips, Android 11 for Chromebooks, PinePhone Beta Edition

This week Intel introduced its new 11th-gen desktop processors, code-named Rocket Lake-S. Set to hit the streets at the end of the month, the new processors are manufactured using a 14nm process rather than the 10nm process the company uses for most of its recent laptop chips. But Intel is still promising a modest boost […]

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Lilbits: Google acquires company that lets you turn Windows PCs into Chromebooks (and other recent tech news)

A company called Neverware has been offering software called CloudReady that lets you turn old computers into pseudo Chromebooks since 2015. But in order to do that, the company has been using software based on Chromium OS, the open source version of Chrome OS. Now Google has acquired the company and, among other things, that […]

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Lilbits: ARM computers, Linux phones, and the Pixel 2 rides off into the sunset

After rocking a Google Pixel 2 as my primary smartphone for the past three years, I took advantage of a Google Fi Black Friday promotion and traded in my phone for a brand new Pixel 4a 5G for $298 after trade-in. There were two reasons I decided the time was right to upgrade. First, my […]

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Lilbits: Getting what you pay for with enthusiast-grade hardware

Pine64 has produced some of the most interesting hardware aimed at open source enthusiasts over the past few years. They’re not exactly high-performance machines, but what they are is cheap – among other things, Pine64 sells Linux smartphones for as little as $150 and Linux laptops for as little as $100. Those low prices, combined with […]

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Lilbits: Computing convergence, another streaming platform, and DDR5

It’s been 7 years since Canonical failed to raise meet its crowdfunding goals for the Ubuntu Edge smartphone that was supposed to be a phone you could also use as a desktop computer thanks to “convergence,” which is a fancy way of saying you could plug in a keyboard, mouse, and display and use it like […]

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PineTab Linux tablet goes up for pre-order this month for $100

The next inexpensive, Linux-friendly device from Pine64 is coming soon. The company already sells a $100 PineBook laptop and a $200 PineBook Pro. Early batches of the $150 PinePhone are available for customers willing to invest in beta hardware. And now Pine64 says it’ll begin taking pre-orders for its $100 PineTab Linux tablet later this […]

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Pinebook Linux laptop CPU upgrade kits coming in 2020

Some laptops let you upgrade the memory or storage… although that’s a feature that’s becoming less common on modern thin and light notebook computers. But very few laptops support CPU upgrades — typically you’re stuck with the processor that came with your laptop. Surprisingly one of the few exceptions to the rule may be one […]