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	by solomonb 140 days ago
	Stumbled across this thing a while back and thought it looked really cool but I have never been able to come up with an idea for how I would use it so I haven't pledged. I want to want it but I fear it would just sit on my desk. Does anyone have cool ideas for uses?

8 comments

Layogtima 140 days ago

Added this y'day to make it easier to understand use-cases,

https://mecha.so/comet#use-cases

I'll add pictures/videos of the examples we've internally tested in a bit!

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solomonb 139 days ago

Thank you! I genuinely think its an awesome project and will probably end up supporting.

I didn't realize I could potentially use it as a highly hackable phone. Whats the battery life like?

EDIT: I just went ahead and pledged my support. I wanna see you guys succeed.

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Fnoord 140 days ago

On the bottom of the website, several use cases are mentioned. It is a fairly robust list of examples.

Anything with USB-A is neat with this type of device. For example, a LimeSDR USB would work (even a uSDR for M.2, though I'd wait for the successor).

For Kali, I sport a GPD Pocket 2, and that works well, but I'm in the process of switching that to my Hackberry Pi CM5.

Still, I bought that end of last summer. I honestly would not buy any computer right now. The RAM prices are simply insane.

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jibbers 140 days ago

I’d love to see a click wheel attachment for input, then it could become a neo-iPod.

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fuzzythinker 139 days ago

Or just a touch sensing pad attachment that serves different purpose based on the app.

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bsimpson 140 days ago

Same.

Looks rad, but I have a Legion Go which I can play any game I want and tinker on. This seems like it would be a worse version of that, but also not a useful phone replacement.

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c0wb0yc0d3r 140 days ago

It’s not exactly cool but mobile media server and tool box. Knowing I have tools I can trust in my pocket is nice. Being able to travel and watch my shows without setting up a vpn is double nice.

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mikestorrent 140 days ago

I made a really cool cyberdeck. It sits on my desk.

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solomonb 140 days ago

Lol, Cyberdeck aka high effort paper weight.

There are so many cool vaguely scifi tech projects one could build these days but almost none of them have actual utility. : (

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Fnoord 140 days ago

Well, that depends on your use-cases. Your profession, hobby, etc.

If you perform pentests or red teaming, a mobile device with CLI access is very useful (whether a smartphone is suffice I leave up to the reader). If you are using the device non-mobile, you could attach an external screen and keyboard to it (and perhaps pointer device, I like the Apple Magic Trackpad, even on Linux it works well these days). That way, you could for example write your pentest report on the machine while not fscking up your eyes. Also remember: if you got WLAN or 5G you can get access to more horsepower. It is not as if you were going to run hashcat on these devices locally. You can also run SSHd (and even remote desktop, I guess) on the machine and admin it like that from a fully blown computer. You could also use it with SDR, or for example for reverse engineering (which you could do in a VM as well, if you prefer).

Personally, I think this device would be pretty cool for a kid to learn Linux on (better than the Hackberry Pi CM5 which I got). The UI is neat, there's a CLI, and they can game on as well as explore on it. Pretty good deal a ~250 EUR machine to learn Linux on, as well as game. Remember: if it is ARM, it can run all the Android apps via Waydroid. No emulation or x86-64 Android versions necessary. I see it as a successor to Clockwork Pi GameShell [1] in that regard, as even the 2 GB RAM version is more powerful. That device had only 1 GB RAM, and:

> Introducing new Clockwork OS, based on Debian 9 ARMhf and Linux mainline Kernel 4.1x. You can run PICO 8, LOVE2D, PyGame, Phaser.io, Libretro, and many other game engines smoothly.

There's the Clockwork uConsole [2] as well, and you can put a RPi CM 3 or 4 in it. The A-04 variant specifically seems akin to the Mecha Comet i.MX 8 variant.

> A-04 ARM64-bit Quad-core Cortex-A53 1.8GHZ 4 Mali-T720 2GB DDR3

The RISC-V variant only has 1 GB RAM, the other variants got 4 GB DDR4.

Both the uConsole and the Mecha Comet are candybar format. Compared to Clockwork Pi's Devterm and GPD Pocket series which are clamshell. The Mecha Comet however allows you to easily swap the keyboard with a gamepad. The Clockwork devices don't allow this; they're tailored for either keyboard candybar, keyboard clamshell, or gamepad (candybar).

[1] https://www.clockworkpi.com/gameshell

[2] https://www.clockworkpi.com/home-uconsole

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metalman 140 days ago

looks like it would be great for making calls, texting, and emails, taking pictures, and looking at web sites, listening to music, and watching video, when not creating the software for a lunar lander.

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pkphilip 140 days ago

I kinda wish it could be used like a smart phone with a GSM module.

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bsimpson 140 days ago

You can buy attachments in step 2 of the checkout. They mention having cellular as an option on the description:

> LTE or 5G Modems

> Add mobile data and calling support to your Comet. Bring your own modem and antenna or use our standard LTE upgrade kit.

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RockRobotRock 140 days ago

I notice they haven't developed a dialer app for it yet which seemed a bit weird.

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