Community blog on PINE64

Introduction to the PineTime Pro

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How is your day/night going RSS readers? In this blog post we go in depth on the new PineTime Pro hardware and share some pre-production information from JF.

FOSDEM 2026 Update

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hey again RSS readers (love y’all). In this update we share what we discussed at FOSDEM (PinePhone 2, community editions, DRAM shortage), what we demoed at our stand at FOSDEM and details on the PineTime Pro. Next month will have the main community update.

Project Showcase: Movuan

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A showcase of the Devuan based operating system for the PinePhone called Movuan.

August Update: Note-able Tablet Updates

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello RSS users! In this update we announce a new community manager, updates to the PineTab2 and PineNote, FreeBSD on the PinePhone Pro, a guide on upstreaming PinePhone Pro patches and a small bit for you Pinecil users.

A Quick Community Update on PinePhone Pro and What’s Next

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hey everyone! As many have noticed, the PinePhone Pro is currently out ot stock on the Pine Store. Unfortunately we have to deliver you the following news: the PinePhone Pro is officially discontinued. We were told it didn’t sell well enough to keep production going. But the good news for current owners are that spare parts will still be made for up to two years, depending on demand. Meanwhile, the trusty PinePhone (A64) is still alive and kicking, and Pine Store plans to keep it rolling for about two more years.

April Update: Risc It For A Biscuit

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This month, the PineTab-V returns, PineNote, PineTab2 and PineTime software improvements and a new Pinecil micro soldering tip set. Does anyone even read these descriptions?

January Update: Thinking Out Of The Vox

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year! This month we discuss the current state of the PineVox, seeing what the community have been up to with their PineNotes, announcing InfiniTime 1.15 and announcing the end of production of the Pinebook Pro.

Please refrain from installing WASP-OS on new PineTimes for the moment

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In July 2024, PineStore notified the community that a small hardware change was needed on the PineTime: the current flash chip was end of life (EoL) and needed to be replaced by a new one. From the software point of view, the new chip behaves exactly like the old on so very few code changes were required to support it.

November Update: Something Borrowed Something New

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This month we are announcing a couple of new products including a SBC and a successor to the PineCube. We have updates to share about the PineNote and the PineDio USB adapter this month along with a talk by one of our community members Dsimic.

September Update: Check Your Notes

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A new community update! New hardware to announced and previous hardware to return!

March Update: Making waves

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Long awaited community update is here! Introducing PineVox and bone conduction headset (help us find a name!), IronOS progress, PineNote insights, and PineTime news! We also cover cluster failure, state of services, and the future of the community updates. See you in the upcoming Q&A!

Outage January 21st

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We regret to inform you that we are currently experiencing an outage in our main cluster. We are currently actively investigating the cause of this issue. We understand the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience during this time.

August Update: Kept You Waiting, Huh?

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We apologize for the lack of regular community updates during the past few months. In short, the people who usually wrote them became very busy. However, we have a new way to write and publish these updates, involving you: the community.

Quick update: What’s going on?

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to our long-awaited community post, where we aim to address the most commonly asked question while also unveiling some more news. Let’s get started!

Why hasn’t there been a community update for the past few months? Is PINE64 dead?

As you may have noticed, there haven’t been any community updates as of late, and we are sorry for the prolonged silence. This isn’t because the community hasn’t been busy, quite the opposite is true. Instead, the problem is that the usual community update authors are too busy with their daily jobs and other tasks around the community. Although thanks to some community members who have shown interest to participate, we are working on a new community update and we hope we will publish it soon!

A new design

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As it was teased with the March update and the December blog post of last year, there is a community website redesign being worked on. Launched at beta.pine64.org we’re proud to give a very early insight of what the redesign currently looks like.

PineTab-V and PineTab2 launch

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The PineTab2 and PineTab-V pre-orders begin on April 13th. Both tablets feature a 1200x800 10.1” IPS LCD panel with wide viewing angles, a sturdy metal metal chassis, two USB-C ports (1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 with charging), a digital video out port, a front 2MPx and rear 5MPx camera as well as a 6000mAh battery.

March Update: Tablet Bonanza!

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We end the first quarter of the year with news that Star64 will be available for purchase on April 4th and that the PineTab2 and PineTab-V(ery good!) will launch the following week on April 11th. In this month’s update we also cover PineNote development (I know many of you have been waiting for this) and discuss how software on the device has really taken off in recent months. Finally, CounterPillow - a key RK3566 community developer - sets the expectations for the PineTab2 with some real-life performance examples. Strap on your unicorn horns because there’s much ground to cover this month - let’s get to it.

February update: things are taking shape

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Let me start by apologizing to everyone for skipping yet another monthly community update. This has largely been my fault as I was rather busy in January and following FOSDEM at the start of February I found myself occupied with things related to the EU store. I hope for things to go back to normal now; you can expect future community updates at the end of each month as per usual. Again, I apologise, mea culpa.

December Update: Merry Christmas and Happy New PineTab

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a Happy New Year to you all. This month’s update has a different formula from the usual - aside from the announcement of the PineTab2, most of this month’s content is dedicated to looking back at this year and taking a sneak peak at what’s to come in 2023. I think that if you read between the lines, even poorly, you’ll get a good idea of what we’ll be up to next year.

November Update: Tune(d) in

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve got three key hardware availability announcements this month: for the PineBuds Pro, the Ox64 and Star64, all of which ought to be available in the coming weeks. However, reading this update I’d like you to keep in mind that Chinese factories and logistics are currently experiencing significant restrictions due to the zero-COVID policy. This means that some of the predicted availability dates may change. That aside, we’ve got a great update for you this month, so tune in and let’s get to it.

InfiniTime 1.11

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We released InfiniTime 1.11 a few days ago. The timing of the release did not align with the monthly community update, so we decided to write a small blog post to highlight a few new features and provide new about the PineTime community!

October update: An Ox, no bull

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I hope that the good news and all the announcements of this month will make up for the much delayed publication date - which is something I sincerely apologize for. This month we’re announcing the Ox64 - a sub $10 Linux capable single board computer, we are bringing you news that both the Star64 and QuartzPro64 now boot Linux (and run it well too already!) and share all the latest PinePhone Pro development.

August update: RISC and reward

Sun, 28 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This month we take a close look at the Star64, check out PineBuds (Pro) progress and discuss the Pinecil V2. I also come bearing good news concerning the PinePhone Pro, which has seen a small but significant hardware redesign and some important software updates.

A response to Martijn's blog

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We rarely, if ever, make responses to blog posts or articles. In fact, there is only one instance that I can think of when we did so. So then, somewhat uncharacteristically, this is a response post to Martijn Braam’s blog in which he explains why he left the PINE64 community. Let’s get one thing out of the way first: Martijn has done a lot for mobile Linux and PINE64 - he is a valued contributor and a colleague with a good insight into how PINE64 and the Pine Store Ltd operate. I should add that his opinions are welcome just as they have always been. Finally, there is no denying that his leaving is a significant loss to the project and, on a private level, a sad state of affairs for us in the community. If it wasn’t clear, we really like Martijn. But this isn’t what this blog post is about. Instead, this is a response to the points and concerns Martijn raises.

July Update: A Pinecil Evolved

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the July community update - I hope you’re staying cool in the heatwave. This month we’re introducing the Pinecil V2 - an evolution of the original Pinecil - and taking a closer look at the Star64 RISC-V SBC. We also discuss Quartz64’s development progress, the PineBuds and receive an update on PineTime and InfiniTime from JF.

June Update: Who likes RISC-V?

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This month we reveal that we are working on a powerful and affordable RISC-V single board computer, discuss PineNote’s huge software improvements and provide updates on PinePhone, PinePhone Pro and Pinebook Pro’s availability. I am also taking the opportunity to let you know that, after 6 years of holding PINE64’s community manager post, I’ll be resigning from my position shortly, once PINE64 EU launches next week; Marek Kraus will gradually be taking over my responsibilities.

My DIY low-power 6 SSD NAS based on the Quartz64 ARM board

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

ARM SBCs have been around for a few years now. They were made popular and accessible mostly by the RaspberryPi released in 2012.

I’ve been enjoying building countless projects around these boards : web servers, home-automation, camera recording, IM bots,…

May Update: Worth The Wait

Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone! This month we’re announcing production of the Pinebook Pro resuming and introduction of Quartz64 model-B. I had an opportunity to meet with TL earlier this month, and got some ear-on time with the Pinebuds, so I dedicated a section to my early impressions from the time spent with the prototype. This update also brings news of SOQuartz Blade hostboard production, camera enablement on the PinePhone Pro and a guest write-up by dsimic addressing issues some users have been experiencing with their PinePhone (Pro) keyboards. There is truly a lot to get to this month, so let’s get into it.

April update: no more unicorns

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This month’s update is packed to the brink with news: the product team is negotiating restarting Pinebook Pro production, QuartzPro64 will be heavily subsidized and developer sign-ups are now open, we’re introducing the PineSound project, and PinePower power supplies will be making a return to the Pine Store soon. I cannot recall the last time I had so many positive things to report on, so let’s get to it.

Introducing the PineBuds and PinePod. Seriously.

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

People are frequently asking us to create more mainstream devices such as an inkjet printer or a microwave, and for a good reason. Complex open devices such as the PinePhone are both exciting and fun, but they also aren’t for everyone. Or putting it inversely, they are for a very particular group of people. In contrast, simpler devices in our lineup such as the PineTime, PinePower, and Pinecil have all garnered a broader user base. Heck, I’d go as far as to say that the Pinecil is now a downright mainstream device with Amazon USA officially recommending it to those seeking a soldering iron. So then - we thought to ourselves - it’s time to go mainstream.

March Update: Introducing the QuartzPro64

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This month we’re announcing the QuartzPro64 - a new single-board computer based on Rockchip’s powerful RK3588 SoC. This is our first Pro-grade SBC since the introduction of the ROCKPRo64, and I believe it to be a worthy successor to the much revered Pro lineup. I am also happy to let you know that the Quartz64 model-B will be arriving at the Pine Store in the coming weeks, with all of its features supported in the most recent Manjaro OS image.

February update: chat with the machine

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As the Chinese New Year comes to an end and people return to work, production and shipping return to normal. More units of the PinePhone Explorer Edition, the PinePhone (Pro) keyboard case, the PinePhone Beta Edition and all the other popular products will be dispatching in the coming days. In the meantime, we bring you exciting news concerning PineNote development progress, LVFS and fwupd for the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro’s and instructions on how you can modify your Pinecil to increase its performance further (at your own risk, of course).

PinePhone community poll results

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Throughout January we ran a poll asking people about how they use their PinePhones. Some poll results are quite predictable while others yielded unexpected results. Before we start, let me put on my academic hat for just one minute. This is a small, self-reported and not representative sample. A total of 3079 respondents took part in the poll - which amounts to less than 5% of all PinePhone owners. I’d therefore hesitate to extrapolate any of the results to the entire PinePhone community. I find it more likely that this sample reflects the most active community members and people following our project. It is also worth mentioning that some questions posed in the poll weren’t exactly well phrased, and that the poll itself did not follow any established conventions. But this was never meant to be a comprehensive study - it is instead, at best, a peak at the overarching trends of the most active portion of the community. To this end, when describing the results I’ll use descriptive generalizations, such as ‘more than half’ or ‘the majority’, rather than exact numbers or percentages I feel that this is more in line with the nature of the data and the general spirit of the poll. For what it’s worth, I’ll also share some of my thoughts and insights as we review the results. Exact numbers and percentages are, however, included in the graphs.

January Update: More News

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the first update of the year. The year just began but much has already happened. These past 2 weeks saw the release of the highly anticipated PinePhone keyboard case and the PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition. And there is more good news: the PineNote’s e-paper display now works, and is now available for purchase without the need for a coupon.

PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition pre-orders open January 11

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We initially hoped to open PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition pre-orders earlier this month, but the factory encountered minor problems which had to be resolved prior to production starting. Such hiccups are common and expected, and normally a ten-day delay isn’t a major problem. However, with the Chinese New Year starting on February 1st the January production and shipping windows have now shrunk to just a handful of days. We’ve therefore been impatiently awaiting the factory’s green light per our policy that “(…) we [only] take pre-orders for [devices] once production is securely underway”. Thankfully the ‘go-ahead’ signal arrived earlier today.

Happy New Year, the keyboard and cases are here!

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The PinePhone & PinePhone Pro keyboard case and add-on cases are now available in the Pine Store!

Go to store

About the keyboard case

The keyboard case works with both the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro and features a clam-shell design. It uses pogo pins located on the phone’s midsection and attaches by replacing the default back cover. When folded, the phone’s screen and the keyboard rest securely against each other. The hinge features a 180° design, which not only allows for two-hand typing on a surface but also for comfortable thumb-typing when fully extended. The etched keycaps can be easily relocated for alternate layouts such as AZERTY or QWERTZ. The keyboard case runs an open firmware, which means that anyone with the know-how can alter existing functions or add new ones. The bottom (keyboard) and top (phone) sections of the assembly are well-balanced thanks to the large, 6000mAh, internal battery capable of charging the PinePhone (Pro) during operation. The internal battery effectively triples the phone’s battery life. The internal keyboard battery can be manually toggled on/off and the keyboard’s battery charge level can be read in the supported OSes; the keyboard remains functional with the battery fully depleted.

PinePhone community poll

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

People pick up a PinePhone for the freedom to choose an operating system, to enjoy privacy by default, and to truly own the device they purchase. From the moment a PinePhone departs from our warehouse we no longer have any insight into what happens to it. I frequently get asked questions about PinePhone’s user base, the percentage of people daily-driving it, and the most popular operating systems on our platform. I have no real answers to offer to these questions. Today I am turning to you for help to paint a picture of the PinePhone community by volunteering answers.

December update: a year in review

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Seasonal greetings from the PINE64 community team! In the last community update of 2021 we’ll take a look at progress made this year and discuss potential avenues to explore in 2022.

November update: first impressions

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Is it truly November already? Is it just me, or is this year flying by at warp speed? This month’s update focuses on initial impressions of the PinePhone Pro and production keyboard. We’re also going to take a look at the SOQuartz Blade hostboard and discuss InfiniTime 1.7 release.

October Update Follow-up

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Happy Halloween! As promised earlier this month, here is the follow-up to the October community update. Some of the topics I’ll touch upon will be covered in more detail in November. I’ll keep this one brief.

How "Meet the PinePhone Pro" was made

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

As PINE64‘s flagship mainline GNU/Linux smartphone, the PinePhone Pro, was about to be announced, a trailer and some nice renderings showcasing the phone and its features had to be produced.

October Update: Introducing the PinePhone Pro

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to what will likely be remembered as the most important community update of 2021. Today we’re introducing the PinePhone Pro and announcing that both PinePhone Pro and PineNote pre-orders are now open to developers. I am well aware that this announcement will overshadow everything else that I may wish to report on, so I intentionally chose not to include other exciting news in this post. I will write a follow-up piece covering other topics later this month - stay tuned.

September update: Hurdles and Successes

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this community update we’ll discuss PinePhone keyboard progress (and hurdles), add-on back cases awaiting developers approval, initial PineNote impressions and early development progress, as well as news of InfiniTime 1.4 release and a guest post about PineCubes as a part of a security system. We also have an announcement for our community developers: we will be introducing bounties to the DevZone.

Cluster build log: Moving to temporary cluster

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

As promised in the last month’s community update Housekeeping section, this is the first part of the cluster’s build log! This mini-series in which I will cover everything about upcoming changes our hosting cluster, and it begins with building a temporary cluster.

DevZone rollout

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

First announced in the July community update, the DevZone is a project management system for PINE64 devices. It will allow us to have a better overview of ongoing software development, streamline the product prototyping processes and keep track of suggested hardware changes. It is also a way for us to get an up-to-date survey of our developer-pool, including each developer’s core competences and availability. We believe that the introduction of this system will facilitate cooperation and accelerate the process of bringing new devices to the market.

Introducing the PineNote

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This month brings news that many of you have been waiting years for - we’re introducing the PineNote, a high-end e-ink device based on the powerful Quartz64 single board computer. But the good news doesn’t end here, the PinePhone keyboard has entered production, developers have begun work on PinePhone’s back cases, PineDio development is moving forward and we’ve seen a new firmware release for Pinebook Pro’s touchpad. There’s a lot of ground to cover this month, so let’s get to it.

July update: community developers portal

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This month’s big news isn’t a piece of hardware or software but rather an upcoming platform aimed at community developers called the PINE64 DevZone. But fret not, I also have a number of hardware news to report - including a new LoRa device called PineDio Stack - as well as an overview of the software progress on our flagship devices.

June update: new hardware and more on the way

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’d like to start by giving you all a quick heads-up: next month I am away on vacation (first one since early 2020), which means that next month’s update will either be very short or split into multiple posts. If I write up a longer post then I may not publish it on the 15th but at some other point in time. I haven’t yet made up my mind how I’ll do this, so just keep an eye out.

We are KDE patrons

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

KDE is a project near and dear to our hearts. The original Pinebook, which forged the path for our current hardware lineup, was the first PINE64 device to ship with KDE Plasma Desktop. This was in early 2017. Fast forward to today, both the PinePhone and Pinebook Pro - our current flagship devices - ship with their respective Plasma user interfaces atop of the Manjaro operating system. As many of you surely also remember, earlier this year a dedicated KDE community edition of the PinePhone was sold with the intention to boost development of the Plasma Mobile user interface on the PinePhone.

FemtoStar: taking aim for the stars

Wed, 19 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Networking and communication is something that has been on our minds as of late. As many of you are surely aware, we have started developing our own solution to private and secure peer-to-peer and group text messaging based on the PineDio gateway system, available next month. While we have high hopes for this system, we are also aware of its limitations. Voice communication and higher-than LoRa® data speeds is something we all rely on in our daily lives, and nothing will change this. If there was only a way to network via a secure and open source friendly manner - enter FemtoStar.

May Update: Connection Established

Sat, 15 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Let me start by welcoming the newcomers! If you are a new Pinebook Pro or PinePhone BE owner, make sure to pop by the chat or the forum and say hello to the community.

Let's make MiRAKles happen

Thu, 06 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Many of you are already aware that we are very interested in LoRa®. We hope to use the technology for both traditional IoT applications as well as in less orthodox ways, such as peer-to-peer text communication and even group text-messaging. This novel application potential is of particular interest to us, and in the coming months we will encourage developers to explore LoRa’s® viability as a text communication alternative to GSM/CDMA and LTE. We’re doubling down on LoRa® even at this early stage, so you can expect to see end-nodes for our SBCs, the Pinebook Pro, PineTab and PinePhone available in the Pine Store shortly. Indeed, we hope for LoRa® to become a staple of PINE64.

It's Time: InfiniTime 1.0

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

When we announced the PineTime in late 2019 we couldn’t have imagined how popular of a project it would end up becoming. From the very start, it was evident that this will be a project like no other in our lineup. Following 18 months of intense development, the InfiniTime has now reached a release version, and the development community has made a decision; the Pinetime will be introduced to the Pine Store as an enthusiast-grade end-user product. Future production-runs (succeeding the one currently available) will ship with InfiniTime 1.0 and will be considered ready for daily use. This is a monumental achievement not only for PINE64 and the PineTime development community, but also for the open source at large. I’d like to thank all of you who made this a reality, my mind is blown.

April Update: New Developments

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Before we start, I’d like to acknowledge that this community update was written collaboratively, with contributions from 7 developers. I hope that moving forward we maintain this dynamic and more developers, as well as community members, partake in the write-up process. If you’d like to participate in the next update then please make sure to reach out.

Help us help others

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

During a community meetup in 2019, before the entire world got turned upside down by the COVID19 pandemic, we announced our commitment to financially support Linux and open source development as well as to promote open source software whilst contributing to closing the digital gap. I believe we’ve done good on the first portion of this commitment - over the past 12 months we made donations to 5 mobile Linux projects, financially supported a number of FOSS initiatives (most recently the upcoming Linux App Summit) and helped individual contributors in their endeavours. As a side-note, I’d like you to know that this is just the beginning - we have extensive plans pertaining to community support in the near future. Stay tuned.

Beta Edition Pre-Orders

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce that pre-orders for the PinePhone BETA Edition will open on March 24. The PinePhone BETA Edition is powered by KDE Plasma Mobile and Manjaro Linux.

The Dual-Screen Pinebook Pro

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this project, I’ll turn my Pinebook Pro into a portable multi-monitor Linux laptop and show you how to do the same.

Introduction

In this post, I’ll share how I turned my Pinebook Pro into a dual-screen Linux laptop. It’s a rather inexpensive upgrade, and what parts I didn’t personally have on hand I was able to manufacture myself.

March Update: Status Report

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to this month’s community update. We’re now facing one of the most challenging electronics manufacturing circumstances in years, and possibly even in all of electronics history. Despite this, I’ve got some good news to relay this month, including a Quartz64 pilot production-run, SOEdge being available next month and plenty of community news. Last minute update: looks like we will have the PinePhone and Pinebook Pro for pre-order next week too, hurrah!

RISC-V SBC Riddle

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The riddle has been solved by DALTON. I’ll be contacting the winner in the coming days.

Thank you to everyone who played along!

The correct answer is: PINEONE

In the event you’re interested, you can learn more about this and previous riddles here.

February Update: Show and Tell

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to this month’s community update. As many of you know, we have now entered the Chinese New Year (CNY) period, which means that all manufacturing and related business activities have ground to a halt. It is always a mad rush to complete ongoing work prior to CNY, but now that the festive period is upon us we get a chance to catch our breath and evaluate the progress made.

The end of Community Editions

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Today marks the end of the PinePhone Community Edition scheme. On behalf of myself, the Pine Store crew and the entire PINE64 community I’d like to thank the UBports Foundation, the postmarketOS project, Manjaro Linux, KDE e.V as well as the Mobian project for participating in bringing the PinePhone to tens of thousands of FOSS enthusiasts worldwide. We literally couldn’t have done it without you.

Mobian Community Edition

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Mobian Community Edition (CE) PinePhones are now available for pre-order in the Pine Store. This edition of the PinePhone ships with Mobian, a Debian-based Linux distribution tailored to run on smartphones. The project came to life on our platform and has now grown to become one of the community favorites.

January Update: Happy New Gear!

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year everyone! Let us all hope that the difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 virus are now waning and that more aspects of our lives will return to normal soon.

I owe you a riddle

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The riddle has been solved and we’ll be contacting the winner in the coming days. The comments section has now been locked until January. Thank you to everyone who played along!

December Update: The Longest One Yet

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the last community update of the year. I want to start this month’s update by thanking everyone who helped us make this challenging year a fruitful and successful one. A special thanks goes to the core community team - our mods and admins - who keep the cogs spinning on a daily basis. Marek (gamiee) and Matthew (fire219) have done an incredible job this year reworking our community-facing infrastructure; this is something which was long overdue and is now appreciated by tens of thousands of end-users. I also want to thank our partner projects - UBports, postmarketOS, Manjaro and KDE Community in particular - for working with us tirelessly to make the PinePhone, PineTab and Pinebook Pro a success. We literally couldn’t have done it without you. Special thanks also goes out to the independent contributors whose work continuously assists partner projects in building OSes for our platforms. Finally, I want to say thank you to the Pine64 community at large. We deeply appreciate you all for being the end-users who make this project thrive.

Pine Store Community Pricing & Online Retail Stores

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In 2021 you’ll see online retail Pine stores open in Europe, North America and possibly also worldwide at a later stage. Let me start by making one thing clear - the current Pine Store isn’t going away and the pricing in the Pine Store will remain unchanged. You’ll always be able to buy and pre-order your devices from pine64.com at a community-oriented price point. The retail stores will function alongside the Pine Store, not replace it, and offer a different customer experience. In this blog I’ll explain the rationale behind this strategy.

KDE Community Edition is now available

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce that the KDE Community Edition (CE) PinePhone is now available for pre-order. This edition of the PinePhone ships with a tailored build of Plasma Mobile built upon Manjaro Linux, and it is the culmination of ongoing efforts to bring the popular Plasma desktop environment to the smartphone.

November Update: KDE PinePhone CE And A Peek Into The Future

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to this month’s community update! We’ve got exciting news to share, but before I proceed in doing so I’d like to thank Gamiee, JF, and PizzaLovingNerd for contributing to this blog entry and Clover for the final edits and proof-reading. As the PINE64 device-family grows larger and becomes more diverse, I find myself more reliant than ever on other people’s insight and expertise when writing up these updates. To this end, I’d very much like to thank the aforementioned community members and, at the same time, invite others to take part in shaping future updates. If you’ve got something you would like to contribute to an upcoming community update, then please reach out to me in the chats.

Update: new hacktober gear

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Let me begin this month’s community update by teasing the November update, in which I’ll talk about the next generation of SoCs and our plans for the future. If you haven’t done so yet, then now is the right time to subscribe to our blog and follow the news on the PINE64 Telegram news channel.

PSA: Vulnerability Disclosure 2020/09/17

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

PINE64 (both the business and the community around it) prides itself on transparency. Often, this transparency is used to give you a behind the scenes look into our operations.

But today, we’re afraid we must be transparent about something else.

September Update: Let it sink in...

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We have been fortunate to welcome many new members into our ranks over the past 30 days. This is in large part due to the continued interest in the Pinebook Pro and PineTab, which have just shipped, as well as the ongoing massive demand for the PinePhone. By my estimate, come December we will have shipped more PinePhones than OpenMoko and the original Ubuntu Touch smartphones … combined. Let this sink in for a minute.

PinePhone Manjaro Community Edition

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I am thrilled to announce that the next Community Edition (CE) of the PinePhone will feature Manjaro. For those of you who do not know, Manjaro is an Arch-based Linux operating system designed with user-friendliness in mind. But Manjaro is more than just an operating system, it is also a large and vibrant community of contributors and end-users, which I highly encourage you to join.

August update: getting into a rhythm and not slowing down

Sat, 15 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

elementary OS 6 Odin on Pinebook Pro - image via Alan Pope

I am currently traveling and have a limited amount of time to write, so I’d like to apologize in advance for not covering all topics and not answering outstanding answering questions that some of you are waiting to hear about. I also had less time to review chat backlogs, tweets, the forum and other information sources, and in result it is possible that I missed some information which ought to be covered.

Invitation to Play Along

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Image from: Дмитрий Куртуков - Keyboard for PinePhone

We are currently in talks with a number of hardware vendors regarding a Nokia N900-style, slide-out-design keyboard for the PinePhone. They’ll have to produce mock-ups or prototypes for us to consider in the next few weeks. The requirements specify that the new device needs to:

All about the PineTab (Update)

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This is a supplementary post to this month’s Community Update - if you haven’t read this month’s news, then I suggest you go back and have a read since we’ve had a handful of interesting announcements. Regarding the PineTab, I am happy to let you know that production is well under way and we are mostly on schedule with the manufacturing and shipping processes. To be precise, we are just a week behind the original schedule; the cause of the delay is our decision to change the LCD panel driver (or perhaps more accurately, we were convinced to exchange the panel driver by the vendor) as the driver we originally chose is reaching end of life (EoL). We ultimately decided that a week’s delay is worth it. The alternative scenario would likely result in developers supporting multiple LCD drivers in their operating systems, which is not ideal.

Pinebook Pro pre-orders open with shipping in August 2020.

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

I’m sure many of you will be happy to hear that the next round of Pinebook Pro pre-orders have now opened. This production-run is expected to ship in late August, 2020. Both ISO and ANSI keyboards are available. If the Pinebook Pro is something you’ve been waiting for, then click the button below.

July Update: biggest update in months!

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I cannot remember the last time I had this much to report. With so many announcements and highlights, I ran out of time and didn’t cover a handful of topics that happened this month. If I find the time, I’ll make a complimentary post later this month to cover the outstanding topics. Before we get into it, I’d also like to thank JF for his contribution to the text.

June Update: postmarketOS CE PinePhone, Shipping & PINE64 Cluster

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone! It has been a really busy time for us here at PINE64 as we’re working hard to deliver outstanding PinePhone UBports Community Edition and Pinebook Pro shipments. The big news of this month is that we’re excited to announce that a postmarketOS Community Edition PinePhone will be available for pre-order early next month.

ROCKPro64 Cluster Move June 5-10

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The process of moving our end-user services to the ROCKPro64 cluster will be taking place in the coming days (5-10 June). I am not going to pretend like this is the best time for the move to be taking place, since it is not. Many users are relying on our infrastructure for information and community support, particular now that people are receiving their devices and many more are waiting for their units to ship. But things are what they are, and we have a strict deadline we need to adhere to.

Welcome New Community Members!

Thu, 28 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

With thousands of Pinebook Pro laptops and PinePhone smartphones shipping in the next days and weeks, I felt that a short introductory blog post aimed at newcomers was in order. To this end, the primary purpose of this entry is to give you an overview of all the resources at your disposal.

May Update: PineTab pre-orders, PinePhone Qi charging & more!

Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

With the PinePhone and Pinebook Pro production well under way and shipping in just a few days time, we’ll now be turning our attention to the other projects we have in the pipeline. There is a fair bit of material to cover this month - the main piece of news, however, is that we’ll be taking pre-orders for the PineTab at the end of this month!

April Update: CE & FCC, Software Update and DIY Router?

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I hope and trust this update finds everyone well. Production in China is picking up pace and we expect to start shipping the Pinebook Pro with Manjaro and PinePhone UBports Community edition next month. I am happy to report that, for the time being, everything is proceeding smoothly and we’re on track to ship devices in accordance with our original plans. Still, I encourage you to sign up to this blog to stay up-to-date on shipping information since anything can happen in the next 30 days.

PinePhone UBports Community Edition Pre-Orders Now Open

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

PinePhone UBports Community Edition mock-up; final product may differ in appearance.

I am proud to announce that the PinePhone UBports Community Edition is now available for pre-order with an estimated shipping date of late-May, 2020. Community editions are meant to bring exposure to partner-projects operating systems and communities, as well as help finance ongoing development.

March Update: Manjaro on Pinebook Pro & PinePhone Software

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

COVID-19 recovery in China is underway and factory work is slowly returning back to normal. This is good news, and we hope to have a constant stream of updates for you in the coming weeks. That said, we’re taking it one step at a time, since factories are still at 20% of the normal manufacturing capacity and it’s hard to predict the recovery pace. So rather than offering you my guesstimates for particular device availability, we will make announcements once all stages of production are secured for each device. Frankly speaking, this also means that announcements will likely drop suddenly; so If you haven’t done so yet, this is probably the time to subscribe to this blog and be notified when it happens.

February Update: Post CNY and FOSDEM Status Report

Sat, 15 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Nemo Mobile and Ubuntu Touch on the PinePhone at FOSDEM 2020

A lot has happened in the past month. PinePhones have finally begun arriving in the hands of their owners, we had a great showing at FOSDEM, and new hardware was announced. If you haven’t yet read my post about our trip to FOSDEM and the new devices, then I encourage you to do so. Behind the scenes, much work is currently being poured into consolidating and evolving current projects as well as exploring new ones. There are some really exciting months ahead of us!

FOSDEM 2020 and Hardware Announcements

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

PINE64 get-together with community devs and partner-projects at FOSDEM 2020

Sorry for the delay in delivering FOSDEM news and announcements to you - I was too occupied with great company, splendid beer and shouting at hundreds of people across our stall table. It was awesome to see so many familiar faces, meet new ones and socialise with projects we usually don’t get an opportunity to talk with.

Setting the Record Straight: PinePhone Misconceptions

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I take no pleasure in writing this blog post. In fact, even as I am writing these words I am internally torn on whether this is the right approach to addressing the problem on hand. Whether I’ve chosen the right approach remains to be seen, but regardless, I now feel it’s time to confront misconceptions about the PinePhone.

PinePhones Start Shipping - All You Need To Know

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to 2020. I expect this will be a productive year and one of exponential growth for our community. It was a busy beginning to the year and I expect that the pace will remain high with shipments of the Pinebook Pro and PinePhone Braveheart edition as well as FOSDEM announcements. Following this period there will be downtime due to the Chinese New Year. The past 12 months have been so intense that I am genuinely looking forward to this period of relative calm, which will allow everyone to catch their breath and review how things are going. I find that at times a forced downtime is one of the most productive things there can be.

December Update: Thank You For 2019!

Thu, 05 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the last community update of the year. I think that 2019 will be remembered as the year PINE64 transitioned from being a relatively niche FOSS hardware project to a mainstream one. This transition is an exciting prospect for all of us involved with PINE64, and we cannot wait to see how the project develops over the next 12 months.

November Update: Brave Heart, Pinebook Pro reception and more

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Our core focus for the past month was on getting the manufacturing process and shipping of the Pinebook Pro, PinePhone and PineTime development kits back on track. I will not reiterate the events that led to the delays of those devices in this post, but if you’re interested then read the detailed account of what happened in last month’s community update.

October Update: PineTime, Delays and Shipping News

Sat, 05 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This month’s update will be slightly shorter than usual - I have been dealing with some health issues recently, which significantly reduced my time to actively engage with the community. Hopefully I’ll make it up to you in November.

September Update: The PinePhone is real & shipping soon

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Picture of a PinePhone prototype running Plasma Mobile

Let’s start with a quick recap of last month’s events: the Pinebook Pro went into production, software development on the PineTab started, we announced the SOEdge AI module and introduced our initiative for giving back to PinePhone Linux developers during the community meetup in London. This, however, is hardly everything. Let me segue into the core topic of this month’s update, namely the PinePhone. Behind the scenes prototype PinePhone PCBs and chassis have been produced and undergone extensive testing. With the testing now completed, we made the decision to manufacture a small batch of PinePhones for developers. We have also scheduled two larger production-runs, which will be open to early adopters later this year.

Its time to start giving back

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

PINE64’s commitment to giving back to the community, partner projects and the society has been outlined by TL Lim during our community meetup in Hyde Park, London on 18 August, 2018.

August Update: London Meetup, PineTab News, SOEdge and More!

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

PineTab development prototype

July has been a busy month for all members of the PINE64 project. Between the updates to various systems, preparation of Pinebook Pro pre-orders and the subsequent launch, shipping of PineTab development kits as well as production of the PinePhone prototype, there has been little to no downtime. To this end I wish to publicly thank fireTwoOneNine for doing a hell of a job helping out, troubleshooting problems and setting up the systems necessary to keep the wheels turning. An awesome job and a huge thank you. Here is what is on this month’s update agenda:

July Update: All about the Pinebook Pro

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

As I’ve mentioned in last month’s update post, the PinePhone prototypes are currently being manufactured (due in August) and the PineTab dev kits are rolling off the factory line to be shipped out to developers. With both the PinePhone and PineTab currently in-transition to their respective next development stages, I’ll devote this month’s update solely to the Pinebook Pro pre-order announcement, the last unannounced feature of the laptop as well as a hardware and software status update.

Volumio Motivo: a FOSS Audiophile Experience

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The higher end alternative to the PRIMO, the MOTIVO, will catch your eye and ear. It is powered by the FOSS audiophile Linux distribution - Volumio - that is aviable for many Single Board computers, including the PINE A64-LTS and the ROCK64.

June 2019 News: PinePhone, Pinebook Pro and PineTab

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Bullet Points:

Forum is done, next up: chats and Wiki
PinePhone prototype in August ; software coming along
ANSI keyboard for Pinebook Pro ; new features / upgrades ; pre-orders this summer
PineTab M.2 optional adapter ; 64GB eMMC ; pre-orders this summer
New boards in the pipeline ; AI SBC/SOM of interest to us

Housekeeping

As many of you have probably noticed the forum has gotten an update. We’re still tweaking things now that the new layout and features are live, and we’ll continue to monitor your feedback and update things on a need-be basis. With the webpage and forum done, the chats and Wiki are next on our agenda. Both of these undertakings present their own set of challenges, hence may take some time to complete. If any of you wish to volunteer your time, especially with regards to improving the Wiki, then please let me know in the comments section below or the forum. Thanks!

Forum Update

Wed, 22 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The forum update is scheduled to go live at the end of May (likely over the weekend May 25-26th). You can expect the forum to be down for a couple of hours as work is being carried out. We hope that the process will be relatively painless, but if unexpected issues arise then this will extend the downtime. The forum upgrade is a part of our ongoing process of improving PINE64 services, which you can expect to carry over to the month of June with future updates to the Wiki and the chats.

Taking RetroEmulation to the next level with RockPro64 and Roshambo

Mon, 13 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Retro Emulation is all the rage these days. What’s old is now new again. Game Emulation has been around for awhile, but the recent resurgance into making mini consoles spearheaded by the release of the NES Classic has opened up new possibilities for making our own NES or SNES classic’s.

May 2019 News

Mon, 06 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The new website is finally online and it is now easier to deliver news to people within and outside the community. Unlike the forum, information in this blog won’t easily get lost among the countless other day-to-day threads concerning troubleshooting, new builds and similar topics. In the long run, I trust this will make it easier to find, reference and share information.

New Community Ran Website!

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the new PINE64 website. In time, this blog will be filled with updates and news as well as posts from developers and contributors. The website will be maintained and ran by the community; everything, with the exception of the store, will be accessible to be shaped and molded to suit the PINE64 community of developers and end-users. More information will follow shortly.