That's awesome! I'll pin your comment so people can see it.
@ziggygg69
Ай бұрын
I'd love one!
@CatChase957
6 ай бұрын
When I was a teen. I finally saved enough for pocket chip, I was so excited to be able to have a terminal on the go and be able to program while at school. I ended up asking my mom to order it and she said she didnt trust it. She was right
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Mom was looking out for ya!
@Segphalt
6 ай бұрын
When you suddenly realize... "Hey I ordered one of those... It never did show up"
@MegaMasterX
6 ай бұрын
I still have my CHIP. It's so depressing how quickly and suddenly it just.... all ended. It was genuinely a really good and cool product. It feels like Next Thing straight up gave up on it.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Right? I wish I had more knowledge about what was going on behind the scenes, but there doesn’t seem to be much information out there.
@monad_tcp
6 ай бұрын
they just moved on to the "next thing", sorry someone had to do it
@thewiirocks
5 ай бұрын
They didn't so much just "give up" as much as they were terrible with finances. Advertising such a low price was a nice marketing trick, but they were losing money on every item they shipped. This sort of undercutting is not entirely unusual, but it requires an end-game that investors will support. Next Thing didn't have an end game, so their choices ended them.
@SpexFX
6 ай бұрын
when i clicked this I thought it was a big channel. Great Video man had me hooked for something i dont care about!
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thank you! That's very kind of you to say and means a lot!
@DavidHJones
6 ай бұрын
Agreed! Very well done! Excellent production value.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
@@DavidHJones Thank you so much!
@thirdeyevision11
6 ай бұрын
Same here. Subbed to you too @SpexFX. Just to be your 100th =)
@AaronBonBarron
6 ай бұрын
This is happening to me a lot lately, I'm glad KZitem is pushing smaller creators again.
@blakeray476
6 ай бұрын
I was an early kickstarter backer (and my brother as well) - we both received our PocketCHIPs and i had purchased an additional chip board. This was back in 2016/2017 when i had just started college to get my degree in computer science. I played with it a bit then put it in a drawer for 5 years. Last year i dug it out and started playing with it again. 3D printed a keyboard and buttons for it. And a stylus. Used the gpio to make a i2c seven segment clock. I play pico 8 on it. Its a lot of fun. Ive since bought 2 more, one still in the box just for nostalgia. One of mine has the new debian 11/mainline kernel image with pockethome-bismuth installed. Its a lot of fun to tinker with but not for the faint of heart. Im glad theres still people keeping it alive and im grateful for the video!
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
That’s really awesome! How do you like pockethome-bismuth? Does it add anything interesting?
@blakeray476
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official it's based on the original pocket home but adds pages and more look and feel customization. However I don't like how it looks out of the couch l box. My plan was to fork it and try to make it look like the original pocket home but I haven't gotten around to it. Main draw is that it runs on modern OSes and is built on current libraries
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
@@blakeray476 Gotcha! I just took a look and you're right that it doesn't look quite as good. I'd try to mod it myself, but software isn't really my strong suit... :(
@MaxSMoke777
6 ай бұрын
Well you got LUCKY! This MF'er had to buy his own sh*t from somebody else. They ROBBED HIM. He ended up paying x3 what he should have for something he already owned. Pat yourself on the back for NOT being taken advantage of. You go the winning ticket. You were LUCKY. You were not shafted. Many people WERE. This is mind numbingly unfair!
@NegHead
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_officialSoftware is my strong suit! Just eh... send me one of these things for free 😂
@johnolinda2944
5 ай бұрын
I ordered about twenty of these for my computer science courses and they arrived on time and worked great. I was shocked later to discover so many people got stiffed by them.
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
Sounds like a really cool course!
@johnolinda2944
5 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official it was so much fun to tell them to all take out their PocketCHIPs and open a Terminal! We had other devices of course but using them felt like it gave the students a window into a world where devices were meant to be taken apart and you could use them to do things that weren’t intended and that was totally OK. I really want to find another device like that again but there hasn’t been anything else quite like it.
@thurston04
6 ай бұрын
As a network admin I used my pocket chip to wander the campus running wavemon in terminal, checking for wifi issues. I could also do basic adminning tasks like SSH into servers for updates and debugging.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Yeah, that seems like the ideal use case!
@thewiirocks
5 ай бұрын
My colleagues dared me to install Hadoop on it. So I did. Entirely using the onboard terminal and keyboard. Masochistic? Yes. Did it work? Also yes! 😁
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
@@thewiirocks You must really enjoy punishing yourself! 🤣
@TheAppleFreak
6 ай бұрын
I've still got my original CHIP from the original Kickstarter! Never really had much of a use for it, admittedly, so it collected a lot of dust over time. I remember back then that the power management IC felt underspecced and had a propensity to trip from overcurrent protection whenever you'd do anything remotely taxing on the CPU, even stuff like updating the system software, so there was one command you basically had to run to disable the protection in order to actually use the thing. I remember looking into trying to build some networked IOT-adjacent stuff with it at one point before NTC went under, and was considering getting some CHIP Pros because they would have been cheaper than getting Pi Zero Ws for what I was looking to do, but I never pulled the trigger on them. Guess that's for the best.
@connecticuter2410
6 ай бұрын
Cool seeing a video about the Pocket C.H.I.P.. I managed to pick one up at a thrift store for $5 years ago.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Dang, that’s a lucky find!
@MaxSMoke777
6 ай бұрын
Oh wow... stop for a second and think about how crazy what is for this KZitemr. You might as well be pouring a whole bucket of salt into that wound. That is so criminal. Not for you, but for everybody else involved. Like, I am upset, FOR HIM, for hearing about this. Our man deserves to be treated better!
@cfg83
6 ай бұрын
Ha ha, you read my mind. I am going to keep my eyes open for one out "in the wilderness" from this point forward.
@graywolf2694
6 ай бұрын
I never find anything at thrift stores.
@cfg83
6 ай бұрын
@@graywolf2694 It definitely depends on the thrift store. One of my best finds was a Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard for $35 during the pandemic. Find a good one and be patient ... like a trap door spider, ;) .
@notanotherreviewer.
6 ай бұрын
I didn't get a Pocket CHIP, but I had a CHIP board which I used to run the backend logic for an Android application that I developed, which routinely needed to scrape data from a few websites and then update the status on a local SQLite DB and send out notifications for clients. I wrote the whole thing in C, on the CHIP, and it was always fast enough and didn't really give me any headaches. The fact that I was able to do what essentially was dedicated infrastructure for little over 15$ with shipping on a single board for a real project felt kind of magical, and I've been trying to come up with something new to do with the CHIP, as I've since retired that service. I have fond memories of those days.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
That's a really cool use for it!
@Nautiklez
6 ай бұрын
My wife got me one of these as a gift when they were first released. She gave me a printout of the receipt as the gift and said something like "If it ever shows up then happy birthday." We got lucky and it finally arrived. I didn't realize that lots of people never received theirs. I do agree with you, after the novelty wears off, there isn't much you can do with it. It does look cool though.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
That's an awesome birthday gift! When did you get yours? Did you find any uses for it?
@nick_XIII
6 ай бұрын
I hadn't realized it either. I was one of the lucky ones that got mine in pretty quick from what I remember. While I haven't used it in years, I have it on a shelf right behind me with my Gameboy/handheld collections.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
@@nick_XIII I'm doing the same thing: displaying it on a shelf next my Zunes, minidisc player, Game Boy Color, and so on.
@Nautiklez
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official It was, she hooks me up sometimes! It seems I got it in one of the first batches they shipped, so I never ran into the situation you did where I lost any money. I had plans on using it for a mini Linux console to ssh to some servers and such, mainly for a novelty but that really didn't pan out. From what I recall getting the wifi to work on my work WiFi was impossible without using the guest network. Also, does it actually have WiFi or was I running a USB dongle? I can't remember. I was able to get some 8 bit console emulators running on it, but they were pretty awful to play and actually launching each ROM required its own shortcut or something? I just remember it was all horribly less convenient than I had hoped it would be.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
@@Nautiklez Yep, it has WiFi. I didn't have any issues connecting mine to my home network (on 2.4GHz). Maybe your network was 5GHz? I had a similar idea regarding SSH access to headless computers/servers. But really, I'm at home would rather use my laptop or desktop for that. Maybe it would make sense for serial connections...
@jakx2ob
6 ай бұрын
Never liked the idea of SoC board made by a small company. I don't want to spend countless hours learning how to use the thing and build projects just for the supplier to go out of business and all my efforts turn worthless.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Yep, there is definitely something to be said for popularity. Better documentation, more people who can help, better chances of ongoing support, etc.
@ConnorNolanTech
5 ай бұрын
I (think) I got my pocket chip through the kickstarter, and just a couple months back I dug out that, along with my 2 other chips, and the HDMI chip hat I got at the same time
@mr_mustash
6 ай бұрын
I was lucky at the time when the Pocket Chip came out because I lived in Oakland, CA at the time. I was a day-one pre-order so I messaged them asking if I could come to visit to pick up my order and to my surprise they agreed. They were very cool showing me around their offices and introducing me to everyone. It's such a shame of what became of Next Thing Co. So much potential and good will with the hacking community just wasted.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
That's really cool that you got to pick it up in person!
@Xpurple
6 ай бұрын
Thank you for the video! About 10 years ago? Shortly after they started to come out I got a call form the guy who owns one of the local computer shops. He had someone with some "strange hardware" that I might want. This lady had bought a bunch of these and got them. I got two pocket chip units and a stack of chip modules. I ended up paying not all that much for them as she just didn't know what to do with them, and didn't want to deal with them. Anyway, I kept one and sold the rest on eBay. I've enjoyed the one I kept for many years, but at this point the keyboard is next to useless. The Pocket Chip is one of the tools I carried in my toolbox. It's nice to have a pocket sized linux computer that I can plug into networks that I'm working on. A while ago I ordered a Clockwork Pi uConsole. It's got a similar form factor and much better specs. The company also has a much better track record. It should be here in the next three months :( As for the Pocket Chip, when the Next Thing servers went offline updates where impossible. Thankfully, someone has fixed this now. The software is still outdated, but at least it's something.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Very interesting! I had a ClockworkPi GameShell years ago and it was solid, so I'm thinking about picking up a uConsole in the near future (assuming I can get one).
@Xpurple
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official : You should. Yes. But, there is quite a wait.
@TechRunnerW175B
6 ай бұрын
I actually managed to get a pocket chip, 4xchips, and the hdmi adapter before it first sold out or during the first restock wave can't remeber exactly
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Do you still have them? What did you end up using them for?
@shemlesh
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_officialI also still have mine as well, I modified u-boot to boot off the USB, and run gokrazy on them. I maintain a linux kernel build on github targeting the hardware. although I'm not maintaining any interactive interface such as X11, I was able to boot into it with Alpine Linux, although I was only testing the composite output and I could never get it out of NTSC, probably a regression in u-boot. I was contemplating porting 9front to the platform to add to my grid but its a lot of effort for a dead platform.
@MontieMongoose
6 ай бұрын
I have a CHIP that I got from the kickstarter. I think I paid like $9 plus shipping. I hardly ever used it though, it is a very underwhelming device. The Pocket Chip looked pretty cool.
@adenansu
6 ай бұрын
I only had a couple of CHIPs. Used one as a home DNS server for a while, and the other for playing wave recordings over the bedroom speakers. After both of them died, I went looking to buy some more and learned that Next Thing hadn't been sending anyone their orders. I pretty much forgot about it after that. Thanks for the vid, subbed!
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
What did you end up using as alternative? Raspberry Pi?
@starboyk
5 ай бұрын
I was one of the Kickstarters for this. Helped work on implementation (NOT programming, mind - my brain is now full of damage so i don't recall the lad's name, but he was based in germany) of the SD reader that fit between the Pocket device and the Chip. the stack was impressive and worked (eventually), but we were waitingon Next Thing Co to implement the drivers needed. It was possible to do this through terminal, but it was a huge PIA, making the extra storage a cumbersome task for an end-user. The exchange with Next Thing was active for about two months, then just died. We both moved onto other projects, and i never ended up touching the Pocket Chip again as I felt like it was incomplete. Still do. Damn shame, as it was a fantastic idea, the entire product (device, advertising, distribution, acquisition - lord, the chip acquisition issues) just wasn't executed well. Wonder what bin in the attic has the Pocket Chip and that ungodly stack of PCBs jutting out of it...
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
Very interesting!
@EsbenH
6 ай бұрын
In 2017 I used my Pocket C.H.I.P. as a job application (tech journalist). Added a custom boot screen and loaded the menu with shortcuts to highlights from podcast I had made, a presentation video and my application - very fun project. Thanks for covering this little part of Kickstarter tech history.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
That's a cool use case! Do you use it for anything these days?
@EsbenH
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official nothing at all 😅 but I want to get it out again and experiment some more with same sort of “single use case” type thing.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
@@EsbenH I'd be interesting in seeing what you come up with if you do!
@ichemnutcracker
6 ай бұрын
I remember when these were first announced, and I thought they were totally awesome. I made a mental note to follow up on them to see if they went anywhere (I rarely impulse-buy, especially on Kickstarter). This is pretty much the first time I've heard anything about them since then. Honestly, it makes me feel a little it sad. The thing still looks super cool, even all these years later.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Exactly! Next Thing Co had real potential and their designs had a lot of appeal, but business is always a lot more than that unfortunately.
@pseydtonne
5 ай бұрын
I have some weird luck. I had read about and watched Next Thing's video where they put the CHIP into a Teddy Ruxpin to make it into a SMS speaker. A couple months later I was in Columbus, home of MicroCenter. This was December 23rd, 2016, and they had the Pocket Chip in stock for $60. I knew a unicorn when I saw it. It made my day, as we were on a drive from Tulsa to spend Christmas with family in Pittsburgh. I had a toy of my own, for those ten seconds when my then-toddler was asleep. I feel bad that all of these people, including you, got ripped off while I got mine without trying.
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
I didn't even realize they were sold at MicroCenter! And funny enough, I actually did a Teddy Ruxpin-style project last year :)
@bergi85
5 ай бұрын
I backed the Pocket CHIP when they went live on Kickstarter back in 2015. Got mine a year or so later. I must've been one of the lucky ones.
@bigbodge
6 ай бұрын
I had one as a kickstarter reward. I was younger and less into linux and hacking and all that back then, so I'm sure I'd find better use for it today, but from what I can remember the keyboard is what killed it for me, with typing for any extended period of time becoming physically painful
@insanity54
6 ай бұрын
Sorry to hear your experience was so negative. I did not have the same experience when I bought my PocketCHIP years ago. I remember getting it quick. Thought the keyswitches were too painful for prolonged typing so ended up selling it to a co-worker. Had no idea there were issues with the company.
@EriSMiller
6 ай бұрын
Same here. Got it right away with no issues, never knew there were any issues.
@saintpaulsnail
6 ай бұрын
I, too, was one who backed the Kickstarter and got what I ordered. I did play around with the PocketCHIP. I could ssh into other systems on my LAN. Convenient for when walking about.
@Censorshift
6 ай бұрын
This was such an awesome device, I remembered being sent a Chip and PocketCHIP to review. Sadly as the company died and support dried up within the BBS going down, I sold my Pocket CHIP. I still have a CHIP 8GB on my shelf. Sad that they died imo
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Definitely!
@Animated__Freak
6 ай бұрын
Some really good production value for such a small channel. I've never really been scammed by one of these crowdfunded projects. The closes thing is I per-ordered a Pyra Handheld but that wasn't crowdfunded as far as I'm aware and I got a full refund when I requested it. As far as I'm aware they are still working on it unlike this thing that was just truly abandoned
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thank you! And I'm not familiar with the Pyra, I'll have to check that out.
@braddofner
6 ай бұрын
Boy, you can tell this guy is just starting KZitem. And his content is already better than a lot of bigger channel. Bravo! Your gonna go somewhere if you want to, bro!
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thank you, I really appreciate that!
@Firevine
5 ай бұрын
I ordered the original CHIP, and got it in what I remember being a decent timeframe. Then all the sudden the company was no more, and I had a neat paperweight.
@DuncanZ64
6 ай бұрын
Wow, I bought a Pocket CHIP back in the day, along with the DIP boards to go with, and I got mine no problem. Played with 'em for a while and then forgot about them. I saw mine in the bottom of a box the other day and then saw this video today. Never knew anything about any of this! Always thought everything was fine but they just didn't hit it big enough to stay afloat or something.
@Melonbrero
6 ай бұрын
Really glad I found this channel. You have amazing production value and your delivery is great. Can't wait to see what you come up with next!
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thank you so much! :D
@Smooj
5 ай бұрын
I'd forgotten about the pocket chip itself, but the concept never left my subconscious. I was literally thinking about building something just like this as a pico-8-only machine for my kid.
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
Luckily there is better hardware you can use for Pico-8!
@spacewolfjr
6 ай бұрын
Right after Next Thing Co (NTC) shutdown but before their forums went away, a guy posted that he was selling a large stock of PocketCHIPs. I ended up buying one and did actually receive it. I had a feeling that NTC had a decent amount of stock in China but it wasn't released due to their inability to pay. I also bought the CHIPPro dev kit from NTC and received it, I don't think the GR8 CPU was really designed by them it was a slightly different version of the R8 with their logo silk screened. I wondered if they had to put up a large amount of capital to get this special run of G/R8s and that's what caused the cash crunch. I absolutely blame the founders for ripping people off, they could have communicated honestly or stopped taking orders (yeah, I know that would cause the downfall of the business but it was already failing). I recall Gustavo mentioning eating a burrito or something on his Twitter right around the time things collapsed and I hoped he choked on it 🤬
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Very interesting! I wonder where that guy got his stock of Pocket CHIPs? And I think you're right about the GR8. I would be very surprised if they did any of the real design work on it (that would take serious expertise). It is more likely that they worked with the manufacturer to get a slightly modified design labeled with their branding.
@SianaGearz
6 ай бұрын
Allwinner will just customise a chip for you if you hit the MOQ. Not custom silicon but custom silkscreens, leadframes and MCMs are an option.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
@@SianaGearz Ah, gotcha!
@coverclock
Ай бұрын
I'm one of the folks that threw money down the Popcorn Computer rathole. It might have been a useful device to use for the kinds of GPS and IMU projects I do in the field (literally in the field, with grass and everything). I've used a "dirt cheap and dead slow" (as a friend of mine described it) HP Mini 110 netbook (which works better than you might think), a GPD Micro PC (remarkable useful, and has a DB9 serial port), or a Pi Top [3], all running Linux, for these kinds of things.
@serialhobbyism_official
Ай бұрын
Interesting! What is your current solution? What kind of work are you doing?
@LeighHart
6 ай бұрын
I didn’t understand why they disappeared but got everything I backed in the original campaign including multiple chip versions and a pocket.
@spacewolfjr
6 ай бұрын
I really like your lamp in the background, where did you get it?
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thanks! Search "Zealbuer" on Amazon :)
@Jalecko
5 ай бұрын
I bought mine 2 years ago on some remaining stock and still use it from time to time its so interesting to finally see someone make a retrospective on the whole system
@ghettoandroid
6 ай бұрын
I own PocketCHIP. I don't remember having any problems with shipping. I've fooled around with it for about a month and had installed a Vice emulator on it before I got bored with it. I had plans of either installing or creating a music tracker for it, reminiscent of the amiga music trackers back in the day, but I've lost interest and it now lies in storage. Now I'm wondering if I can upgrade it with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2. I might have to get a new screen for that to work 🤔
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
I was thinking about a Raspi upgrade too! You'd have to design some sort of adapter since their footprints are completely different, but I bet it could work...
@ghettoandroid
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official Yeah, prob have to 3d print an adapter. I'm sure someone has already upgraded to the Pi Zero on the interwebs. If I find out anything, I'll post a link here.
@H3adcrash
6 ай бұрын
Interesting video! I somehow managed to grab a Pocket Chip back when it was released. And it's one of the most underwhelming pieces of gear I own, haha. It's neat though, and its rocky history is quite interesting. Excellent video. Well done!
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thank you!
@cfg83
6 ай бұрын
I got 2 original C.H.I.P.s back in the day. I thought it would be a winner, but then the Pi Zero came out. From my POV it was game over for C.H.I.P. after that. I never knew about the economic model of selling extras to make a profit, but I never bought the hats anyway. I used the C.H.I.P. as a linux CUPS print server for an olden printer that was not wifi capable. It did a decent job at that, so I got my money's worth. I gave the other to a friend. I was interested in the Pocket CHIP but not for the price point, so I didn't lose any money. I feel sorry for the *promise* of C.H.I.P.
@ChadKapper
6 ай бұрын
Such a good channel!! You should have tons of subs! Regarding the Pocket Chip… it sucks there are so many people with great ideas that get in over their heads.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thank you! And yep, business is hard-especially when it involves manufacturing an entirely new product. I just can't excuse the promises and radio silence.
@thisisreallyme3130
Ай бұрын
I bought the regular CHIP for $9. It would have been better if they charged $20 and made the company sustainable. I remember a talk from Lady Ada who encouraged makers to always aim for 2X or 3X the expected profit, because there's going to be expenses and incidents you never planned for. You don't want to make the only real winners be the resellers, or your landlord.
@djneo92nl
6 ай бұрын
I Backed a Next Thing Co Voder Car thing, they went bankrupt after the kickstarter, but before delivery offcourse, so the money was gone Nice to learn the story of the continued history of the company
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
I really should have talked about the Voder in this video, but completely forgot :(
@JockMurphy
6 ай бұрын
I remember at the time explaining that the CHIP was a loss leader and having concerns about their business model and was worried about their longevity, when so many people I knew thought it was a Pi killer. I think they overestimated their ability to design profitable products as well as their ability to manufacture at scale.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Yep, nailed it!
@JockMurphy
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official IIRC they were a tiny design firm working out of a garage, and had a bright idea and got some money. There is a huge difference between having someone else in charge of manufacturing and logistics and doing it yourself. I have consulted with a number of these little design groups and have seen it a lot
@heatedpoolandbar
6 ай бұрын
I ordered one in March of 2017 that was delivered. I really like the idea of a tiny linux terminal but the fact that the keyboard has no light so you can't type in the dark without learning the layout killed it for me.
@john_hawley
6 ай бұрын
I ordered 3 and received 3-still use them for airplay audio. Never realized people got screwed. I was so bullish on this company EDIT: I ordered just the boards, not the keyboard/display thing.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Interesting, I'm glad you got yours! Do you mean you're using them as Airplay receivers? Anything special with the OS needed to do that?
@takanuva588
6 ай бұрын
By the time I got mine, support had already ended and the people who had been archiving the extra software for it were tired of doing so. Never quite got to enjoy it as it should have been but it was a fun little device while it lasted
@xbiggxx
5 ай бұрын
I bought this for my step dad as a christmas gift and received it no problem. I had no idea about any of this that is wild.
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
That’s an awesome gift for him though!
@bitnotfound
6 ай бұрын
I have a Pocket C.H.I.P.! I even went to purchase the Popcorn Computer kettle pop for $60. Haven’t received anything. But I did have a good amount of back-and-forth with the the CEO. He gave updates and photos a bit more in depth than the blog posts. Even stuff before the posts went up! He even promised me one of the defective units if I provided my address! Obviously nothing came of it, so that’s unfortunate.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
That is very interesting! When was his last communication to you?
@bitnotfound
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official I’m missing some of the emails, but the last one I have is 9/22/21.
@bitnotfound
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official there are several emails missing, but the last one I received from him was 9/22/21.
@jefftheworld
6 ай бұрын
I was only partially surprised to hear the name Jose Torres. Many people in the 2000s chiptune revival music scene will be unsurprised to hear that name. He was well-known for stealing the schematics and software for a Game Boy flash cartridge from some Swedish students and passing it off as his own, making quite a tidy profit off of something that he had no license or legal right to use. :/
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Oh wow, that’s crazy! I had no idea about that, thanks for the info!
@joshuaberkley5219
5 ай бұрын
My experience went something like this: I bought a Pocket Chip, received it, played and programmed a few PICO 8 games, sold it on eBay for twice as much as I bought it for 🤷🏻♂️
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
I feel like Pico-8 was a big part of the draw, but people definitely didn’t need a Pocket CHIP to use it.
@joshuaberkley5219
5 ай бұрын
My thought was, why hold on to this hardware that’s mostly irreplaceable? The more something is worth, the less I want to carry it around and use it. I had lost hope that NTC would keep manufacturing anything. So, I still play PICO 8 to this day, but just as you said, not on this particular handheld.
@Wol333
6 ай бұрын
I used to really like my PocketCHIP. Sold it when it started having issues many years ago. Need a new one!
@mllarson
6 ай бұрын
I remember hearing about the PocketChip and ordered one when they were offering a pre-order sale price. Can't remember how long it took to ship but mine arrived and although I found it neat, I put it in a container and there it sat for years. Last I checked it was still working. Sucks you got scammed out of your money but I had no idea the company was dodgy or I wouldn't have even ordered one.
@palpatinewasright
6 ай бұрын
I bought a pocketchip, and a few chip boards, including the GR8-based pocket chip pro. Intending to sell them as location devices for positioning the block on mobile cranes. Mobile cranes always have the problem where the location is not well defined, and you may need to operate on a site where there's a lot of sight obstacles, and you would like to operate as a single crew member without spotters and so forth. Anyway, the product was a total washout. I'm glad we didn't get too deep into using the pocketchip as a basis for the platform. I have the original pocketchip and indeed yes, I totally agree with everything you said. It currently sits in my crystal display cabinet alongside my dataman (1977), and addiator (1930)
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
How did you solve the crane issue? And I'm jealous of that Dataman!
@palpatinewasright
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official the problem was never solved, the company collapsed due to bad project management with contractors 😞😭. My original dataman was lost in the 80s 😭 this is a replacement I found on eBay, but it works perfectly!
@cncwizard
6 ай бұрын
Well researched & quite interesting. I remember reading about these way back when & almost ordered from Kickstarter. Ended up getting RPi instead, & am glad now that I didn't get one. Might go look for a used one now to play with, you've piqued my interest. Good video, will be subbing.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thank you! I think it is worth buying one if you have an interest.
@aileenmorgan8276
6 ай бұрын
interesting to hear about this! I backed it on Kickstarter and received it in like 2016, couldn't figure out how to use it at the time and it is still in a drawer somewhere!
@TechExploresNYC
6 ай бұрын
I got my shipment of PocketCHIP and CHIP set promptly. But I haven't used it much before the company went dead. I think if you backed the full pocketchip set you are more likely to get your stuff at the time.
@GDJason
5 ай бұрын
Great video. I still have mine from the Kickstarter campaign. Mostly gathered dust after a bit of initial enthusiasm for it. I just found it again recently when I was going through some boxes I shoved in a closet after a move. I was a bit surprised mine still worked after being so long forgotten. I don't feel like I'm anymore likely to do anything with it aside from using it as a display piece.
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
Yeah, "display piece" seems like the only thing it is really good for these days. That's how I'm using it, haha.
@hermitxIII
6 ай бұрын
Bought one of these off ebay in 2020 for less than 50 bucks. Crazy how much the price seems to have inflated.
@4bits4e47
6 ай бұрын
I have one of these! Bought it exclusively for the Pico8 software included. Wanted a portable handheld programming platform to play with. It is not a laptop, not a PC, it is a very good implementation of the chip and, is the basis of most microcontroller projects. Interfacing to it is simple, a few lines of code or bash script and your prototype is realized without a lot of fuss building the same IO capability. I didn't have any trouble with procurement or delivery times. The company may have been mismanaged and that led to its early demise but, the product is really excellent.
@RokkitGrrl
6 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for this video. I knew the Popcorn computer looked awfully suspicious. I never got my Pocket CHIP either.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
When did you try to buy your Pocket CHIP?
@RokkitGrrl
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_officialI think it was back in 2016.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
@@RokkitGrrl Dang... well, you didn't miss out on much. It is honestly more fun to look at then to actually use, haha.
@adrianobaglioni2429
6 ай бұрын
I have 2 chips that I got from the Kickstarter. One ran an in-house Web site that showed my weather station info. Unfortunately, it did tend to randomly crash. Still, it was much cheaper than a raspberry Pi so it was worth it for the several years I had my weather station. I ran across it in a box a few weeks ago. The coincidence of finding this video soon after is cool. Maybe I will pull it out and write some code on it... Thank you for the whole sad story. I did always wonder what happened to the company.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
That sounds like a cool use for it! I bet it would be more stable now with the community-made distros
@realitypoet
6 ай бұрын
I've been waiting for someone to cover this, especially the Popcorn Computer stuff. Since I pre-ordered a Popcorn Pocket PC several years ago I have access to the discord and it's been an interesting time seeing them keep trying to make excuses for why it hasn't shipped yet and just what the heck Jose is up to at any given time. We've all just resigned ourselves that it will either never ship or by the time it does it will be so obsolete it will be useless. So we just stay in the discord server for the entertainment value... lots of ironic🍿emojis. And for people who pre-ordered, there have been a few updates - they just only post them in the discord channel, they stopped posting to the community forum/website so they're not public. That being said the updates are not usually very substantive and mostly just make everyone in the discord angry or confused lol
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Has there been any official communication in the discord from Popcorn since their last update in August 2022?
@realitypoet
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_officialYeah, John Fallon (their social media manager) usually posts an update every couple months - usually a summary of whatever Jose has been working on lately. But they're generally not very substantive or reassuring. They did posts some new videos/photos in December though, and we've seen some behind the scenes tours of the factory in China etc. Edit: they also post about their new PopStick USB Computers product which always just pisses people off since most of the people in the channel are there for the pocket pc
@realitypoet
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_officialmost of the discussion amongst the other backers/customers is some version of "is this a scam or are they just incompetent?" One of the recent official statements from John was basically "Hey, please stop asking for refunds - we spent all the money, there will be no refund. We are still working on this and do plan to ship it. no, we don't know when that will happen."
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
that’s good to know! It’ll be nice if I’m proven wrong and they do fulfill orders eventually. But I’m not sure that would excuse the delays and lack of communication that’s already happened.
@galopeian
6 ай бұрын
The pocket chip is a pretty cool device, I got mine when it released. The only issue is that weird keyboard. I've heard that the Clockwork uConsole is much better though. Back then Piratebox was still being maintained I managed to turn it into a portable ad-hoc internet device that could be charged with a solar battery.
@salmonmoose
6 ай бұрын
Hah, oh, I guess I was one of the lucky ones - I think mine thrown out just recently in a bit to reduce tech-junk.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Oh gosh! You could have probably a decent chunk of change for it!
@paullee107
6 ай бұрын
Wow - like many, I read your articles and oogled over many of these products. Luckily, I stuck with Raspberry Pi and Adafruit - known awesome companies. Thanks for reporting; I think writers need to show us the new projects, but we much be wary.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Oh wow, I'm happy to hear that you're a reader! Adafruit is probably my favorite company in the maker industry. They consistently innovate and manufacture quality products.
@yorkshireitguys1418
6 ай бұрын
I was lucky to get a Pocket C.H.I.P. mine got lots of use and I am still trying to get something to replace it. I still use mine a lot and it was such a shame when the company failed.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
What do you use it for?
@yorkshireitguys1418
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official I mostly use it for SSH and telnet. When I do not want to carry a full laptop and my phone is too small( mostly because I hate typing on a screen) is where my Pocket C.H.I.P. comes in. I am just trying a M5Stack cardputer to replace it but I still like my Pocket C.H.I.P
@TheAkashicTraveller
5 ай бұрын
This whole thing where the biggest creditors get paid first in liquidation is just insane it's the exact opposite of what it should be, the one's with the most to lose relative to their current means are the smallest creditors and the ones most able to absorb the loss are the largest.
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
Good point! That does seem like a really illogical system...
@JohnKiniston
6 ай бұрын
Oh man, I got a pocket chip and 3 chips when they came out, I didn’t know about any of this drama.
@tommyvanpelt2408
6 ай бұрын
My experience was different which is really sad in my opinion as i thought it was a fantastic idea that could have used refinement. I received the one i backed, a replacement pocketchip board, and then an unrequested pocketchip board and keyboard. I never had issues contacting them that i recall but at the same time, I don't recall the need to contact them more than once or twice. All of mine now sit on display.
@Atticore
6 ай бұрын
This is crazy! I ordered and quickly recieved a pocket chip computer at the time, and never heard about any of this. I still have it, but rarely ever use it. It really is a neat little device; such a shame that they screwed people over like this.
@JH-pe3ro
6 ай бұрын
I remember seeing the Pocket Chips circulate a little as the next gamedev gadget fad(long since displaced with stuff like Playdate) and did get some hands-on demo time with one. I knew almost immediately that it wasn't actually what I wanted because the form factor looked cool but wasn't really ergonomic. I've moved on to other neo-retro stuff since, with Agon Light being the current star of the show for me. It's all open(multiple board design variants are published and can be purchased) and makes an empathetic declaration to not be another "Linux on a board" or a Homermobile reproduction of 80's micros. The design is clean, great to tinker with, and practical emulators already exist.
@Dylan1313
6 ай бұрын
i actually owned a pocketchip, still have it. admittedly i haven't really touched in in a while, but it was fun to play Doom on it. i also got a few different "chips" with the HDMI hats on them. they were also pretty cool. i still have them somewhere. not sure what i would use them for today what with raspi 4Bs being so much better. still a really cool piece of history to have.
@milescarter7803
6 ай бұрын
I am just floored by the amount of handheld devices with nowhere to hold them on the back. Looks completely painful to hold. Wish they would do bare minimum a flat back, better yet have the folded paper design go inward and give you something to hold.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
I actually don't mind that part! There is a little gap below the CHIP itself on the back, which gives you a place to stick a finger to hold it securely.
@briannacluck5494
6 ай бұрын
Excellent video, subscribed immediately. The pocket chip got hyped, but I couldn't afford it at the time. I'm glad in hindsight that I didn't hit the preorder button. Interesting fun fact: the popcorn computer website now has the "Shop" link lead to a shopify error page. The rug has truly been pulled out from under people who preordered from them. I own a uConsole and can confirm that it's pretty nice to work with! I don't pull it out super often, as I got the one with a RISC-V core so there's honestly less you can do with it, but one of these days I'll buy a CM4 now that they're not unobtanium anymore to slot it in. The idea of having a little handheld that I can use to develop for pico-8 and tic-80 is very appealing to me, though maybe I'll settle for using my laptop or some spiritual successor to the eee pcs of the mid oughts.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Oh man, I forgot all about TIC-80! I need to see what’s going on in that community!
@io_punk8275
6 ай бұрын
I even have two PocketCHIPs at home. Unfortunately, both are broken. I bought the first one directly from NTC and had it delivered relatively quickly. I got the second one from ebay. Also bought at a very inflated price. I always wanted to use the PocketCHIP as a mobile linux hacking device. As a handy alternative to a laptop, so to speak. I found the layout very practical. What I also found very ingenious was the GPIO bar, where the holes are slightly offset vertically. So you can insert a pin header there without having to solder it. I also liked the idea of using the holes for pens to set up the device. Unfortunately, the CHIP was already a very weak computer back then and the screen resolution was far too low. That's why you couldn't do much with it. I also always found the keyboard very stiff and unreliable. The software repositories were also not well maintained by NTC. I often thought that a similar project should be launched again. For example with a Raspberry Pi CM4. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or the skills.
@Censorshift
6 ай бұрын
Just interested in how they are broken?
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
I definitely want to make a Raspberry Pi work with this. Hopefully I can find time!
@JohnKiniston
6 ай бұрын
Man I would love to connect a pi to my pocket chip.
@vasiovasio
5 ай бұрын
Great video Cameron! By the way, the Uconsole Industrial Design is Unreal! It is like from the Alien movie back in 1979!
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
Thank you! And yeah, the uConsole looks great! I'm trying to get my hands on one so I can do a video comparing it to the Pocket CHIP. Stay tuned :)
@Diemermakes
6 ай бұрын
I skipped the pocketchip but was able to order (and receive) 4 of the $9 chips and a VGA dip. Doing anything with them now a days is a bit tough due to how you have to flash them, requiring me to go dig thru the reddit posts to find the right tools, but they are nifty little things. Like you, at this point I'm not too sure what to do with them lol
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Any chance that RetroPie runs on them? That'd be a cool use with the VGA module running to a CRT monitor. Or even do the same thing to build a dedicated Pico-8 console!
@Diemermakes
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official a dedicated pico8 console was def something I wanted to do and just never got around to it, tho I may still do that. At this point there's so many great cheap retro that run emus faster than this it wouldn't be worth trying retropie I think.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
@@Diemermakes That's a fair point regarding Retropie. Even a Raspi Zero would do better for that. But I think a Pico-8 console would be really cool! I'm not sure how active the community is these days, though.
@dan_loeb
6 ай бұрын
pretty good video, the timing on some cuts is a little off though, 8:44 for example feels a bit awkward. the lighting on the chip close ups is spot on, great b roll.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Thanks for the feedback! I'm doing my best to get better at the cuts and edits. You only have to go a couple months back and my videos get real embarrassing, haha.
@MrBenMcLean
6 ай бұрын
I backed Next Thing Co on kickstarter and did in fact receive my products, which worked as advertised. But other SBCs which came out very quickly made Next Thing Co's stuff obsolete. I still haven't found a use case for the Pocket CHIP since I have other handhelds which can play Pico8 games now with better buttons and screens.
@alanpearly
3 ай бұрын
Thanks for this! You stopped me from ordering one from eBay! I guess it makes more sense to get a Powkiddy RGB30 instead...
@robintel
6 ай бұрын
I found a CHIP board in my collection, not sure why. I'm curious if I can get it working.
@G1itcher
6 ай бұрын
I got a pocket chip from Kickstarter. Didn't realise all this had happened since then. I ended up putting mine in a box and never actually using it for anything. Too many ideas, not enough time (or energy)
@ajshell2
6 ай бұрын
I remember seeing the kickstarter for this back in the day. So glad I never actually bought one.
@briandavidgregory
6 ай бұрын
I have a few CHIPs, including a Pocket CHIP. I must've been one of the few lucky people that received what I ordered as expected. Anyway, I used them for various hobby projects back in 2016/2017 but they've been mostly sitting in a box since them. Now that I'm thinking about it I may pull them out and see what is the current state of software support.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Looks like fans are doing some their own distros and stuff. Worth checking out!
@GingerNingerGames
6 ай бұрын
I remember really wanting one of these, but not having the money at the time, then I started hearing about the issues, I got lucky. Still a cool device though, I do like it a lot in concept. Kind of like a really big Nokia E71
@kfrobertson
6 ай бұрын
I got my order, 2 chips and a handheld. You are right, the novelty wore off rather quickly
@kilrahvp
5 ай бұрын
Oh wow, never knew about the mess. Got all of a couple of original CHIPs, a PocketCHIP and a CHIP Pro dev kit uneventfully from their respective kickstarters, still have them. I upgraded the PocketCHIP to a 5" 800x480 display
@theodricaethelfrith
6 ай бұрын
I'm still bitter about not getting my NTT Dashbot. It's not even the money-- I *really* wanted it. I still do!
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
That sounds familiar, but all I see coming up is a chatbot. What was the NTT Dashbot?
@JohnKiniston
6 ай бұрын
I backed that too, man it would have been cool.
@JohnKiniston
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_officialit was essentially a local ai version of the Amazon echo auto.
@theodricaethelfrith
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official an in-car Alexa and navigation system with a red LED matrix display. Later renamed Voder, then silently killed.
@NullStaticVoid
6 ай бұрын
I saw a kickstarter for a raid product last weeks and I laughed so hard.
@hrnekbezucha
6 ай бұрын
I was considering getting a pocket chip when the kickstarter ran but the shipping fee was insanely high, so I held off. Then I got it second-hand from ebay for a few bucks, and I'm really glad I didn't pony up the money back then. It's got a huge potential but ended up a really underwhelming result.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Yeah, "underwhelming" is a good word for it!
@emberhusky6878
5 ай бұрын
A local pc Recycling in Seattle has about fifty of them I bought two myself .
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
Nice, lucky find!
@robertmoorej
5 ай бұрын
Iv had one for years. I didn't end up playing with it as much as I thought I would. And I've got a couple of the little add-on cards for it like a video output.
@robertmoorej
5 ай бұрын
Iv considered using it as some kinda home assistant remote.
@serialhobbyism_official
5 ай бұрын
@@robertmoorej That would be an interesting use case!
@sschueller
6 ай бұрын
Very interesting. I did not know about all the issues as I ordered mine in May 2016 and it shipped 8.8.2016. It is however like many mini computers, limited use. The keyboard is not very good and I don't have much use for it. I just received a clockwork pi uconsole after quite a delay and although much better than the pocket chip it is also limited in usability.
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
I'd like to get a uConsole! I had a ClockworkPi Gameshell many years ago (they sent it to me to review) and it was neat. But I wish they'd release a model that accepts the standard "B" Raspberry Pi form factor. Then I could use it to setup new Pis that I'm planning on running headless after the initial setup.
@Xpurple
6 ай бұрын
I ordered a uConsole as well. i used the heck out of my pocket chip. So, I expect I'll enjoy the uConsole just as much.
@sschueller
6 ай бұрын
@@Xpurple You will enjoy the uConsole a lot more as it is way more usable.
@EarnestWilliamsGeofferic
6 ай бұрын
Still waiting for my CHIP, never mind a Pocket CHIP. Edit: WTF, how are there only 800 subscribers??
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
Luckily, I don't think you're missing out on much!
@ho0t0w1
6 ай бұрын
...but will it run Doom... 😂 great video bro, you got my sub! I'm honestly glad this project eluded me when it was active, or I'd be sitting right with you angry as hell at another tech kickstarter project... on the other hand, I can't be more grateful to be so entwined in the Flipper Zero community, from a very early stage. Its incredible being in that loop, running the bleeding edge custom FW, as new use cases and novel concepts are being applied and successfully implemented every update. Thats one project I wouldn't wanna be without, and I'm proud to own a lot of the un-gettable GPIO modules that were for a very short period available in short supply to those on the ball, my Flipper loadout is 1337😊
@serialhobbyism_official
6 ай бұрын
I think it actually can run Doom! And thank you! You’re right about the Flipper Zero and I really need to get myself one
@ho0t0w1
6 ай бұрын
@@serialhobbyism_official you most definitely do, run Xtreme Firmware as soon as you get it as the stock fw is intentionally nerfed for legal reasons and a lot of functionality is disabled. Also, XFW has new novel vectors such as the absolutely insane BT spoofing BadKB app, that can emulate any BT device, and upon connection, OTA INJECT DUCKYSCRIPT AS IF A USB DUCK HAS PHYSICAL ACCESS. YOU READ THAT RIGHT. and that wasn't even an intended function, WillyJL is just a god tier coder and comes up with some incredible ways to push the limits. He split from XFW team a month ago and started MomentumFW, which is based off of XFW entirely but with MORE additions, claims of an even more active dev team, and I gotta admit Willy is the one who created a HANDFUL of the things that made Clara's XFW project so unique. I ran hers for 52 versions, but I'm running MFW001 as of last night, and it's got some work to be done before it's as smooth as the last XFW. Quick and easy bug fixes in the API and things like that though, I fully expect patches this week as I reported 2 of the init-crash events at 4am and he's already on it 😂
@Lp-ze1tg
6 ай бұрын
Good thing that I held my desire to order one.
@Necrotron
5 ай бұрын
I remember the Chip! I remember when it never materialized for most people!
@poorlymadeproduction
5 ай бұрын
when 8:47 came on i thought it was another ad that was the most annoying music and sound effects ive heard in my life
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