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
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.
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.
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 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
@@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... :(
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!
Happened to me when buying a Pebbl watch, but something weird happened with the online transaction and maybe the bank somehow got the money back to me. I don't remember.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Oh wow... stop for a second and think about how crazy what is for this RUclipsr. 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!
@@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, ;) .
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.
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.
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
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.
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 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.
@@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...
@@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.
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.
Interesting summary of the company's dealings. I was lucky i guess. Ordered 4 CHIPs w/ batteries, cables, HDMI hats; also got a PocketChip. Had fun playing a bit. Various projects online by others were fun. But then my circumstances changed and I left them for several years. When I finally circled back I learned the company was gone and many people never got their purchases. My dilemma now is how to update the OS. I dont yet know enough to see how to update the OS, or even if it is possible, given the hardware. Anyway, thanks for the vid. Subscribed. Ill check out some of ur other projects.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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...
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 🤷🏻♂️
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
Boy, you can tell this guy is just starting RUclips. And his content is already better than a lot of bigger channel. Bravo! Your gonna go somewhere if you want to, bro!
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
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
Reminds me of Earl. A back country tablet that had soooo many pre orders. Then absolutely nothing happened for years. Some people got refunds. But most didn’t. And the founder disappeared.
@@serialhobbyism_official oh man. That would be cool I’d definitely watch that. I almost put money into it. But I didn’t. I followed the project for a long time. And was even in the forums for a bit. I remember quite a bit. People were pissed!!!
@@serialhobbyism_official if memory servers they started to say things about not getting parts or something like that. And unspecified delays. They did come out with a “prototype” and several design changes. Then as technology rapidly improved they “fell behind” on development. Eventually they started to get calls for refunds. I’m curious now if the site is on the waybackmachine. Finally they did indeed go radio silent after a few more posts on the main website.
They gave excuses for a long time. Posted photos to their blog. Even gave some people refunds for a while. But eventually they went radio silent. One very dedicated member of the community tried to keep certain things together. Even serving as a liaison for the founder for a while. Then one day he stopped responding. Then the site went down. Now it’s all but a memory except a handful of videos on RUclips. (Two I think) Meet earl. The backcountry tablet. It would have been a groundbreaking piece of equipment if it ever got to the public.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I actually did get a PocketCHIP when I ordered, but this is sounding exactly like my experience with Ready 100! I paid over $2000 - not from a kickstarter, but from his webpage. The guy has been radio silent for months. Shit like this really boils my blood.
$2,000?! Why so much? I actually covered the Ready 100 Kickstarter and remember being skeptical. If I remember correctly, it didn't seem like the creator had any experience with bringing a product to market. I just took a look at the Kickstarter comments and people are not happy!
There were several red flags that I should have seen but didn't. I didn't back the kickstarter, I bought a unit from his website that said they were shipping in like a month. I knew it was a Canadian based company out of Toronto, and since the kickstarter was in CAD funds, I thought the website was too, strike 1. So part of my overpayment was his site was in USD (not clearly marked). Then he had several upgrade options which I bought into. When it got to the point of my considering chargeback, he basically bullied me into not doing it because if I did, it could cause more delays for everyone else involved because he was skating on such thin ice. I was stupid enough to fall for it. Now the time for chargeback is long gone, and no one has heard anything from him in about a year. I fucking hate that guy with my entire soul.
@@serialhobbyism_official well you just got a subscription, would love to see a video on it lol. There's also a ready discord where a lot of the customers still hang around.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
i also got a pocket chip off of ebay a while back, trying to get more into hacking and alternative handheld gaming devices. i used it for a bit but its underpowered performance kept it from running basically anything but the included apps which made it a beautiful disappointment. it sits on my shelf collecting dust and now i have the analogue pocket which satisfies what i had hoped to get out of the pocket chip.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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!
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. :/
got mine at the living computer museum in seattle back in 2017, it was fun to use for a bit, but the flash chip in it gets corrupted and stops booting. I fixed it a couple times but it ends up dying after a bit anyway, so i repurposed the parts
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.
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.
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.
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 I think it was like a little 3D printed frame and lenses you could add to do some virtual boy style mini games. Looked really cool, I think it was an april fool’s joke that got made into a real thing
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
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 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
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.
...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 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 😂
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.
I remember seeing this thing when it was new, I was really excited about PIco-8 being on it but I was a little burnt out on failed kickstarters to give it a try. Glad I dodged that bullet. Pretty happy with the Steam Deck nowadays and many emulation handhelds running pico-8 now. That caplet keyboard didn't look all that comfortable to use anyway.
Had one from the original Kickstarter, was delivered as promised. As for the device, I felt similar to what you experienced. Screen resolution was the reason I sold it after about a year, I just didn't know what to do with it. I'm not into games. I'm sure I would have found a usage if it had a bigger resolution, and a bit more protected screen - I was always worried that the glass would brake, when not put into a sleeve before putting it into my backpack.
i have two lol i got one before they folded then found someone selling unopened ones for cheap, that ones still in the box. do you remember there other project? the car thing, did it ever get released?
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 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
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 🤬
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 🤔
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...
@@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.
I don't quite remember the exact process, but I believe I had some kind of preorder for a PocketCHIP when they first came out, and based on some old e-mails it looks like they shipped mine June 2016, which would have been right around the time it released. Admittedly I don't think I ever did a lot with it or was active in the community, so I had no idea about all this drama. I think I was mainly sold on it for the low price and as a portable PICO-8 platform, but in practice I found the keyboard really clunky for playing games. I still have the PocketCHIP, but hadn't thought about it in a good while.
I had a PocketChip back in the day. Having always chased the dream of the perfect pocket computer I remember being quite disappointed with it. The screen had a really narrow viewing angle and an imprecise resistive touch screen. The keyboard is absolutely terrible and will hurt your fingers if used for any amount of time. And the processor seemed a bit too slow to be running a gui for much more than displaying a desktop. I think I modded in a speaker though. Also having the GPIO pins exposed like that makes it really easy to short out, so I put some tape over them. I'm currently waiting on my uConsole to arrive, which seems much closer to the gadget I've been dreaming of - at least clockwork seem to be fulfilling orders, albeit a tad slow. Great video, subbed!
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.
I'm definitely interested, glad this hit my algorithm. I never have ordered, because it always seemed too vague. I would snap up a Popcorn handheld that a reseller had in hand, if that day ever comes. Lol.
I've got a Pocket CHIP. I use it mostly as a hand-held Pico-8. Pico-8 can actually access the GPIO pins, so I made a rumble-pack that attaches to my Pocket CHIP. (Do any Pico-8 games support rumble? No. But Pico-8 games ship with source code, and triggering the rumble takes about two lines of code. So I've added it to a few of my favorites.) On occasion I've used my Pocket CHIP as a text terminal, but the screen resolution makes that awkward.
I have 5. 4 unopened and unused. anybody want?
That's awesome! I'll pin your comment so people can see it.
I'd love one!
How much for one and where can I contact you?
id be interested how much?
Honestly yes, I am in need for a hackable portable device
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
Mom was looking out for ya!
You could still save money and buy a uConsole.
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.
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.
they just moved on to the "next thing", sorry someone had to do it
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.
when i clicked this I thought it was a big channel. Great Video man had me hooked for something i dont care about!
Thank you! That's very kind of you to say and means a lot!
Agreed! Very well done! Excellent production value.
@@DavidHJones Thank you so much!
Same here. Subbed to you too @SpexFX. Just to be your 100th =)
This is happening to me a lot lately, I'm glad RUclips is pushing smaller creators again.
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!
That’s really awesome! How do you like pockethome-bismuth? Does it add anything interesting?
@@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
@@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... :(
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!
@@serialhobbyism_officialSoftware is my strong suit! Just eh... send me one of these things for free 😂
When you suddenly realize... "Hey I ordered one of those... It never did show up"
Happened to me when buying a Pebbl watch, but something weird happened with the online transaction and maybe the bank somehow got the money back to me. I don't remember.
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.
Sounds like a really cool course!
@@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.
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.
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.
Yeah, that seems like the ideal use case!
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! 😁
@@thewiirocks You must really enjoy punishing yourself! 🤣
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.
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).
@@serialhobbyism_official : You should. Yes. But, there is quite a wait.
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.
Dang, that’s a lucky find!
Oh wow... stop for a second and think about how crazy what is for this RUclipsr. 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!
Ha ha, you read my mind. I am going to keep my eyes open for one out "in the wilderness" from this point forward.
I never find anything at thrift stores.
@@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, ;) .
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.
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.
Yep, there is definitely something to be said for popularity. Better documentation, more people who can help, better chances of ongoing support, etc.
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
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.
That's an awesome birthday gift! When did you get yours? Did you find any uses for it?
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.
@@nick_XIII I'm doing the same thing: displaying it on a shelf next my Zunes, minidisc player, Game Boy Color, and so on.
@@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.
@@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...
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.
That’s an awesome gift for him though!
Thanks for this! You stopped me from ordering one from eBay! I guess it makes more sense to get a Powkiddy RGB30 instead...
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
Do you still have them? What did you end up using them for?
@@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.
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.
That's a really cool use for it!
Interesting summary of the company's dealings. I was lucky i guess. Ordered 4 CHIPs w/ batteries, cables, HDMI hats; also got a PocketChip. Had fun playing a bit. Various projects online by others were fun. But then my circumstances changed and I left them for several years. When I finally circled back I learned the company was gone and many people never got their purchases. My dilemma now is how to update the OS. I dont yet know enough to see how to update the OS, or even if it is possible, given the hardware. Anyway, thanks for the vid. Subscribed. Ill check out some of ur other projects.
Thank you! There is a subreddit (search for 'chip community') with lots of information on updating the OS!
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!
What did you end up using as alternative? Raspberry Pi?
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.
That's really cool that you got to pick it up in person!
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.
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.
Interesting! What is your current solution? What kind of work are you doing?
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.
Yeah, "display piece" seems like the only thing it is really good for these days. That's how I'm using it, haha.
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.
I didn't even realize they were sold at MicroCenter! And funny enough, I actually did a Teddy Ruxpin-style project last year :)
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!
Thank you so much! :D
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.
Good point! That does seem like a really illogical system...
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.
Same here. Got it right away with no issues, never knew there were any issues.
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.
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.
Thank you so much for this video. I knew the Popcorn computer looked awfully suspicious. I never got my Pocket CHIP either.
When did you try to buy your Pocket CHIP?
@@serialhobbyism_officialI think it was back in 2016.
@@RokkitGrrl Dang... well, you didn't miss out on much. It is honestly more fun to look at then to actually use, haha.
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.
Iv considered using it as some kinda home assistant remote.
@@robertmoorej That would be an interesting use case!
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.
That's a cool use case! Do you use it for anything these days?
@@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.
@@EsbenH I'd be interesting in seeing what you come up with if you do!
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
Great video Cameron! By the way, the Uconsole Industrial Design is Unreal! It is like from the Alien movie back in 1979!
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 :)
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.
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.
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
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...
Very interesting!
I found a CHIP board in my collection, not sure why. I'm curious if I can get it working.
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 🤷🏻♂️
I feel like Pico-8 was a big part of the draw, but people definitely didn’t need a Pocket CHIP to use it.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Luckily there is better hardware you can use for Pico-8!
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.
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
I didn’t understand why they disappeared but got everything I backed in the original campaign including multiple chip versions and a pocket.
Boy, you can tell this guy is just starting RUclips. And his content is already better than a lot of bigger channel. Bravo! Your gonna go somewhere if you want to, bro!
Thank you, I really appreciate that!
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
Thank you! And I'm not familiar with the Pyra, I'll have to check that out.
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
Definitely!
Reminds me of Earl. A back country tablet that had soooo many pre orders. Then absolutely nothing happened for years. Some people got refunds. But most didn’t. And the founder disappeared.
I don't think I heard about Earl! I just did a quick search and it looks pretty interesting. Maybe I'll do a video about that in the future!
@@serialhobbyism_official oh man. That would be cool I’d definitely watch that. I almost put money into it. But I didn’t. I followed the project for a long time. And was even in the forums for a bit. I remember quite a bit. People were pissed!!!
@@crisper1614 Do you remember if they gave excuses? Or did they just go radio silent?
@@serialhobbyism_official if memory servers they started to say things about not getting parts or something like that. And unspecified delays. They did come out with a “prototype” and several design changes. Then as technology rapidly improved they “fell behind” on development. Eventually they started to get calls for refunds. I’m curious now if the site is on the waybackmachine. Finally they did indeed go radio silent after a few more posts on the main website.
They gave excuses for a long time. Posted photos to their blog. Even gave some people refunds for a while. But eventually they went radio silent. One very dedicated member of the community tried to keep certain things together. Even serving as a liaison for the founder for a while. Then one day he stopped responding. Then the site went down. Now it’s all but a memory except a handful of videos on RUclips. (Two I think) Meet earl. The backcountry tablet. It would have been a groundbreaking piece of equipment if it ever got to the public.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thank you! I think it is worth buying one if you have an interest.
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.
Oh man, I forgot all about TIC-80! I need to see what’s going on in that community!
I actually did get a PocketCHIP when I ordered, but this is sounding exactly like my experience with Ready 100! I paid over $2000 - not from a kickstarter, but from his webpage. The guy has been radio silent for months. Shit like this really boils my blood.
$2,000?! Why so much? I actually covered the Ready 100 Kickstarter and remember being skeptical. If I remember correctly, it didn't seem like the creator had any experience with bringing a product to market. I just took a look at the Kickstarter comments and people are not happy!
There were several red flags that I should have seen but didn't. I didn't back the kickstarter, I bought a unit from his website that said they were shipping in like a month. I knew it was a Canadian based company out of Toronto, and since the kickstarter was in CAD funds, I thought the website was too, strike 1. So part of my overpayment was his site was in USD (not clearly marked). Then he had several upgrade options which I bought into. When it got to the point of my considering chargeback, he basically bullied me into not doing it because if I did, it could cause more delays for everyone else involved because he was skating on such thin ice. I was stupid enough to fall for it. Now the time for chargeback is long gone, and no one has heard anything from him in about a year. I fucking hate that guy with my entire soul.
@@dnos1979 Holy cow, that sucks, I'm sorry! Sounds like I need to do some research into him and the company!
@@serialhobbyism_official well you just got a subscription, would love to see a video on it lol. There's also a ready discord where a lot of the customers still hang around.
Can confirm I ordered a C.H.I.P. Pro on 12-05-2017 according to the email. Haven't thought about it in years. I guess I'm not getting it 😂
Sorry to hear that! But if it makes you feel better, you didn't really miss out on much. It looks really cool, but is otherwise kinda pointless.
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.
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.
Yeah, "underwhelming" is a good word for it!
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.
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.
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.
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)
How did you solve the crane issue? And I'm jealous of that Dataman!
@@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!
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.
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.
i also got a pocket chip off of ebay a while back, trying to get more into hacking and alternative handheld gaming devices. i used it for a bit but its underpowered performance kept it from running basically anything but the included apps which made it a beautiful disappointment. it sits on my shelf collecting dust and now i have the analogue pocket which satisfies what i had hoped to get out of the pocket chip.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
I really should have talked about the Voder in this video, but completely forgot :(
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!
Thank you!
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. :/
Oh wow, that’s crazy! I had no idea about that, thanks for the info!
got mine at the living computer museum in seattle back in 2017, it was fun to use for a bit, but the flash chip in it gets corrupted and stops booting. I fixed it a couple times but it ends up dying after a bit anyway, so i repurposed the parts
Ah, that sucks! I'm kinda surprised mine worked without any issues at all, after sitting in the box for so many years.
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.
Looks like fans are doing some their own distros and stuff. Worth checking out!
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.
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.
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.
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?
Bought one of these off ebay in 2020 for less than 50 bucks. Crazy how much the price seems to have inflated.
I always wanted to try that little VR mode they added.
I don't think I've heard about that! What is it and how did it work?
@@serialhobbyism_official I think it was like a little 3D printed frame and lenses you could add to do some virtual boy style mini games. Looked really cool, I think it was an april fool’s joke that got made into a real thing
@@cloudycolacorp Interesting! I'll have to try to find it.
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
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.
What do you use it for?
@@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
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.
...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😊
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
@@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 😂
These kids nowadays don’t know how easy they’ve got it with their dang ol’ flipper zero’s and the like :P
😂
I got my order, 2 chips and a handheld. You are right, the novelty wore off rather quickly
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.
Just interested in how they are broken?
I definitely want to make a Raspberry Pi work with this. Hopefully I can find time!
Man I would love to connect a pi to my pocket chip.
I remember seeing this thing when it was new, I was really excited about PIco-8 being on it but I was a little burnt out on failed kickstarters to give it a try. Glad I dodged that bullet.
Pretty happy with the Steam Deck nowadays and many emulation handhelds running pico-8 now.
That caplet keyboard didn't look all that comfortable to use anyway.
Had one from the original Kickstarter, was delivered as promised. As for the device, I felt similar to what you experienced. Screen resolution was the reason I sold it after about a year, I just didn't know what to do with it. I'm not into games. I'm sure I would have found a usage if it had a bigger resolution, and a bit more protected screen - I was always worried that the glass would brake, when not put into a sleeve before putting it into my backpack.
i have two lol i got one before they folded then found someone selling unopened ones for cheap, that ones still in the box. do you remember there other project? the car thing, did it ever get released?
The Voder? No, it didn’t sadly. I wish I had remembered to talk about it in this video, but I forgot 😢
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.
Yep, nailed it!
@@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
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 🤬
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.
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.
@@SianaGearz Ah, gotcha!
uconsole actually made a real pocket chip successor
Yeah, that looks promising and I'd like to get one!
@@serialhobbyism_official the only issue they have is manufacturing, I paid in October of 22 and got it later October of last year
Although people are getting the RISC version
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.
That sounds like a cool use for it! I bet it would be more stable now with the community-made distros
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.
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.
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 🤔
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...
@@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.
I don't quite remember the exact process, but I believe I had some kind of preorder for a PocketCHIP when they first came out, and based on some old e-mails it looks like they shipped mine June 2016, which would have been right around the time it released. Admittedly I don't think I ever did a lot with it or was active in the community, so I had no idea about all this drama. I think I was mainly sold on it for the low price and as a portable PICO-8 platform, but in practice I found the keyboard really clunky for playing games. I still have the PocketCHIP, but hadn't thought about it in a good while.
I had a PocketChip back in the day. Having always chased the dream of the perfect pocket computer I remember being quite disappointed with it. The screen had a really narrow viewing angle and an imprecise resistive touch screen. The keyboard is absolutely terrible and will hurt your fingers if used for any amount of time. And the processor seemed a bit too slow to be running a gui for much more than displaying a desktop. I think I modded in a speaker though. Also having the GPIO pins exposed like that makes it really easy to short out, so I put some tape over them. I'm currently waiting on my uConsole to arrive, which seems much closer to the gadget I've been dreaming of - at least clockwork seem to be fulfilling orders, albeit a tad slow. Great video, subbed!
Well said! I'm really interesting in the uConsole, too. I'll probably try to get one soon!
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.
Oh man, I got a pocket chip and 3 chips when they came out, I didn’t know about any of this drama.
wish I’d kept mine, looks like they’re selling for stupid money on eBay, I threw / gave it away during a big clean out
Yeah, even used they’re like $100+
I'm definitely interested, glad this hit my algorithm. I never have ordered, because it always seemed too vague. I would snap up a Popcorn handheld that a reseller had in hand, if that day ever comes. Lol.
I've got a Pocket CHIP. I use it mostly as a hand-held Pico-8.
Pico-8 can actually access the GPIO pins, so I made a rumble-pack that attaches to my Pocket CHIP. (Do any Pico-8 games support rumble? No. But Pico-8 games ship with source code, and triggering the rumble takes about two lines of code. So I've added it to a few of my favorites.)
On occasion I've used my Pocket CHIP as a text terminal, but the screen resolution makes that awkward.
That is so cool! I didn’t even think about accessing GPIO with Pico-8