Well. Ordered 2. So will see whats next lol

Yeah, I ordered one as well. Have to see how much effort it takes to port my apps to it...

Seems possible. Lots of sources already avail. Here the kernel source:
https://github.com/NextThingCo/CHIP-linux?files=1

Hey, just got a heads-up that the CHIP is about to ship. Bare CHIPs should start appearing by around the beginning of July, and probably will take at least a month to ship the entire batch of pre-orders. PocketCHIPs appear to be on a pace to be ready around the end of July / beginning of August. Info here.

I guess it's time that I should pull down the CHIP SDK and start messing around...

my PocketCHIP is on it's way to me over oceans

Well, it turns out that some Maemo software is already showing up on the PocketCHIP. One of the devs says that they are using vala-terminal as their terminal app...

Hey, finally got my PocketCHIP! Well, it's a cheap single-board computer housed inside a cheap portable container with a cheap low-res screen attached. But it's surprisingly sturdy! And it's just nice to have a straight-up standard distribution of Linux in my pocket. (Debian, in this case.)

I'll have to see how hard it is to port or develop software for this thing.

I'll attach an image of the device. Also, a link to the full-size pic on my Google Drive account (seems that Google no longer allows embedded views of images in Drive accounts...):

Link to Google Drive Pic

EDIT: Oh, and a warning for those in the forum who might be interested in buying one of these devices: it does NOT, I repeat, does NOT come with a wall charger (or even a USB cable)!

And after a couple of weeks is this toy really usable ?

Hmm. Not "usable" in the way folks on this forum would normally describe it. Let's see...

-- This device ships with Debian Linux. If you order a PocketCHIP, it includes a "GUI" that shows six icons for six demonstrator apps: Terminal (access to the terminal), PICO-8 (a game engine), SunVOX (a music creation app), Help (an HTML page), Write (Leafpad), and Browse Files (a file manager called PCManFM). There's also a limited settings screen. That's it.

If you order the CHIP SBC by itself, you get no GUI at all. (Of course, you can install your own.)

I've pretty much stopped using the PocketCHIP GUI, and just use the terminal to manage the device. Then again, that's kind of what I prefer.

-- The PocketCHIP's screen resolution is 480x272 pixels, so many ordinary apps are going to have trouble fitting onto the screen. (Although Firefox does quite a good job of using that space effectively. I was kinda surprised at that. )

-- They don't yet have a driver set up for the Mali GPU. So, videos and gaming are extremely limited. NTC says that they are working on this; but no precise timeline (that I know of) yet.

-- The CPU is pretty darn slow. Of course, I'm mostly running desktop apps on my machine; but then, that's pretty much all that's available right now.

So if you're looking for a portable experience akin to an iPhone or an Android, you'll want to look elsewhere.

I'm doing fine with it, though:

++ So far, I like the keyboard (although lots of other folks complain about it); the size and the tactile feedback feel very nice to my thumbs. Editing files in vim is quite nice.

++ But, if you don't like the keyboard, a bluetooth keyboard will work just fine -- I tried it myself. Or, even easier, just plug a USB keyboard into the provided USB port. I've tested that too. (A mouse works too!)

++ Along those lines -- probably the easiest thing to do is to just plug a USB hub into the machine. The PocketCHIP can only provide a limited amount of juice to external peripherals, so a powered hub is probably best. I've still been messing around with this, but I'm probably going to set up a permanent "dock" for my PocketCHIP, so that I can use my favorite keyboard and mouse with it. Works with USB hard drives as well. I guess pretty much any USB device that works under Linux will work on the PocketCHIP...

++ The PocketCHIP's network settings app was too limited for me (I couldn't set a static IP address). So, I simply went to the terminal and ran nmtui; voila, network up and running. It really is the full-blown Debian distribution.

++ The battery is lasting me longer than I would have expected (hours even!). But, I have to admit I've not tried to completely drain it yet. My personal use-case so far has been to treat this thing as an extremely portable desktop computer that I'm using at various static locations, rather than something I use while in transit. So I end up having it plugged in most of the time. Still, it's the best I've seen any SBC do in power management yet.

In sum: this is a single-board computer housed in a fairly convenient portable case. If you have a reason to take a single-board computer around with you, this thing is delightful. If you just want to run some portable apps while on the go, this thing will be useless for you.

Sounds cool and I went to order one right away but was stopped by the $69 price tag. For a toy I do not really need, at the time when I am still recovering financially from extravagant expenditure a few months ago, I had to suppress the urge and reluctantly close the browser tab

Fortunately, a better look at the side and back of the product (all pictures I had seen before were frontal) has made my decision a bit less painful