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Weird AliExpress laptop with Intel 8088 CPU

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torch Page Icon Posted 2023-05-19 11:08 PM
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Found this on Ars Technica
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Weird AliExpress laptop with Intel 8088 CPU will take you back to the MS-DOS era
"Book 8088" retro laptop promises a real-deal MS-DOS experience.

Source article here
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/05/brand-new-laptop-recreates-1...
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dl1av Page Icon Posted 2023-05-20 6:15 AM
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So it could be a fake? That was assumed in a german forum, too.

Availability problems, unknown manufacturer, stolen BIOS from another retro-project?

Besides that: "no shipping to Germany"

What a pity, that could be my newest addition to the palmtop pool.

-Stefan
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torch Page Icon Posted 2023-05-20 8:57 AM
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Sorry I admittedly got super excited, shared it and didn’t read the whole article.
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dl1av Page Icon Posted 2023-05-20 9:04 AM
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Me too

But more and more it looks like vaporware. Information is sparsely given
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2023-05-20 10:32 PM
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I too was caught up, but 1) no one has any info on battery life, which already means no one's actually tried one out 2) if that developer, who already made his BIOS open-source, has been screwed, that alone makes a person hesitate.

But what fun it would be, though my Omnibook 425 has a built-in mouse, runs on on 4 AAs, does Win3.1, and I'm on-line with it, so why am I so caught up?

But let's say it isn't vaporware, the BIOS isn't stolen, then the real rub is: can it run Win3.0 in standard mode? If so, it can run Word 2.0 which can still be edited/saved in Word 97, and Word 97 can still run on Win10.

Jake
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dl1av Page Icon Posted 2023-05-21 5:57 AM
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The actual result of discussion in some fora is that it is non-existing, just photoshop.

Maybe a market evaluation to check if there is any demand for such a thing.

Personally I think it comes from the category of fakes "too good to be true": Original 8088 in a comfortable, robust and small palmtop-like case (like some B200). "Original BIOS" with full compatibility. Expandable beyond imagination with an attachable ISA-expander. CGA-display.

All that together with a really crappy website http://8086cpu.com/ (even the nigerian princes would have a better web-designer)

I do not think that they could even locate enough of the vintage parts to support a full production run. They would have to change the specs of the parts during production (just like Commodore back in the days, they took what they could get for little money) and that is not the way the cheap chinese manufacturers work.

Yes, that would be a very beautiful "color-Omnibook" like the OB800 (only with slower cpu) but I think the only way to get hands on some kind of that is to build it ourselves from the scratch with help from the few similiar projects in the maker-scene that came up the last months.

-stefan
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2023-05-21 4:57 PM
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Aliexpress no longer has said item for sale. Hmm...

Jake
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dl1av Page Icon Posted 2023-05-21 5:59 PM
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Well, thats obviously a case of "too good to be true..."

And I have lost all my gambling money in the Astro-campaign so I had to step back here
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2023-05-21 6:06 PM
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@dl1av -- PC didn't ship yours? So sorry; you have my sympathy.

Jake
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dl1av Page Icon Posted 2023-05-21 6:59 PM
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No - didn´t hear from them since two years.

That company is broke and noone will get their device, besides the few lucky ones who got it when they tried to enter the open markets to raise some cash. Meanwhile their name is burned and noone will give them any money for anything again (and they tried to launch a brandnew Indiegogo-campaign).

I assume it is the same with the 8088. Maybe they have a few prototypes and now try to get as much advanced payments as possible out of it.

How about your Astro? Is it still working?
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2023-05-21 9:07 PM
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Wow, I am so sorry. I have the Gem and the Cosmo and had enough problems with those to make me pass on the Astro.

I had not heard that they tried another IGG--do you know what it was? Astro II?

Jake
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dl1av Page Icon Posted 2023-05-22 5:40 AM
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No, not "the new Astro". Just such a mini-cube-pc for the desktop that everyone "invents" today. It would be good for them because such an item is interesting for big companies with thousends of workplaces and they hoped to have sold thousands in a short time.
But only 16 subscribers within weeks

They even send regular updates on this while completely ignoring the Astro-campaign since a few months.

That ship (and that company) has sailed....
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2023-05-22 6:10 AM
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I'm sorry for the Astro case.

I had a similar experience on Kickstarter long time ago with OUYA, a tiny game console. I decided to write to their public Facebook page that they are scamming if they don't respond, and to my surprise, they replied and refunded. Maybe there's a chance writing to them similarly.

-stingraze

Edited by stingraze 2023-05-22 6:12 AM
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dl1av Page Icon Posted 2023-05-22 6:32 AM
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PC is a lost case. The company is practically not existing anymore and only one guy. The address of the company is a private address in a lovely english town. No room for anything besides a small 3d-printer
He perhaps raised 1.5million dollars from the Astro-campaign but he had to live through covid and had to pay his employees in the beginning.
I don´t think there is left much to produce any Astro without raising new funds from whatever campaign.

Two years before covid I joined the Blackview-campaign for a cellphone with IR-cam. That was a novelty these days and not common like today. About 500USD, too.

They didn´t get it right and after a few tries to confuse the crowd and them promising refund (and never sending money) we all wrote everywhere that the company may be chinese fraud.

After that they decided to pay out a few and I was lucky

But that only happened because Blackview wanted to continue the use of the brandname for a new phone every few months. PC only has that former Psion-guy and his palmtops so that all is gone.

-stefan
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2023-05-22 1:53 PM
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Man, this is such bad news all around. I recently bought an fxtec Pro1x. Their issue was their cpu maker pulled out the rug and they had to find another cpu, which they didn't test well, and so the phone doesn't make phone calls for most users (listener can't hear the caller, etc).

Further aggravation: to generate cash, fxtec sold a bunch of Pro1x in expansys.hk (where I bought) and the price was half of what backers paid and still, a substantial number of backers don't have their phone.

Oddly, the phone--with its large screen, backlit physical kb, mobile data--works very well as a handheld, and I already knew its problems of connectivity, so this is what I use it for.

But many backers were screwed. 2+ years later, they don't have their phone, the hardware is already antiquated, and there is no calling fix in the pipeline.

I understand that niche devices are a risky bet, but this has been a really bad time for these companies. One nightmare after another...

Jake
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