Lilbits: PineNote, Office 2024, Snapdragon X2 Elite, and a fanless Intel N100 mini PC made for networking

The PineNote is a tablet with a Rockchip RK3566 processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 10.3 inch, 1404 x 1872 pixel E Ink display with support for pressure-sensitive EMR pen input. First introduced in 2021, the tablet began shipping to early adopters in early 2022. But it’s been unavailable for purchase for a while now.

That’s because the pace of software development was slow. Pine64 doesn’t put a lot of effort into making software for its devices, instead relying on community members to do much of the heavy lifting. While the PineNote was designed for free and open source software enthusiasts and hackers interested in something that could theoretically be more open existing E Ink tablets, software for the platform is still in its early stages. But it’s better than it was, so Pine64 says it plans to make and ship another batch of PineNote devices soon.

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

Pine64’s PineNote E Ink + Linux tablet is coming back [Pine64]

Pine64 plans a production run for a new batch of PineNote E Ink tablets now that there’s been progress on creating open source firmware (Debian + GNOME desktop + extensions for E Ink support). PostmarketOS and Mobian ports are also in progress.

Office 2024 for consumers available October 1 [Microsoft]

Microsoft Office 2024 is now available for PC and Mac. For a one-time $150 purchase you get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. But you don’t get the updates that come to those who pay for a MS 365 subscription. There’s also a $250 Home & Business version that includes Outlook and “the rights to use the apps for commercial purposes.”

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27718 (Canary Channel) [Windows Blogs]

Among other things, Windows 11 Insiders can now access media controls on the lock screen, drag pinned apps from the Start menu to the taskbar, and quickly navigate between taskbar apps using a keyboard.

Most capable N100 mini PC yet? [FanlessTech]

Priced at $300 (after applying the on-page coupon), it’s certainly not the cheapest mini PC with an Intel N100 Alder Lake-N processor. But this little computer has a large aluminum heat sink that should aid with passive cooling, allowing this computer to run cool and quietly. It’s also obviously designed for networking applications, with four 2.5 GbE LAN ports as well as HDMI, DisplayPort, USB, and COM ports.

SC8480XP ‘Project Glymur’: 2nd generation of Qualcomm’s ARM PC chips [WinFuture]

Unsurprisingly, Qualcomm is already working on the follow-up to its Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite processors. A few details are starting to leak, and while we don’t know much about how the next-gen “Snapdragon X2 Elite” series processors will perform, we are starting to see some model numbers and codenames.

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