this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
15 points (100.0% liked)

Pine64

143 readers
15 users here now

Pine64's goal is to push the envelope and deliver ARM and RISC-V devices that you want to use and develop for. To this end, we actively work with the development community and champion end-user initiatives. Rather than applying business to a FOSS setting, we allow FOSS principles to guide our business.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 1 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

On one hand, cool! I've been wanting a local smart speaker for Home Assistant for a long time now, and in fact had been planning to DIY some myself (eventually...). With this, I could just buy a thing and be done with it!

On the other hand, holy shit, $50 for barely-above-microcontroller-level hardware. ☹️ I have a stack of old Google AIY Voice kits (bought when they were being discontinued for $5 each) and Raspberry Pi Zero Ws (bought before the prices went crazy for $5 each) sitting around to use for my DIY plan, so that'd be a BOM (including stuff like SD card and 3D printer filament) of more like $20-$25 for a much more capable device. Thus my expectations are anchored, to Pine64's detriment.

Perhaps unfairly, I feel like this Pine speaker ought to be more like $20, $30 tops. Especially since it doesn't even come with a proper wall plug, just a USB cable that you've got to supply your own wall-wart for!