Hi Guys, Eric from inPulse here. We're trying to make it as easy as possible for people to develop for inPulse. That's why we've built a cloudcompile service. No messing with DLLs, drivers and other annoying parts of embedded coding.
I think we've succeeded! In our beta testing, users were able to go from downloading the SDK zip to loading their first app on inPulse within 5-8 minutes. I think that's pretty impressive for a startup hardware biz.
If you'd like to setup the arm-gcc toolchain and compile your own apps, absolutely no problem! We'll have instructions online shortly. If you need them faster, just email devsupport@getinpulse.com
It's certainly easy to use, as long as the server remains up. But do I still have full control over the code that I upload to you, or does it count as "user-generated content" in http://www.getinpulse.com/terms/? What privacy guarantees do you make regarding the code that I upload? (Hopefully very little; it is transmitted in the clear, after all..)
We live in a world where device vendors (even small ones) routinely use technical means to thwart hackers and other tinkerers. Often, this is done under the guise of usability or security (sometimes with some justification, even). Plenty of people don't mind trading away some control for stability or ease-of-use.
This is a forum for hackers, and you just called your device "hackable". I'm saying that it's not, currently; it's a black box with an SDK that does cloud compilation. You don't document that fact anywhere or provide an ready alternative, and there's no information about what's underneath your API, either OS or hardware.
This is extremely important - the claim to user-generated content is either boilerplate and wasn't intended to apply to actual software, or it is specifically intended to apply to the uploaded code due to the cloud-compile service.
The question has been asked a couple times here - is there an answer?
You've made some very good points. We'll strive to improve over time, and you comments/questions here will help guide us. Any and all comments are welcomed to devsupport@getinPulse.com
I encourage you to try out the hardware, throw it on your wrist and wait for the amazed looks from passersby. It's quite awesome having a net-connected terminal (I pair my inPulse with my Blackberry) right on your wrist.
For technical sites like Hacker News (and to some extent, reddit), it seems like marketing speech is actually more likely to turn off potential buyers than attract them. See the IE9 AMA debacle on reddit, for example. We're hackers here, and blunt truth tends to be valued more than softer wording.
I read it as more of a politic answer, there's been a lot of inpulse bashing it seems over what appears to be something that they are doing to try and help, not thwart hackers.
Encouraging us to get one for the Blackberry is all well and good, except its pre-order only, not shipping yet.
I wish the blackberry 'edition' was $99 (for black.) Then I'd get one. It seems disproportionate to the blackberry cost itself at $199
I've never heard of a cloud compile service, but I think in this case, it's a good idea. Especially since not many people have experience with cross-compiling.
One of the things that make Arduino so popular is the ease of use in getting code a) to compile and b) get uploaded to the device. If this works via a service, then so be it.
But, I would like to see instructions for setting up a local amr-gcc toolchain, just to be complete.
"ARM Cortex-M3 Core running at 96MHz, 512KB FLASH, 64KB RAM and lots of interfaces including Ethernet, USB Device and Host, CAN, SPI, I2C and other I/O."
<200mA, $59
I want one, but I already have an arduino thats been laying around unused and unloved for some time :(
Appcelerator Titanium, a relatively prominent open source alternative to Adobe AIR, does cross-platform app compilation on a 'cloud compilation' service:
I think we've succeeded! In our beta testing, users were able to go from downloading the SDK zip to loading their first app on inPulse within 5-8 minutes. I think that's pretty impressive for a startup hardware biz.
If you'd like to setup the arm-gcc toolchain and compile your own apps, absolutely no problem! We'll have instructions online shortly. If you need them faster, just email devsupport@getinpulse.com