July Update: A Pinecil Evolved | PINE64
www.pine64.org
Welcome to the July community update – I hope you’re staying cool in the heatwave. This month we’re introducing the Pinecil V2 – an evolution of the original Pinecil – and taking a closer look at the…

TL;DR

Housekeeping
    New PineTalk episode is out 
    Quarterly Q&A on August 13, at 8:00PM CEST (UTC+2)
    Alternative payment methods available in Pine Store again
    The Pinebook Pro is available 
    PINE64 EU has launched 
Pinecil (V2)
    New RISC-V SoC 
    Adds BLE – opening potential for OTA updates & remote telemetry
    Automatic detection of tip resistance
    Compatible with existing peripherals and accessories, including cases
    Range of new, shorter 6.2ohm tips for higher power level 
    IronOS already ported 
    Counterfeit protection; future option for users to verify if their Pinecil V2 is legit
    Available very soon
Star64
    Congratulations to Gav for being the first to solve the riddle!
    Star64 is in final layout stages and we want to bring it to the market soon
    Uses StarFive JH7110 64bit CPU paired with BXE-2-32 GPU
    Available in 4 and 8GB RAM configuration
    Equipped with 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports (a variant with 1x GbE will be available later on for $5 less), PCIe, USB 3.0 as well as 2x USB 2.0 and GPIO
    Follows Quartz64 model-A pricing and footprint
PineSound
    PineBuds plastic molding is now complete and first test molds underway
    Hoping to being PineBuds to the market as soon as possible – maybe in October
    Similarly to the Pinecil and PineTime, PineBuds have been built to deliver a great out-of-the-box experience for everyone, while also offering depth for tinkerers and those who wish to hack
QuartzPro64 & Quartz64
    QuartzPro64 dev units started shipping; we’re still accepting coupon requests from developers
    Quartz64 receives DietPi support; now supported by Armbian, Manjaro, DietPi as well as giving option to run Arch Linux and NetBSD
    Pillow submitted patches enabling PCIe and analog audio, a fix for fast SD cards has been accepted upstream, and patches enabling JPEG encoder have been merged
PineTime
    Infinitime 1.10 released with many changes & improvements under the hood
    It is now possible to dismiss notifications
    Tweaks to display, colour and gamma settings – making things look better
    InfiniSim new features include animations & allows screen capture in GIF format
    Ongoing work to improve memory situation by leveraging additional 4MB of internal flash
    InfiniTime has 584 forks