Flipper devicesits manufacturer Pinball Zero hacking device, today announced a new gadget called Pinball One that has multiple network connections and can act as a Linux computer (is this the year?). The company has sold over one million Flipper Zero units and generated over $150 million in sales. However, the new device is not a successor as it operates on a different level than the Flipper Zero, the company said.
The Flipper Zero device is popular among the hacker community, which can connect with radios such as Bluetooth, RFID, NFC, sub-1GHz transceiver, and infrared. The device could act as a key fob or entry card, but it could also be used to spam nearby iPhones.
Meanwhile, the new Flipper One device relies on network connectivity via 2x Gigabit Ethernet, USB Ethernet (5 Gbps) and Wi-Fi 6E (2.4/5/6 GHz). In addition, the device has an M.2 port, which can be used to connect modems for 5G connectivity or other devices such as SDR units, AI accelerators, SSDs (NVMe or SATA) and Wi-Fi cards via adapters. The device is still a work in progress and the company is just announcing the project at this time.
The device will run dual processors along with 8GB of RAM. The first is octa-core RK3576 chip running open Linux along with a Mali-G52 GPU and an NPU to run local AI models.
The company said it worked with open-source software consultancy Collabora to push support for this chip into the main Linux kernel so anyone can download it from Kernel.org and tinker with it.
The second chip is a dual-core Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller. This powers the display, buttons and touchpad. LEDs; and the power subsystem — even when the Linux portion of the device is disabled, users can operate the device.
Flipper Devices CEO Pavel Zhovner said the company is also developing its own Linux-based flavor. He said in a blog that while the Raspberry Pi OS is fluid and he likes using it, it’s hard to do a clean factory reset after installing packages, unless you’re flashing the SD card for a new project. The Flipper operating system, which is currently in concept stage, will allow users to access profiles with different pre-configured packages and settings. By doing this, users can play with the software and go back to a clean copy without changing or flashing SD cards.
As part of the development, the company is also building a FlipCTL interface for controlling small-screen LCDs on devices like the Flipper One with D-pads and touch controls.
The company said that with network connection drivers, users can use the Flipper One as a router, VPN gateway or bridge between them. Additionally, they can connect a monitor, along with a keyboard and mouse via a USB hub to create a Linux desktop or use it as a media box on the go via the HDMI 2.1 port with support for 4K 120Hz streaming. Users can also run local AI models to operate the device, create configurations and get helpful hints without an internet connection.
Flipper Devices just announced the device and the overall roadmap for how it could be used. There are still many pieces of software missing to enable all the mentioned features. For example, the NPU for artificial intelligence and hardware video decoding lacks basic core support. Both FlipperOS and FlipperCTL are concepts at this time. The team has not yet trained offline LLMs to assist users with configuration.
The company invites developers to join the community and develop parts of the software that could be used to ship the final device. He said final consumer release details will be announced in the future, but the device is likely to cost less than $350 for the base configuration without cellular modules.
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