I feel your pain. I'm in the same boat as you (backed the astro slide - didn't get one).
I used the original Planet Computers device with psion-like keyboard, the Gemini, as my daily driver for a few years. The keyboard was no gimmick - it really felt like a quasi mini-laptop. A brilliant device, even considering the weak cpu (as compared to similarly priced phones)
Such a shame ...
(btw, had a psion 2, psion 3, psion 5 & sharp zaurus back in the day, so you can say I'm a sucker for these things)
I suppose this means that they still have a firm intention to produce eventually, hopefully even with an updated chipset given that the original parts are lost ("ODM is effectively unwilling to release remaining produced stock and the pre-purchased chipsets"!) Obviously you know all that, fellow backer, but just in case anyone else is interested in this debacle:
I used the original Planet Computers device with psion-like keyboard, the Gemini, as my daily driver for a few years. The keyboard was no gimmick - it really felt like a quasi mini-laptop. A brilliant device, even considering the weak cpu (as compared to similarly priced phones)
Such a shame ...
(btw, had a psion 2, psion 3, psion 5 & sharp zaurus back in the day, so you can say I'm a sucker for these things)