Android computer!

[Kosay1991]

An APC that runs 4 Watts on idle.. reminds me of the days of the intel atom.

What do you guys think?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/22/3036745/via-apc-android-computer-announced

 

[HAL-9000]

While reading that Web TV & e-mail only devices came to mind.

 

[BeepBeep2]

An APC that runs 4 Watts on idle.. reminds me of the days of the intel atom.

What do you guys think?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/22/3036745/via-apc-android-computer-announced

Atom still exists, so do netbooks

I think it's cool though, I mean, so is the Raspberry Pi as well...

I'd like one to run Ubuntu on.

 

[freakdiablo]

Should be interesting. Been looking at the Raspberry Pi as a frontend for my NAS or even an HTPC so I don't have to go through my PS3, so there are uses for these little things.

 

[v1ks_]

I think why buy android pc, when you can get more than that, for less that that. Get a Pi

 

[Kosay1991]

i know i know i wouldn't buy it either as there are better options if you can shell out a little bit more $$$.

Whats impressive though is that they went all out with the processor ARM11!

I don't know how good optimizing android to mouse + keyboard is gonna be.. I think its going to be "ghetto" and problematic.

 

[SteveLord]

I think why buy android pc, when you can get more than that, for less that that. Get a Pi

Perhaps because the Pi takes ~3 months to get to you?

 

[HAL-9000]

Perhaps because the Pi takes ~3 months to get to you?

This site claims 3 weeks.

http://export.farnell.com/rp/order/

I think I just found my new media streamer.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Yeah, Newark-Farnell has a good rep and I don't think they would make false claims.

 

[Kosay1991]

the APC is better than pi in that its just a tad better RAM and some internal storage (2GB mostly for OS) so the SD card you do install is all yours (its kinda beyond me though why they put microsd slot... when the board obviously can fit a full SD).

Bothways the idea is interesting... I would like to think of it as a media PC... BUT... they probably only have the h264 decoders on board :/... no XVID compatibility probably, even though people are moving away from xvid, still the devices are probably gonna be very limited playback wise.

 

[>HyperlogiK<]

i know i know i wouldn't buy it either as there are better options if you can shell out a little bit more $$$.

Whats impressive though is that they went all out with the processor ARM11!

I don't know how good optimizing android to mouse + keyboard is gonna be.. I think its going to be "ghetto" and problematic.

ARM11 is 10 years old and pretty slow. The Cortex cores, A8, A9, A15, etc were the generations after it.

I'm holding out for a decent cost ARM board with SATA to make a NAS. My previous project with an EEEPC mono and a USB SATA adaptor was too slow and unreliable.

 

[Shell]

I wish it had Mint/Ubuntu instead of Android... stick on a drive and you could do anything with it.

 

[>HyperlogiK<]

I'm sure that Debian will be available for it, and since Ubuntu doesn't support ARM11 and increasingly fails to run adequately on modest desktop hardware I think it is out of the question for even the more powerful of these mini SOC based systems.

 

[Kosay1991]

I'm sure that Debian will be available for it, and since Ubuntu doesn't support ARM11 and increasingly fails to run adequately on modest desktop hardware I think it is out of the question for even the more powerful of these mini SOC based systems.

Arm11 is alright, its one of the better mobile processors. I think we're missing the point here, super low price point, super low power consumption :O (sub-$50!)

 

[HAL-9000]

Bothways the idea is interesting... I would like to think of it as a media PC... BUT... they probably only have the h264 decoders on board :/... no XVID compatibility probably, even though people are moving away from xvid, still the devices are probably gonna be very limited playback wise.

I was thinking along those lines too & also debating with myself whether or not the Pi's RAM would be too little for it to be worth while.

This gives me hope though.
http://www.designspark.com/content/raspberry-pi-media-player

I think either way I'll get one to play around with.

 

[Kosay1991]

I was thinking along those lines too & also debating with myself whether or not the Pi's RAM would be too little for it to be worth while.

This gives me hope though.
http://www.designspark.com/content/raspberry-pi-media-player

I think either way I'll get one to play around with.

Very interesting article. A very good replacement to google/apple TV devices at much cheaper. If you have your own local server with a media store you can stream from it and that would be nice.. still though we need to know what formats this can support

 

[txus.palacios]

I prefer the Pi.

It's all cool and what not, but $49 bucks for an Android board is not something I'm gonna pay knowing the Pi is cheaper and can run Linux.

 

[>HyperlogiK<]

Arm11 is alright, its one of the better mobile processors. I think we're missing the point here, super low price point, super low power consumption :O (sub-$50!)

Well it depends what you mean by alright. A 700mhz ARM11 is less than a quarter as fast as the 1st generation atom N270 and it is pretty much the oldest and slowest mobile processor still in widespread use, in SMP it is inefficient, it can't handle general purpose computing tasks and these SOCs hide this with their beefy GPUs which offload HD video processing.

While these little ARM boards are cool toys for hacking projects or front ends for video streaming they are hopeless as general purpose machines. I hope to make an XBMC box out of one at some point, but not even the quad core A9 boards can handle a DVB-T2 tuner. I agree that the price is low, but for half that you could buy a first gen Atom NetBook or NetTop, gut it and have a far more capable (if more power hungry) machine.

 

[Kosay1991]

Well it depends what you mean by alright. A 700mhz ARM11 is less than a quarter as fast as the 1st generation atom N270 and it is pretty much the oldest and slowest mobile processor still in widespread use, in SMP it is inefficient, it can't handle general purpose computing tasks and these SOCs hide this with their beefy GPUs which offload HD video processing.

While these little ARM boards are cool toys for hacking projects or front ends for video streaming they are hopeless as general purpose machines. I hope to make an XBMC box out of one at some point, but not even the quad core A9 boards can handle a DVB-T2 tuner. I agree that the price is low, but for half that you could buy a first gen Atom NetBook or NetTop, gut it and have a far more capable (if more power hungry) machine.

You probably more know about this than me. But I'm pretty sure that APC can handle being an XBMC box easily :/ but why would you want to make a tuner out of it o.0.. Bothways don't forget its being released with an MSRP of 50$ its bound to go down quite a bit from that :/ at least I hope so

 

[txus.palacios]

I would not use a Pi or an APC as a PVR. If I ever buy one of those they'll only read mkvs from my file server and play them.