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We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

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Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#81

Post by tmzt »

ajiang wrote: post #63
mstrblueskys wrote: post #56

Hey - I'm thinking about pulling the trigger - but I have one question - does it work with Continuum?

Haha don't pull the trigger! It doesn't work with Continuum. Windows mobile is hard to support -_-

Is that just the lack of a compatible DisplayLink driver? Would it be possible to support HDMI in (without HDCP)? Is that a limitation of the DL chip since there are USB monitors that support HDMI in as well.

Also, on Reddit it was mentioned that you have a headphone jack, does this involve a codec and pre-amp hardware? Does this increase the price or complexity?

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#82

Post by organsnyder »

ajiang wrote: post #77
bergie wrote: post #75

I'm curious about how the Superbook is charged. It seems you're shipping a custom charger, but also somewhere on the Kickstarter it talks about micro-USB. So, would a regular USB charger be able to charge the Superbook, or does it only work with your own charging brick?

Great question. The Superbook is charged using a standard micro-b cord. A regular charger works fine. To charge the phone however is a little complex. We have a custom USB-OTG cord for that. The reason is because we need to send data one way and power the other.

Any chance that the Superbook could be charged over USB-C instead? I'm trying (with middling success) to avoid purchasing any devices with other charging ports at this point.

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#83

Post by bergie »

organsnyder wrote: post #82
ajiang wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question. The Superbook is charged using a standard micro-b cord. A regular charger works fine. To charge the phone however is a little complex. We have a custom USB-OTG cord for that. The reason is because we need to send data one way and power the other.

Any chance that the Superbook could be charged over USB-C instead? I'm trying (with middling success) to avoid purchasing any devices with other charging ports at this point.

I'm kind of in the same boat. Basically everything I use is USB-C now, except for my e-cigarette. For that I carry a USB-C to micro-USB cable, so I can use the same charger and battery pack for everything.

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#84

Post by ajiang »

nathcd wrote: post #73
outdooricon wrote: post #44

You mention that you can write code on the Superbook, but I've yet to find any good ide in Android. Any plans to create or partner with someone to get something like Atom running in Andromium/Android? Do you have a particular favorite that you always use right now?

If you're a terminal person, definitely check out Termux[1], it's really, really good (Android 5+ only, however). For a text editor, I really enjoy Quickedit[2]. But I'm not aware of any decent quality IDEs, either. Personally, I'm really hoping Blackberry knocks it out of the park at some point with an Android phone with PKB. I do a lot of traveling, and Termux (with ssh, vim, go, tmux, fish, etc.) would handle 99%…

Generally agreed.

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#85

Post by ajiang »

irq-1 wrote: post #79
ajiang wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha..keep it a secret: http://imgur.com/PViKxMD Actually have only sneaked this to our commenters. Will do an update to everyone soon...

Cool! Have you considered embedding a Raspberry Pi Zero so the Superbook can get on the web when there's not a phone attached? I know that's like reinventing the Chromebook, but the CPU and memory are so cheap...

It is really cool, but for our vision, it is just a neat feature. We want to empower device convergence, so that Android smartphone can be leveraged as laptops for learning and productivity use :)

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#86

Post by ajiang »

organsnyder wrote: post #82
ajiang wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question. The Superbook is charged using a standard micro-b cord. A regular charger works fine. To charge the phone however is a little complex. We have a custom USB-OTG cord for that. The reason is because we need to send data one way and power the other.

Any chance that the Superbook could be charged over USB-C instead? I'm trying (with middling success) to avoid purchasing any devices with other charging ports at this point.

Totally - I think we'll do this if we can, but there are some certification challenges w/Type C if you ONLY use it as a charging port. At least that's what we've heard - would welcome anyone who'd know more about this from a hardware mfg standpoint

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#87

Post by ajiang »

blackguardx wrote: post #78

What marketing did you do prior to launching the Kickstarter? Did you use paid ads to build an email list?

Everything we did that mattered, I actually detailed out in a piece for Startup Grind: https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/how-we-blew-past-our-crowd...

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#88

Post by ajiang »

austinsharp wrote: post #80
ajiang wrote: post #15

Real talk on limitations: really intensive apps will be hard to run in Andromium. Also, phones with <2GB RAM will run into latency issues. Most apps will currently run in full screen mode, with only those with our SDK included having resizing / multi-window capabilities.

What about the multi-window support coming in Android Nougat, will that enable more out of the box functionality?

YES! And also more apps that have tablet mode either built in or capable of being included.

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#89

Post by ajiang »

tmzt wrote: post #81
ajiang wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha don't pull the trigger! It doesn't work with Continuum. Windows mobile is hard to support -_-

Is that just the lack of a compatible DisplayLink driver? Would it be possible to support HDMI in (without HDCP)? Is that a limitation of the DL chip since there are USB monitors that support HDMI in as well. Also, on Reddit it was mentioned that you have a headphone jack, does this involve a codec and pre-amp hardware? Does this increase the price or complexity?

Yep - that's exactly right.

We could at some point, but our goal isn't to support windows. Our belief is that device convergence will happen and Android phones will lead the way.

We don't have a headphone jack! Sorry if there was any misinformation / if I messed up there. Lots of chefs were in that particular AMA kitchen. This one: just me.

Re: We're Andromium. Making the Superbook, a $99 Android Laptop Shell. AMA

#90

Post by cableshaft »

Are there plans to bring the Superbook to retail later at a similar price point (or even just selling off your website)?

I'm tempted to back this but I'm in the middle of a move and some personal expenses so I'm trying to be good and conserve money right now, so it'd be nice to know that the Kickstarter won't be the only opportunity in the next year or two to get this.

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