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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

#101

Post by fsiefken »

Jedd wrote: post #11

I have a bunch of possibly naive questions. I have an Android tablet (Samsung Tab Pro - the 12" beast). An experiment at replacing a laptop on some outings. I bought the A$140 Logitech keyboard / cover, which is good but not great, with some keys being a bit recalcitrant. Some UI features are frustrating (example: alt-tab brings up the alt-tab switcher - you need to alt-tab twice to move to the most recent process, a…

Hi Jedd, I don't think it's possible yet but RemixOS is an Android based OS running on both intel and arm that makes Android usable with keyboard and mouse. The same goes for ChromeOS. Both are running on Arm hardware. Another option is to install Linux Deploy on Android, install a Linux distro and view the display by connection with vnc, X or framebuffer to localhost. Even though pricey, an Acer Transformer T300 (wintel) as tablet and computer gets the job done as well.

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

#102

Post by ajiang »

blackguardx wrote: post #93
ajiang wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Great article. Did you use an outside marketing consultant or do all this yourself?

We had some great mentors who provided guidance from their on Kickstarter experience :)

We did the work ourselves. Except for the video. That was all Glass and Marker

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

#103

Post by ajiang »

fsiefken wrote: post #101
Jedd wrote: post #11

I have a bunch of possibly naive questions. I have an Android tablet (Samsung Tab Pro - the 12" beast). An experiment at replacing a laptop on some outings. I bought the A$140 Logitech keyboard / cover, which is good but not great, with some keys being a bit recalcitrant. Some UI features are frustrating (example: alt-tab brings up the alt-tab switcher - you need to alt-tab twice to move to the most recent process, a…

Hi Jedd, I don't think it's possible yet but RemixOS is an Android based OS running on both intel and arm that makes Android usable with keyboard and mouse. The same goes for ChromeOS. Both are running on Arm hardware. Another option is to install Linux Deploy on Android, install a Linux distro and view the display by connection with vnc, X or framebuffer to localhost. Even though pricey, an Acer Transformer T300 (wi…

Yea totally. I'm actually on board with this. If you're trying to turn a tablet or laptop into an Android laptop, use Remix. We aren't trying to do that - we believe that device convergence (a world where they only computer you'll have / rely on is your smartphone) will happen and will happen on Android.

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

#104

Post by tuxguy »

ajiang wrote: post #23

I'm serious about the offer to visit our office. We know Kickstarters have a bad rap for vaporware that takes forever to deliver. You can visit and play with our working prototype. You can try our software beta on your Android phone. And if you're in Shenzhen next week, you and I can kick it at one of the CMs we're looking at (currently in Shanghai myself).

+1 for a community meeting in bangalore, india : you will get a very eager test audience (both quality & quantity :D)

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

#105

Post by whazor »

ajiang wrote: post #68
wiredfool wrote: post #64

Is it plausible that this could work with a raspberry pi? Or hell, even as a tty/dumb terminal for a random linux box?

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

How about an intel nuc? I suppose that would also work right? Edit: already saw the picture with the pc stick and mac.. awesome!

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

#106

Post by benologist »

ajiang wrote: post #46
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?

YES! We want to. Please reach out to us Atom guys. We're working with some friends working on a cloud IDE, but this is an area where we admit theres a gap in software. We intend to close this gap.

Have you looked into wine / crossover? They already have the Windows version of Steam and playable games running on x86 android.

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

#107

Post by [deleted] »

ajiang wrote: post #40
nomanisanisland wrote: post #38

Wouldn't have been possible to put a slot inside the keyboard dock where you could insert your phone and close it inside? Not an Ubuntu touch expert, but would it be compatible? Just plugging it in and have what ubuntu want to reach? a complete linux distro on the go? If not, are you able to support it?

You could, buuuut Android phones are so fragmented that it would be really really hard to do it for every phone and have it be aesthetically pleasing. That's why we opted for the universal side mount option.

[deleted]

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

#108

Post by ajiang »

tuxguy wrote: post #104
ajiang wrote: post #23

I'm serious about the offer to visit our office. We know Kickstarters have a bad rap for vaporware that takes forever to deliver. You can visit and play with our working prototype. You can try our software beta on your Android phone. And if you're in Shenzhen next week, you and I can kick it at one of the CMs we're looking at (currently in Shanghai myself).

+1 for a community meeting in bangalore, india : you will get a very eager test audience (both quality & quantity :D)

I'm a big fan of this idea. We have a lot of active Andromium users in India. We are really liking the idea of going to market after Kickstarter to India.

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

#109

Post by skykooler »

ajiang wrote: post #34
betimsl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was also Motorola Atrix and one can get that laptop/shell for $75 on eBay. I wonder if their app works with it.

Haha yes! But when it came out, the laptop shell was $500-$600. Unsupported hardware has a tendency to get cheap ;)

I've been using the Atrix lapdock for a while with a Raspberry Pi, and the one thing that bothered me is that keys for adjusting things on the dock itself (like screen brightness, or keyboard backlight) don't work unless the USB is connected to a device that recognizes it. Is this the same for the Superbook, or does it process its own key presses?

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

#110

Post by ajiang »

ajiang wrote: post #23

I'm serious about the offer to visit our office. We know Kickstarters have a bad rap for vaporware that takes forever to deliver. You can visit and play with our working prototype. You can try our software beta on your Android phone. And if you're in Shenzhen next week, you and I can kick it at one of the CMs we're looking at (currently in Shanghai myself).

Hijacking my own comment to say that it's 1 AM in Shanghai. This has been awesome. I'm taking a nap!

Will be back on in a couple hours to answer any remaining questions. Thanks HN.

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