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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

#121

Post by brudgers »

ajiang wrote: post #100
brudgers wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the reasons for the reputation is that in order to attract funding, the price has to be highly competitive and the features have to be remarkable and it's hard to one, let alone both with hardware [with software the price is easier because free to use is possible since revenue can come from advertising and data sales and subscriptions]. I think another reason for the reputation is that crowdfunding is…

The basic premise here that crowdfunders are investors is wrong. They're idea backers - people that are willing to donate money to see great ideas come to life. Kickstarter says this themselves, and it's a little strange to make the jump that a backer == and investor. Wouldn't you agree?

I think the reputation stems primarily from crowdfunders ultimately receiving less than was expected earlier when the money changed hands. So I think "investor" might be overly generous for crowdfunding projects where the sales pitches that are structured like advertisements for consumer products.

That's not to say that there are not crowdfunders who are having fun funding projects while recognizing there is little or no chance of delivery. What I am saying is that the reputation comes from people without that view of the world.

All that with the caveat that my definition of 'donate' appears to have a different connotation.

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

#122

Post by brudgers »

ajiang wrote: post #99
mattmaroon wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has been burned on about 50% of Kickstarters, I find it totally underwhelming. There's a 50% chance I save like 20%, and a 50% chance I lose 100%. Bad expected value for sure. Your making an effort to combat that perception is a good move.

Thanks Matt. Totally get it. I think because Kickstarter starts feeling like a store, its easy to forget the situation of the campaigners: super early on, having invested their own funds to come up with a prototype that they're now crowdfunding to come to life. Thinking about it in terms of expected value, Kickstarter never makes sense. Thinking about it in terms of providing an incremental X% chance that something c…

Wouldn't the availability of financial data allow individual crowdfunders to better assess the incremental X% chance of delivery?

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

#123

Post by kylorhall »

_qbjt wrote: post #112

I see no mention of audio on your Kickstarter page or amongst these comments. Does the Superbook have audio support or does it use my phone for that?

It's in the FAQ, a bit hidden..

--

Here's a list of features that have been requested of us that we WON'T be considering for our Kickstarter model (but maybe in the future):

- Audio speakers (trust us, the ones on your phone are much better than any speaker we could source affordably)

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

#124

Post by adultSwim »

ethanpil wrote: post #111

Whats your plan on competing with China copycats, who are no doubt already working on a lower cost clone of your product? Since its such a great idea, but uses mostly off the shelf parts and doesn't require much specialization, its a perfect target for them. Look at the patterns: They quickly cannibalize and eventually completely commoditize the market for easy-to-copy products by flooding ebay, amazon, aliexpress, e…

Great question. The copycats will be agile (quick to market, quick to iterate through changes) but I imagine their software side would be lacking. Should Andromium be more afraid of Samsung/HTC/etc? Xiaomi? (in between a generic copycat and a Samsung)

With so much data being pushed off devices and onto 3rd parties, I wonder if the real competition is Apple and Google?

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

#125

Post by wiredfool »

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...

Awesome, my 12 yr old has been pestering me as to why laptops don't work that way for his pi.

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

#126

Post by logfromblammo »

What I want is to sit in my recliner at home, and put one device--that includes monitor, keyboard, speakers, and mouse--into my lap, with one shared cable--for USB, audio, video, and power--running down to a MiniITX shoebox on the floor next to my chair.

Can Superbook do that, with any combination of commodity cable adapters?

I want to turn a large self-assembled home computer into a laptop, not just my phone. That is, something with a powerful processor and dedicated high-resolution video hardware. I think you probably know what I'm getting at, here. I want to put my feet up and play 3D games with WASD+mouse, without juggling all the human interface devices in my lap or building my own custom swing-arm stand for them. Right now, I can handle a regular laptop and wireless mouse, but if the monitor is not affixed to the keyboard, it all falls apart. More specifically, the monitor falls over.

So will Superbook be able to connect with DisplayPort/HDMI in addition to connecting the human interface devices through USB? If not, extra bonus stretch goal?

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

#128

Post by thanatropism »

ajiang wrote: post #103
fsiefken wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have to tell you 'Yea totally' is probably a better name for your company than 'Andromium', which sounds like fake ``natural'' Viagra.

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

#129

Post by _qbjt »

kylorhall wrote: post #123
_qbjt wrote: post #112

I see no mention of audio on your Kickstarter page or amongst these comments. Does the Superbook have audio support or does it use my phone for that?

It's in the FAQ, a bit hidden.. -- Here's a list of features that have been requested of us that we WON'T be considering for our Kickstarter model (but maybe in the future): - Audio speakers (trust us, the ones on your phone are much better than any speaker we could source affordably)

Ah, that's too bad but I guess it makes sense. Would buy a "pro" version of this if it had a built in low latency audio interface or even just a DAC. I'm not sure if the Android APIs support such a thing, however.

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

#130

Post by znpy »

leojg wrote: post #65
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?

I'm also interested in this. Do anyone knows how something like eclipse che would work in this? Do you think this will be a viable alternative for coding while traveling and dont have a laptop?

You see, you can't run heavy software on crappy hardware and expect everything to go smoothly.

Things you can do:

1. Install a debian chroot (gnuroot is your friend), start an x server and just run eclipse. You're going go to awful performance but hey, that's the hardware.

2. Run eclipse somewhere else and display the output on your tablet. It's going to work mostly okay until connection drops for whatever reason. Also, you need some good hardware somewhere, accessible somehow. And you're likely to have to pay something for it. I had a very positive performance with x2go but you're still under the assumption that network is fast and you have a very low round-trip-time.

You just can't expect to have optimal performance on super cheap hardware with very little resources.

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