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Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

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Re: Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

#21
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By then we will all have moved on and you'll be waiting for a raspberry pi style machine that will do full 4320p :p

Damned progress

I found it amusing that "demand progress" is an anagram for your comment, alluding to the love/hate relationship we have with technological advancement.

Re: Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

#22

I still don't understand the desire for Android on non-touch devices. At all... The more exciting bit is XBMC being available in Android, in my opinion. I have XBMC on my desktop, laptop, phone, tablet and raspberry Pi. Using a single app, I can play media from any of those devices to another. It's so simple and elegant and it blows my mind everytime I do it.

For me the appeal is hacking with the Android source on a low cost, unbrickable device. Having said that, I've always read that ICS requires 512MB of RAM, so we'll have to see how it runs

I have to say that confused me too. The 512MB limit I thought was serious. It may be the case that the Pi is using a large swap partition on the SD card?

Re: Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

#23
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the appeal is hacking with the Android source on a low cost, unbrickable device. Having said that, I've always read that ICS requires 512MB of RAM, so we'll have to see how it runs

I have to say that confused me too. The 512MB limit I thought was serious. It may be the case that the Pi is using a large swap partition on the SD card?

Google themselves recommend 384 MB of RAM for ICS. Since Raspberry Pi has a pretty powerful GPU, I hope they bring Jelly Bean to it, too, for a smoother experience.

Re: Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

#25
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source for this? All the reviews I have read claim that 1080p playback on the RPi is smooth.

with my pi/raspbmc the 1080p movie playback is indeed smooth but the menus stutter awfully. But the reason for that might be that the menus doesn't fully utilize the opengl es of the pi or something else (bad skin?) so I wouldn't blame the pi yet.

This is why I hope they will port Jelly Bean to it as well, so it doesn't stutter anymore.

Re: Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

#26

I still don't understand the desire for Android on non-touch devices. At all... The more exciting bit is XBMC being available in Android, in my opinion. I have XBMC on my desktop, laptop, phone, tablet and raspberry Pi. Using a single app, I can play media from any of those devices to another. It's so simple and elegant and it blows my mind everytime I do it.

"I still don't understand the desire for Android on non-touch devices. At all..."

I have personal experience with this. My old asus eee 1000 netbook is now an android laptop running ICS. Check out android-x86.org. Its free and easy to set up.

It works. It works Very well. I've got a huge catalog of apps, it does what I want it to do, exactly like my phone. Basically whenever I'm doing something on my phone where I wish I had a bigger screen and a keyboard and better sound... Oh wait I do have such a thing, its called my android laptop. Admittedly 99% of the time its running a SSH app connected to something very big and far away, and a music streamer, so I don't "have" to run android, but it seems by far the simplest way to do what I want.

Also windows is not ready for prime time, as my son's virus/worm/toolbar encrusted desktop shows. That machine is about to become a hackintosh or failing that process, the worlds fastest android desktop...

Re: Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

#28
post #27
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Rapsberry Pi's have 256 MB of RAM. Only the initial batch had 128 MB I think.

Model A is specced for 128 MB, but that's not available yet.

Model A was later respecced to have 256MB as well, just like Model B.

Re: Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

#29
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ability to run Android apps would be the key. Plus, for an HTPC, Android (tablet UI or Google TV, take your pick) has a much better interface than XBMC, IMO.

But the RPi is an awful HTPC, it's way too underpowered and can only barely cope with 720p decoding. It definitely doesn't cope well with having to do composite overlays like XBMC uses to display controls. The FPS you get in the menus is only also only barely acceptable so even if your content does play the experience is choppy. Yes it's cheap, but it still sucks.

I this from personal experience? Yesterday I played a little with Raspbmc[0](XBMC based distro) on my Pi. Besides a brief pause when changing menus/start-playing everything is silky-smooth. Including 1080p video playing. And this was while running from a crappy 3MBs SD card.

[0] http://www.raspbmc.com/

Re: Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0

#30
This could end up in a lot of industrial type of projects. The raspberry could replace the mini2440 for a lot of things. Heck, even prototyping something with the Pi and Android would allow industries to iterate their equipment faster. Cool stuff.
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