MiiPC: $99 Family-Friendly Android PC • Hacker News Board

Re: MiiPC: $99 Family-Friendly Android PC

#51

Post by protomyth » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 3:53 PM UTC

frozenport wrote: post #42

protomyth wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$300 is still a lot of money to a lot of people. $99 is doable, sometimes $399 isn't.

If you can't afford $300 for your kids, you have big problems. You are certainly not the family shown in the advertizement. Also you need a keyboard and monitor which could easily set you back another $100. It is my humble opinion that the price differences between this and a real computer are unjustified, just buy your kids a real pc!

Yep, your living like a lot of people on the edge. You cover your bills and clothes and then don't do much else. I am truly disappointed that the opportunities I had to learn to program in the late-70's and early-80's are not there anymore. We have cut off a part of the population from learning to program early even though the price of computing has dropped.

Re: MiiPC: $99 Family-Friendly Android PC

#52

Post by Zigurd » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 4:07 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #5

Whether Google wants it or not, it seems people really want to put Android on PC's. If only Google helped that a bit by making Android more suited for PC's (from a user interface point of view).

Re "people really want to put Android on PC's" I think you can generalize to say people want Android in form-factors Google hasn't got the time to provide.

Or look at it this way: Google TV could have been an "Android PC" OS but Google TV isn't developed in the open. Initially, it didn't even have install-able apps.

This seems like one of those cases where more openness would be to Google's benefit.

Re: MiiPC: $99 Family-Friendly Android PC

#53

Post by Zigurd » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 4:19 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

mtgx wrote: post #5

Whether Google wants it or not, it seems people really want to put Android on PC's. If only Google helped that a bit by making Android more suited for PC's (from a user interface point of view).

A more interesting question is why not ChromeOS ? Most of what you want to do in a 'lean back' sort of experience ChromeOS should be really good at, and you get cost effective on the peripherals. However, Android doesn't require the backend support that ties you to Google's cloud that ChromeOS does. So the interesting question for me is, when do we see something Firefox OSish for this kind of box?

You can get Ubuntu pre-built for Pandaboard http://www.omappedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Pre-Built_Binaries

Re: MiiPC: $99 Family-Friendly Android PC

#54

Post by mixmastamyk » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 5:10 PM UTC

hosay123 wrote: post #15

For comparison, here's a stick with double the RAM, double the cores, and double the flash for 30% less ($70): http://dealsprime.com/ugoos-ug007b-andriod-4-2-tv-stick-hdmi... . For literally a few $ more you can get the same spec in a set top case complete with Ethernet port, in a plethora of shapes and sizes. If these devices interest you, spend an hour reading http://www.cnx-software.com/ archives. This computer on…

"iPod ... No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."

Specs are rarely the most important part of the equation.

Re: MiiPC: $99 Family-Friendly Android PC

#55

Post by ChuckMcM » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 5:13 PM UTC

Zigurd wrote: post #53

ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A more interesting question is why not ChromeOS ? Most of what you want to do in a 'lean back' sort of experience ChromeOS should be really good at, and you get cost effective on the peripherals. However, Android doesn't require the backend support that ties you to Google's cloud that ChromeOS does. So the interesting question for me is, when do we see something Firefox OSish for this kind of box?

You can get Ubuntu pre-built for Pandaboard http://www.omappedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Pre-Built_Binaries

I have a Pandaboard, its great. From a UX/Support point of view Android on it certainly looks nicer than Unity does, and in spite of the great work that the folks at TI have been doing the 3D accelerator support still seems to be better on Android.

That said, I don't doubt for a minute we're in a "new" place with respect to our home computing infrastructure. I am pretty close to building a 'browsing only' solution separate from the virtual machine I currently use.