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Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

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Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#41

Post by mirimir »

thisishugo wrote: post #25
mirimir wrote: post #21

I wonder if any hosting providers are offering such micro PCs, or planning to. They would be a great alternative to VPS, arguably with better security. I've seen some Raspberry Pi hosting, but its USB NIC is too slow. I'll update this if I find anything.

You could take a look at Scaleway[0]. They provide ARM-based dedicated servers (with caveats). [0] http://www.scaleway.com

So these C1 ARM servers are built in house, I gather. Their features page says "true dedicated hardware", but I wonder how well those 18 servers on each board are isolated. IPMI could be a disaster.

But thanks.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#42

Post by eli »

kev6168 wrote: post #29

Just the other day I was thinking it would be nice if a cell phone can fire up multiple normal OSs (i.e., desktop Linux/Windows/OSX), so at hotel/library/friend's home/etc., one can pull it out of pocket, connect to a display and hack away. I wonder when we can have that level of power and convenience in our regular phones.

Wouldn't you need a keyboard too? Might as well just bring an Air at that point

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#43

Post by artmageddon »

WorldWideWayne wrote: post #36

Every single TV in my house as a Windows device plugged into it. We've tried Roku, Chromecast and others - but you can't beat Windows if flexibility is what you want. Having just a Chromecast sucks because you need a whole other smart device to actually do things. The Roku is a little better, but honestly it's too slow to navigate. With Windows, I can do whatever the heck I want. We can play classic game emulators wi…

When you say device, can you give an example of what you're referring to? My wife got a me a Chromecast for Christmas, a great friend of mine got me a FireTV stick for my birthday loaded with emulators on it, but I'd really like to be able to carry a full-fledged PC around if that were possible.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#44

Post by artmageddon »

eli wrote: post #42
kev6168 wrote: post #29

Just the other day I was thinking it would be nice if a cell phone can fire up multiple normal OSs (i.e., desktop Linux/Windows/OSX), so at hotel/library/friend's home/etc., one can pull it out of pocket, connect to a display and hack away. I wonder when we can have that level of power and convenience in our regular phones.

Wouldn't you need a keyboard too? Might as well just bring an Air at that point

Different strokes/folks. You would need a keyboard, but if it had/has bluetooth support, you could just get one of those fold-able keyboards. It'd take less space and be extremely cheap in comparison to the Air, which might be a huge factor for some people.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#45

Post by tjbiddle »

fotcorn wrote: post #8
jbb555 wrote: post #3

How fast are the CPUs in these compared to say a modern i3, i5, i7 CPU? I know they will be a lot slower just interested in how much slower?

Here are some benchmarks againt a Mobile i3 and i5: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=compulab-... The CPU on this one is the same as on the Intel Compute Stick, a Z3735F.

For a $17 processor - That thing really isn't all that bad!

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#46

Post by rbanffy »

pjc50 wrote: post #40
kev6168 wrote: post #29

Just the other day I was thinking it would be nice if a cell phone can fire up multiple normal OSs (i.e., desktop Linux/Windows/OSX), so at hotel/library/friend's home/etc., one can pull it out of pocket, connect to a display and hack away. I wonder when we can have that level of power and convenience in our regular phones.

That's not so much a computing power limitation but a limitation imposed by the manufacturers on what you can run. The Nokia N900 had Linux running on it in 2010. If you're one of the lucky few with an Ubuntu phone, you can do this as well.

> The Nokia N900 had Linux running on it in 2010

True, but it depends on what you want to do with it. I can run Linux on an Intel Edison board (did some Python and C++ programming on one last weekend), but I wouldn't dare to try to write code on anything heavier than vim.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#47

Post by robogimp »

morganvachon wrote: post #38
thefreeman wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be hasty! Lenovo probably "upgraded" it with performance improvements like failing to validate SSL certificates.

Came here to say this. No thanks, Lenovo, I can get the same performance and form factor directly from Intel with no "added value" spyware, and I can even get it with Linux preinstalled if I want.

Also lenovo general build quality is pretty crappy. Source: I own one and wish I didn't.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#48

Post by ZenoArrow »

eli wrote: post #37
ZenoArrow wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt that this particular Lenovo mini PC is targetting that niche. You wouldn't need 32GB of storage for something as basic as digital signage, and there are Android-based alternatives for 3x cheaper... http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/mini-pcs/mk808-android-mini...

I wish the MK808 was a plug and play digital sign, but it's actually kind of a pain to set up and use. I've got one sitting in a drawer. If someone came out with a stick computer that simply connects to wifi and displays a webpage in a relatively modern browser at 1080 (or at least 720) and makes it easy , I would buy several of them at a nice premium over whatever the hardware normally costs. I actually think an And…

"I wish the MK808 was a plug and play digital sign, but it's actually kind of a pain to set up and use. I've got one sitting in a drawer."

What did you find painful about using it? Looks like it supports custom ROMs, did you try using something like CyanogenMod (or the Finless ROM mentioned in the linked article)?

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#49

Post by kev6168 »

pjc50 wrote: post #40
kev6168 wrote: post #29

Just the other day I was thinking it would be nice if a cell phone can fire up multiple normal OSs (i.e., desktop Linux/Windows/OSX), so at hotel/library/friend's home/etc., one can pull it out of pocket, connect to a display and hack away. I wonder when we can have that level of power and convenience in our regular phones.

That's not so much a computing power limitation but a limitation imposed by the manufacturers on what you can run. The Nokia N900 had Linux running on it in 2010. If you're one of the lucky few with an Ubuntu phone, you can do this as well.

I am not familiar with the specs of these phones. Does the Ubuntu phone (or its near future upgrades) has the capacity to _comfortably_ run, say, IntelliJ IDEA and make writing/compiling code a tolerable experience? That would be very nice.

Re: Lenovo Announces a $130 Windows PC in a Stick

#50

Post by WorldWideWayne »

artmageddon wrote: post #43
WorldWideWayne wrote: post #36

Every single TV in my house as a Windows device plugged into it. We've tried Roku, Chromecast and others - but you can't beat Windows if flexibility is what you want. Having just a Chromecast sucks because you need a whole other smart device to actually do things. The Roku is a little better, but honestly it's too slow to navigate. With Windows, I can do whatever the heck I want. We can play classic game emulators wi…

When you say device, can you give an example of what you're referring to? My wife got a me a Chromecast for Christmas, a great friend of mine got me a FireTV stick for my birthday loaded with emulators on it, but I'd really like to be able to carry a full-fledged PC around if that were possible.

Sorry, nothing really portable - we have a couple of Zotac ZBOX "nano PCs" (http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-ZBOX-CI320NANO-U-W2-nano-Plus-Wi...) and the others are an old laptop (Dell XPS L502X) and an old Shuttle SH67H3 barebones PC. Each site except the laptop also has a Logitech K400/r wireless keyboard/touchpad which is great except when it occasionally loses signal.
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