21–30 of 55 posts
Everyone yelling "ZORMG, you can get a cheaper bare linux/android/pi/etc" is missing the point. This outfit is selling simplicity, piece of mind, and parental control at a fairly low price point.
The real headline should be "$100 android PCs now reach technophobes."
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…
The brief specs are only one part of the puzzle. The dongle, like many smartphones could most likely suffer from gimped flash interface and channels, low RAM speeds and slow USB (making accessing data on external HDDs painfully slow). Furthermore the thermal limits on continuous operation of the main chipset may be different (due to the difference in ventilation).
As for reliability, there are definitely some designs out there with heating issues and flaky wifi (missing antenna is common), but overall manufacturing quality doesn't vary much at any price point. It's not like these sticks are cheap because there's child labour involved, they all come from a small set of factories that rely more on volume to stay in business than anything else.
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…
I don't think manufacturers should feel bad for pricing a product comfortably (what a disaster it is when a Kickstarter project underestimates its costs), since anyone is free to undercut them at any time on the same service.
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…
It's a product that people are willing to pay for and in return people get an accountable manufacturer (or at least a sympathetic community of other buyers) rather than a random Chinese producer. How is this abusing Kickstarter? The market being flooded clearly wasn't enough for them. They're buying exactly what is advertised. I don't think manufacturers should feel bad for pricing a product comfortably (what a disas…
So you're telling me that these 3 guys, with 75 years of experience in the business including the ex-VP of eMachines , who sits on the boards of a bunch of companies, can't scrape together $50,000 to finish this thing? What am I missing here? Is this just a publicity thing?
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…
Perhaps the title is the problem here, but the innovation is not the box but rather the parent control and the accessibility for low-tech consumers. Everyone yelling "ZORMG, you can get a cheaper bare linux/android/pi/etc" is missing the point. This outfit is selling simplicity, piece of mind, and parental control at a fairly low price point. The real headline should be "$100 android PCs now reach technophobes."
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?
Basically Freescale, Rockchip, Allwinner and a bunch more names I don't remember provide reference designs that boot Android out of the box. Of those names I believe only Freescale make any serious effort to support Linux directly at all.