In the conclusion of the linuxlink Raspberry Pi review notes: There are a number of single-board alternatives to the Raspberry Pi such as the Via APC, FXI Cotton Candy, MK802, BeagleBoard, and Mele A1000, all looking to capture the market. Out of these, the computer-on-a-stick MK802 looks the most interesting if you are looking for an Android device.
A blurb on the MK802: $74 MK802 PC-on-a-stick beats Cotton Candy to market, has ICS on board http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/mk802-beats-cotton-candy-to-market/ If you're willing to step down in specs, the Chinese-made MK802 could be the PC in your pocket. For $74 (versus $199 for the Cotton Candy), this 7-ounce device gives you a 1.5-GHz Allwinner A10 CPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and, like the Cotton Candy, Android 4.0. FXI's version, on the other hand, packs a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos processor... The manufacturer's store: http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/563764893-Freeshipping-MK802-Mini-PC-Mini-Android4-0-dongle-android-IPTV-google-tv-smart-android-box-allwinner-wholesalers.html (Note on the site says they are out of stock until mid-June.) Page has links to a few videos and a forum. You can see in the video how it is considerably larger than the Cotton Candy, though still small enough to easily velcro to the back of a TV. The related videos suggested by YouTube show other very similar devices are available, like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiYK1Hfy8X4&NR=1&feature=endscreen You can buy it at: http://amzn.to/MVjdxQ This Boxchip based HDMI stick has been talked about over the past couple weeks on some blogs under the names MK802, Zero Devices Z802 etc. The Bill of Materials for this device might be as low as $20 but it's being sold at around $70 at retail at the moment. (Seems like several distributors are competing to brand the product as their own.) The video above is probably the best of the ones I saw. They do a demo of it working, then tear the case off to show the internals. They all seems to be running an Android version that isn't really made for TV use. I see mouse pointers and they use wireless mice to move the pointer around. GoogleTV doesn't do that, does it? (Speaking of Android...I thought you couldn't get the Google market ("Google Play") on unlicensed Android devices, which I'm assuming these are, yet they so it in the demos. A forum posting says it doesn't come installed on the device, but can be installed by the user. So is there some easy D-I-Y hack to get around the licensing?) And in related news: The Pocket TV: Makes any TV a Smart TV http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/484889112/the-pocket-tv-makes-any-tv-a-smart-tv The Pocket TV is a small pocket-sized dongle that connects to the HDMI port of any regular TV (even your 5-year-old TV) and converts it into a Smart TV. It's basically a fully functioning micro-computer the size of your thumb which runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) much like today's latest smartphones. The processing power in the Pocket TV will allow you to display Android on your TV turning it into a mega-sized tablet (just imagine a 50 inch iPad). You can download apps from the Google Play Store to stream videos, play games, connect with your friends on Facebook, catch up on news, do some work or simply surf the web. You can even attach a video camera to do Skype video-calls... Yes, all that on your TV! [...] The Pocket TV has a Cortex A9 processor packing 1GHz of power and run Android 4.0... It uses the HDMI port for display and can be controlled with either a standard IR remote or the more interactive Air Remote. You can connect it to any standard TV set as long as it has a HDMI port and it will display up to 1080p resolution. It also has a USB port so you can attach an external hard drive, a wireless keyboard and mouse or a video camera for video calls. Oh and did we mention it also has a Micro SD card slot so you can add extra storage? [...] If you're a developer and want to develop Apps, MODs or even ROMs for the Pocket TV, we want to work with you. Drop us a message and we can work together on your idea or project. Sounds a lot like the same thing as the others, just in a different plastic enclosure. (A spec chart doesn't identify an SoC vendor, but does say it uses a "Mali-400MP" GPU.) A $100 pledge gets you the device plus a simple remote. $135 gets you an upgrade to the remote with a gyroscopic sensor and QUERTY keyboard on the back. Again, seems like something people will quickly become frustrated with if it isn't a TV optimized UI. -Tom _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list Hardwarehacking@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
