$74 PC On A Stick

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A PC the size of a thumb drive, comes with Android 4.0 and costs under $75? How can you go wrong with that? Thanks to CanesVenetici for the link.

The Model MK802 is available from AliExpress for $74, or even less if you order in bulk. The little computer looks like a portable storage device, but it has a 1.5 GHz Allwiner A10 processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. It ships with Google Android 4.0 software, but theoretically you should be able to install Ubuntu or other operating systems.
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Raspberry pi was originally on a thumb stick. They realized the lack of inputs proved useless and made it credit card sized to fit them all on. It's ~$30 to $40.
 
Yeah, pi is much cheaper and probably much more useful... this is just a $75 stick...
 
derek533 said:
Trying to think of an application of which this would be of use...
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When I first saw Raspberry PII was thinking I could come up with kinds of uses for it and but then I couldn't really come up with as much as I thought.
 
Actually if I can just order the device and have it show up soon, that makes it much more useful than the almost non-existant Pi. Also I don't have to worry about the cat shorting out the exposed Pi. It's also faster, has more ram and wireless, which the Pi does not out of the box. Uses for this would be for people to turn their dumb TV into a smart TV. Do some web browsing, play some simple games, multimedia streaming etc. Computer geeks could do all kinds of stuff with this.
 
If it has access to the Play store you can load Netflix/Hulu/etc onto it, as well as the on-demand apps for various cable channels. Another use would be as a portable presentation system, or a way to demo TV's or A/V setups onsite.

Static mentions emulators, and in that vein let us not forget MAME, ScummVM, and the processor would probably handle PSX or Nintendo 64 emulators as well.

Another use I thought of is a keychain security audit tool. Sure, it couldn't brute force its way out of a wet paper bag, but it could run the rest of an intrusion suite without having to dedicate a whole laptop to the task. People have already used ARM based phones to crack WEP and WPA, so it's a proven concept.

I'd like to see a version of this with 32 or 64GB of storage that acts like a thumb drive when not acting as a standalone, since hooking a thumb drive into a thumb drive seems oddly redundant. Additional main storage would turn this into a nice Linux base or standalone media player.

If nothing else it's the smallest Google TV appliance I've ever seen.
 
$74 is a bit pricy when the Pi base model is less than $40.
A great usage for this kind of pico computer would be wireless Internet cams.
These devices are usually very expensive with mediocre quality.
You could easily hook up a Pi with a webcam (dozens of models to choose from).
Or get the CC cam board these guys are working on for a smaller device.

I bet people will develop specific software and attach sensors and peripherals to sell the whole system as any sort of dedicated appliance. iPhones have apps to make them do something other than just a telephone. You can have an app that adds phone features to the Pi, with some extra hardware like a camera and small LCD screen to video chat.

At this price range, you can afford fully fledged computers everywhere you need them. You don't need a driver or a cab after the pub: just get into your car and say "Home, Jasper" to the Pi that's connected to the car. At least in Google's home state that just allowed driverless driving...
 
Chimel said:
$74 is a bit pricy when the Pi base model is less than $40.
A great usage for this kind of pico computer would be wireless Internet cams.
These devices are usually very expensive with mediocre quality.
You could easily hook up a Pi with a webcam (dozens of models to choose from).
Or get the CC cam board these guys are working on for a smaller device.

I bet people will develop specific software and attach sensors and peripherals to sell the whole system as any sort of dedicated appliance. iPhones have apps to make them do something other than just a telephone. You can have an app that adds phone features to the Pi, with some extra hardware like a camera and small LCD screen to video chat.

At this price range, you can afford fully fledged computers everywhere you need them. You don't need a driver or a cab after the pub: just get into your car and say "Home, Jasper" to the Pi that's connected to the car. At least in Google's home state that just allowed driverless driving...
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Google moved from California to Nevada??
 
got a buddy who just bought one of these, i want to see how it looks/acts within his environment but hell its got WIFI B/G vs the PI that has 10/100 nic. With my future plans for a carputer i think this guy might be the one ill be taking instead as its small/compact/has wifi/i can expand the USB with a hub add bluetooth and split the audio feeds off and boom an android based carputer where i can do car diagnostics, play music, video, and much more....

cant wait to see how this works!

The rasberrypi i would have had to do more work to get android on it, find a wifi device for it, find a bluetooth device for it, find a casing for it since they dont sell it as of right now. etc. etc. for 2x the price of pi i do like the convenience of it...
 
the price difference is neglible once you factor the wifi dongle, case, extra ram, storage and cpu power.

I'm tired of waiting for the Rpi, I'm getting one of these.
 
Stoly said:
the price difference is neglible once you factor the wifi dongle, case, extra ram, storage and cpu power.

I'm tired of waiting for the Rpi, I'm getting one of these.
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Good luck.

"Dear all:
Thanks for your support,our stock has been sold out these days.
If you like our goods,pls pre-order first and don't pay,new batch will be released around June 10th.
All orders which has paid will be shipped next Friday.From now on,we just get pre-order,pls understand.
Thanks,everybody~"
 
I don't follow this stuff closely but why is it that they can get android on something that size when people say that Raspberry pi can't run it.
 
Looks cool, but it will probably have the same supply shortages that Pi has been having.
 
Any difference between this one and the other releases ?
I can't find a place that has this one in stock.

I want one =)
 
There're pretty much identically priced options with the same specs.

A carputer would hit several issues if you're looking for the same functionality of, say, an Atom/Nano/Eden based solution. Not being X86 you're looking at big issues of driver compatibility in the case of GPS, Webcam, DVD/Blu-Ray drives and playback, and OBD dongles. Everything else can at least be assumed to work.

Software availability is another issue. You're stuck with whatever they've managed to port to ARM on Linux, or the Play store's usual lineup. As far as my knowledge goes, there's really no good GPS software for Linux, nor is there a good DVD player for Android. Either way you're forced to prioritize and sacrifice.

On the other hand, you can get a nice little self contained, X86, 64-bit, dual core system for around $140-$200. Slap 2GB of RAM and a small hard drive in there and you can do it all for about $1,000 with a dash mounted touchscreen, GPS, slim DVD and mini webcam. (With a 16' USB cable)
 
nephilim said:
There're pretty much identically priced options with the same specs.

A carputer would hit several issues if you're looking for the same functionality of, say, an Atom/Nano/Eden based solution. Not being X86 you're looking at big issues of driver compatibility in the case of GPS, Webcam, DVD/Blu-Ray drives and playback, and OBD dongles. Everything else can at least be assumed to work.

Software availability is another issue. You're stuck with whatever they've managed to port to ARM on Linux, or the Play store's usual lineup. As far as my knowledge goes, there's really no good GPS software for Linux, nor is there a good DVD player for Android. Either way you're forced to prioritize and sacrifice.
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Android has Torque which is good software for OBD-II Scanning as well as i already have a KIWI Bluetooth, so really all i need to do is find a Bluetooth Module to handle that section.

I would have to look around for GPS but i could also get a bluetooth GPS Dongle for that i have used the onboard GPS softwares that come with Android phones like "Navigation" and really the fun part is the challenge. I am personally not a fan of Physical DVD/Blu-Ray Media so i would use the SD expansion to load up music/movies whatever on it as the device can decode that all on its own and even with other softwares.;

Plus if this device becomes as hot as i think it will XDA will start building customized builds for something like that which will make it easier to flash anything on it and be able to port more and more drivers/software to it, along with making it more tuned to specifics, hell i would probably get more involved with developing a carputer designed image for it.

The Carputer design i wanted to go with was compact and small and low powered. i think an X86 machine would be overkill for this project by all means..
 
So... where can I get a reasonably priced small touchscreen for this with a decent resolution?

At a glance, it seems like the only way to get a decent small touchscreen is with an MP3 player or Smart Phone... I have yet to use Android with a mouse and keyboard, but it seems like most apps were built for touch screen.

This might be cool for a netflix device hooked to a 720p TV with a wireless mouse and keyboard that shared the same dongle, but even then I think I would pay the extra $150 or so to build a small x86 HTPC just to have the true PC functionality. or, just buy another Xbox 360...

I would buy this in a heartbeat if Android had a Windows Media Center Extender App, turning this into an extender, thus allowing for a cheap expansion of my WMC network. Currently 3 Xbox 360's are set-up as extenders for my server that has a Ceton infiniTV 4, and I need at least one more extender. I was looking for something under $100, otherwise I might as well just buy a used Xbox 360 from craigslist...

I guess I'm with the "I don't see a use for this" crowd...
 
Nside said:
So... where can I get a reasonably priced small touchscreen for this with a decent resolution?

At a glance, it seems like the only way to get a decent small touchscreen is with an MP3 player or Smart Phone... I have yet to use Android with a mouse and keyboard, but it seems like most apps were built for touch screen.

This might be cool for a netflix device hooked to a 720p TV with a wireless mouse and keyboard that shared the same dongle, but even then I think I would pay the extra $150 or so to build a small x86 HTPC just to have the true PC functionality. or, just buy another Xbox 360...

I would buy this in a heartbeat if Android had a Windows Media Center Extender App, turning this into an extender, thus allowing for a cheap expansion of my WMC network. Currently 3 Xbox 360's are set-up as extenders for my server that has a Ceton infiniTV 4, and I need at least one more extender. I was looking for something under $100, otherwise I might as well just buy a used Xbox 360 from craigslist...

I guess I'm with the "I don't see a use for this" crowd...
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As far as I can tell it takes some work to get it running for something useful out of the box.

Personally, even though this model is more expensive, I like it better for some reason. Probably because of the ability to plug it straight into a monitor, and the better specs.

http://liliputing.com/2012/05/fxi-cotton-candy-199-pc-on-a-stick-to-ship-this-month.html
 
dasaint said:
Android has Torque which is good software for OBD-II Scanning as well as i already have a KIWI Bluetooth, so really all i need to do is find a Bluetooth Module to handle that section.

I would have to look around for GPS but i could also get a bluetooth GPS Dongle for that i have used the onboard GPS softwares that come with Android phones like "Navigation" and really the fun part is the challenge. I am personally not a fan of Physical DVD/Blu-Ray Media so i would use the SD expansion to load up music/movies whatever on it as the device can decode that all on its own and even with other softwares.;

Plus if this device becomes as hot as i think it will XDA will start building customized builds for something like that which will make it easier to flash anything on it and be able to port more and more drivers/software to it, along with making it more tuned to specifics, hell i would probably get more involved with developing a carputer designed image for it.

The Carputer design i wanted to go with was compact and small and low powered. i think an X86 machine would be overkill for this project by all means..
Click to expand...

Yeah, OBD softare's available for both Android and Linux, it's a very simple port since the OBD is just a serial stream. Bluetooth GPS can be a godsend if you can keep it powered and connected, last time I tried it the GPS unit had an effective range of about 2 feet, so options for placement were very limited.

And if you're going with an in-dash screen, you'd probably be better off with a laptop hard drive converted to USB storage, since most of those in-dash modules have room enough for them if not an existing slot.

Navigation won't work with this unit, since it relies on a constant data connection for mapping. TomTom makes a full GPS suite for iOS and Android, which weighs in around 8GB, so there's a hefty chunk of your SD card right there.

And as to your final point, you can get x86 in a car for ALMOST this cheap. You spend more by far on case, screen, peripherals and wires. (Actually, now I think of it, not many car screens have HDMI at this moment, which causes a problem with this solution)

Not saying it can't be done, or even that it'd be harder than an x86, just in terms of feature set and available choices x86 might be the better way to go.
 
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