First Android/ARM Netbook To Cost $250, Maker Says 92
ericatcw writes "There was a flurry of excitement earlier this week when the first Google Android netbook, the Skytone Alpha 680, was spotted by Slashdotters. Now, Computerworld has scored an exclusive interview with Skytone's co-founder. Among many tidbits, he reveals that the Alpha 680 builds upon the success of last year's $180 Alpha 400, which shipped 100,000 units, mostly in Europe under names such as Elonex OneT; that the new Alpha 680 will weigh 1.5 pounds, 25% less than the first Eee 701 netbook; that its ARM11 chip (basically the same as the one used in the iPhone) can handle YouTube video; and that he hopes to have Chinese manufacturing partners producing the $250 Alpha 680 within 3 months."
Looks cool, however it is too pricey. (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, not actually Rule the world but sell a shed load
Touch Book (Score:5, Interesting)
I dream not of a netbook... (Score:5, Interesting)
... nor of a notebook.
What I would like to see is a laptop with whatever the most powerful ARM processor is, a power efficient discrete GPU (ala the iPhone/iTouch), a 120 gig OCZ vertex, a 10" OLED screen, and a built in 3G dongle, all running on the recently ported to ARM Ubuntu 9.04.
Something that I can use as a "real" laptop, not one of those tiny 4" abominations with squeezed keyboard thats hard for anyone but children to type on. However I don't want it to be my workhorse machine. I can build a desktop for 1k with enough processing power to hack the matrix. I can build a laptop for 3k that would be roughly equal. I don't want that. I want something that will last 300+ hours asleep and get 24 hours of web browsing out in the middle of nowhere (assuming I have a cell signal). I want something I can keep a bunch of movies or tv seasons and my music library on, not something with an anemic SDHC card that I have to switch out everytime I want to watch something new. Something I can play simple games on for the duration of my 12 hour flight to wherever without having to plug myself in the whole time.
THAT i would LOVE to drop 1k++ on. Netbooks/notebooks now can have that in processing power but are not nearly there in power efficiency. Realize the ARM/power efficiency revolution is coming in relation to MID's, gimme some quality linux ARM ports, and enjoy watching me stumble over myself while I throw money at your products.
Re:But can it run ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I watch Apple cleaning up resources (languages), releasing single architecture OS (Snow Leopard) and there are some reports of massively shrink Mail.app etc. in OS betas. As they (and you) sure know there is ZERO performance enhancement of cleaning languages, removing architectures whatever windows switchers may think :)... I mean, Apple seems to do a huge spring cleaning lately.
I don't say they will put plain OS X to a phone, it will be still modified of course... At the core level though, Developers may see something like "really stripped down OS X but still OS X", something they can use exact same core and just have to write different GUI. You know, like "Write once run anywhere as long as its Apple". It was what I expected right at the first iPhone announcement but I was too naive and early thinking for such thing it seems.
Re:But can it run ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny is people missing the fact that Apple themselves choose not to support the hardware, OS X code is massively portable, the sub-system sharing the same roots does run on Windows/Linux right now as GNUStep.
Apple could release a "OS X on mysterious x86 killer CPU" as early as next month and I wouldn't be surprised at all. Sadly, for political/financial reasons, it wouldn't happen but still, they can do it.
Hopefully people will just see this fact, I mean what OS X really is. It is not just Cocoa on FreeBSD running top of Mach which can be coded with a weird C language variant. The OS itself is object.
Re:Why would I want android on a PC? (Score:5, Interesting)
Could one just slap Debian ARM on this instead?
I want the reverse, a phone sized device that (Score:1, Interesting)
has a processor running at phone speeds when on battery and desktop speeds when powered, has 2G of RAM and 32G of SSD, a touchscreen and some form of bastardized keyboard, and an industry standard, high speed docking interface as well as the ability to run X. With wifi/bluetooth/3G/4G of course.
That way I can carry around my phone and chuck my laptop and dock it with any laptop/desktop/thin client supporting the industry standard docking device.
Once docked, I can either use it as a network disk, use it's processor via X or VNC, and if needed use it's network connectivity via tethering.