Freescale Unveils Design For $199 Tablet 173
theodp writes "Freescale Semiconductor has designs on new smartbook tablet computers, and to prove it, it's rolling out a second-generation reference design at the Consumer Electronics Show. For under $200, Freescale envisions an instant-on device with persistent connectivity and all-day battery life with the following additional features: 7" (1024 x 600) touch screen, Freescale i.MX515 processor (based on ARM Cortex-A8 core), 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, 3G modem (optional), 512 MB DDR2 memory, 4GB to 64GB internal storage, removable micro SD, 3 Mpixel camera (video up to VGA 30fps), 3-axis accelerometer, ambient light sensor, Adobe Flash support, Android or Linux OS."
all-day battery life (Score:2)
How freaking big will the battery be? If I leave the radio and wifi on on my Nook it needs a recharge at the end of the day, and that's with little use of the color screen.
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You do know that an ARM processor consumes less power than an Intel Atom processor, and thus increases battery life. In addition to that, the Pixel Qi LCD technology with an ARM processor can give 15-20 hours or more worth of battery life [1] (Pixel Qi uses 1/2 to 1/4 of the power that standard LCD screens use [2]).
[1] http://www.pcworld.com/article/154541/jepsen_works_to_raise_laptop_battery_life_to_2040_hours.html [pcworld.com]
[2] http://www.pixelqi.com/ [pixelqi.com]
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Probably about double or triple the size of an iPhone's battery. I fully expect this to be a glorified 10" ipod touch/iphone running the same/a variant of the iPhone OS. They don't use a whole lot of power in standby mode.
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Yes, there is. That's what Apple calls the variant of OS X that runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
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Maybe the rule is not as simple as you think.
"Envisions" (Score:5, Insightful)
I envision all of that, too. But I think I'm about as close to releasing that product as Freescale is.
But my vision also includes tomato bacon pizza, so maybe my local pizzeria is actually the closest.
I've been "envisioning" this for 2 years (Score:2)
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You expect USPS to deliver 'hot juicy goodness'? This isn't 1950! (And I doubt you're a lonely housewife!)
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This isn't 1950. He doesn't have to be a lonely housewife in order for USPS to deliver "hot juicy goodness".
Always Innovating Touchbook (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember reading about this about a year ago. Does anyone actually have one? Similar idea with a bigger screen but a little more expensive.
http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/ [alwaysinnovating.com]
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I have one. I have fat fingers, so the physical keyboard is still a better choice for general typing. For non-typing GUI work, the touch screen works quite well.
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I've been looking into this as well as the Pandora http://www.open-pandora.org/. Do you know if the touch book has regular orders shipping yet? Or is it still: pay and wait for the next batch of parts to be ordered, assembled and shipped? If I can can order one and have it en route before the end of the week, I would buy one in a heartbeat.
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I honestly have no idea. It took something like three or four months for me to get mine.
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Sweet, I've been mostly looking for a glorified PDF reader and toy to hack around with. The Touchbook looks pretty versatile as something to hack around with.
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Thanks. I stumbled onto this last year and forgot to bookmark it. It's certainly attractive but the SD card only option is
a downer - why not an SSD? Also, they're being quite coy about the amount of installed RAM - which isn't upgradeable.
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Considering the amount of space in the case (I've opened it up), an SSD wouldn't really fit so easily, and would increase the price. I popped a 32 GB SDHC card in it for something like $70.
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Right in the specs it has 256 megs of ram. This isn't a PC, the TI OMAP 3 chip is a fully integrated system on a chip. Its ram, eprom, graphics accelerators and cpu are all cut from a single chip.
What about the A9? (Score:3, Interesting)
I fully understand that it takes time to bring the A9 to market, and a chip that can't run windows (I'm not including WinCE) has little appeal in the broader market. On the other hand, if integrators are going to put time and money behind new ARM products why use the A8? I long for when I can get my 2ghz dual-core ARM netbook with a 10" screen and all the connectivity I can think of.
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I see some announcements for Cortex A9 chipsets, but I don't know of any that are in production much less have devices available that use them. However, Cortex A8 devices are fairly mature with numerous commercial devices and hobby kits available. If you have enough time and skill, you could roll your own Cortex A8 netbook with a BeagleBoard, Gumstix or other hobby board and an LCD and battery. Due to the economies of scale it could cost you up to $600 for all the relevant parts, but if you skimp on battery
Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
The 'netbooks' are shrinking on the low end to compete with smartphones and growing on the high end to compete with laptops. This is real competition at work : there's going to be a computing device ranging from pocket sized all the way up to a desktop with 30" screens.
The interesting bit is that all of these computing devices tend to be all-in one type machines that can take pictures and video, make calls, browse the web, play music, play games, GPS navigate, etc. More specialized devices that only play music (ipod) or GPS navigate (tom tom) or display email (blackberry) or let you write down notes (newton) or take pictures (compact digital camera) are rapidly becoming obsolete.
Every one of these devices, from the smart phone up to the monster desktop, is able to do it all.
On the bad side, the cell phone companies have a stranglehold on the wireless data these devices all need to function. Not only is there clear collusion and oligopoly pricing, but the companies tend to price things based upon arbitrary metrics rather than actual cost. If there was actual free market competition in the wireless industry, text messages would be almost free and downloading video data would cost a fortune. Yet you can get an unlimited data plan for $40-$70 while texting costs at least $20 for unlimited.
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Every one of these devices, from the smart phone up to the monster desktop, is able to do it all....
... very poorly. In fact, just barely well enough to not get class action lawsuits, usually, which is not exactly glowing praise.
Possibly the lowest res worst quality digital cameras ever made on cellphones, complete with greasy lenses dusty sensors and dim slow sensitivity. Viewing the web thru a screen the size of a postage stamp, even webtv was better. Non-apple music player user interfaces that make you wish for the good old days of the 1997 Diamond Rio, but thankfully the phone battery will die in a
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As they well should. All of the devices you mention are basically the same (architecture-wise) as general-purpose computers, just smaller.
I just bought myself an iPod Touch for christmas (my first Apple purchase) and have experienced equal parts of both fascination and frustration while using
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MapPoint is an AMAZING tool. Just fascinating. I've never seen anything like it since.
Two points (Score:5, Interesting)
2) Cost of $199 is based on Freescale's projected cost of components, meaning actual cost to consumers would be higher (probably closer to the rumored $300 iSlate price)
However, if you add a tie-in to a decent eBook/mp3/video vendor, this device could have a decent niche market. In fact, it could adopt the cellphone business model and be given away for "free" with a commitment to a monthly subscription fee. Would you pay $20/month for two years for this if it included content?
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No real research here, bu my conjecture is that we're used to freedom on PCs, but when it comes to cellphones, we've never known differently, so we just take what we can get.
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1) Reference design != product 2) Cost of $199 is based on Freescale's projected cost of components, meaning actual cost to consumers would be higher (probably closer to the rumored $300 iSlate price)
chumby one $119.95
https://store.chumby.com/ [chumby.com] most of the specs are the same (minus screen of course)
7 days (Score:2)
By my prediction, that is how long it is going to take for OLPC to take credit for this.
Just a little Nit (Score:2)
..."Adobe Flash support, Android or Linux OS."
Isn't Android just a mobile distribution of Linux?
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Isn't Android just a mobile distribution of Linux?
No.
What is Android?
Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language.
http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html
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So...it isn't a distribution of Linux like "Cloud Computing" isn't a fancy term for client/server or thin client computing...Gotcha!
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It is based on a mobile distribution of linux, but it is also a java like language and a set of APIs.
It is probably better to say that it is implemented on top of a linux kernel.
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Linux is just a Kernel, not an OS. Android is an OS with a Linux kernel.
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And we want Maemo on this
Some Questions (Score:2)
can i install unbuntu/kubuntu on it?
64 gBit? where? how much?
Where can I buy one so I can get my trembling fingers on it?
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1024 by 600? Why not 1024 by 768?
Form factor? Looking at the pictures on the page linked to increasing the screen depth would mean widening the unit (unless you mean you want a higher res but with oblong pixels). Also widescreen format displays are probably cheaper on account of being mass produced for the current netbook market.
can i install unbuntu/kubuntu on it?
The summary does say "Android or Linux" so almost certainly yes, hardware support permitting.
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The last ARM device I used had a slider between RAM for storage and RAM for performance. I'd assume the same thing going on here.
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WSVGA. The width of XGA (minimum native for most web sites) in a smaller package.
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Not a very standard resolution. I think a Tablet with Native 1080p or at least Native 720p resolution would be a great place to start.
Fuck Tablets (Score:4, Insightful)
OMG GOOGLE TABLET OMG APPLE TABLET OMG THE OLPC OF TABLETS.
Shut the fuck up. If your company missed the "netbook" boat, then too bad. If you're not Amazon, you didn't make the Kindle - too bad.
This industry has gone from innovation to theft to bandwagon jumping to bandwagon hyping to hyping of planned bandwagon hyping.
History has proven time and time again that the market for tablets is very small. I don't give a shit how much hot air you blow into the media's ass, you're not going to make a bigger market for tablets because people don't like tablets.
As for this proposed tablet? It's sheer feature / price point marketing. The PHBs called a meeting with marketing and wrote some features on the board, then they came up with a price. And they're only doing it because of the incessant, unfounded rumors that tablets are going to be the next big market.
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I for one, welcome our bandwagon jumping hyping hyping overlords.
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Er, I dunno.
I think tablets make for great remote controls and under $200 they start to get reasonable: one remote to control them all, with a web interface on each device.
I suppose a smart phone could do that as well, but sometimes the extra display real estate is handy: movie previews from the cable company's On Demand service should be streamable to the remote/tablet so as to not interfere with the program already displayed, if desired.
Accessing recipes in the kitchen, or an "in a pinch" browser would be
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Technology advances, and people preference does too. Maybe 5 years ago tablets had no big appeal, culture wasnt built on consumers, then most smartphones started to have a touchscreen, but maybe sometimes you fould feel that the screen is too small and you are start to build a potential market. Foldable keyboards or twistable screens to turn tablets back and forth to something more like noteb
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History has proven time and time again that the market for tablets that are more expensive than a traditional notebook is very small.
FTFY
I'd have to insist that the market for such a device at the stated pricepoint has never been tested. You do remember your economics, right? Supply/Demand, Price?
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The point here is Freescale is advertising to OEMs "Hey look how easy and cheap it is to develop with our product". This is not aimed at y
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History has proven that the tablet market was set at a price point that was to high. Traditionally, the typical tablet has been a very overpriced but underpowered laptop.
Many, MANY uses can be found for these type of tablets, IFF they're cheap enough. That is just now starting to happen.
The thing that hasn't changed is this industry moving from "hyping of planned bandwagon hyping". That has always been the case, and without some government enforced consent agreements (re IBM) it will continue to be the c
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And they're only doing it because of the incessant, unfounded rumors that tablets are going to be the next big market.
It's not tablets. It's tablets with an entire ecosystem for apps and content attached. Hardware with just an OS and a few apps on it is lame nowadays.
People have learned with the iPhone that having a device *and* a store *and* some cool company caring for all this is the thing. Like it or not. Geeks buy gadgets. People buy packages, because they're sick of naked gadgets and having to fight them and make them into something usable.
I don't like to say it, but selling cheap gadgets to geeks is becoming economi
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people don't like tablets.
Pray, how do you know that? I've never bought a tablet - and wouldn't buy from any to-date because they don't meet my minimum expectations. Don't be fooled, however, I'd love to use a good tablet PC.
Sticking points for me are :
* High resolution A4-ish screen (to read PDFs page-at-a-time)
* Long battery life (at least a day)
* Wi-fi connectivity and cheap 3G (perhaps via a bluetooth phone) for generic Web access
When technology meets my demands (and I'm sure it eventually will) I'll buy one - as, I suspect, w
"Smartphone", "netbook", "ebook", "smartbook"... (Score:5, Funny)
Can the "phonebook" be far behind?
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One bookbook to contain them all...
Not cutesy enough (Score:2)
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And when small computers use e-paper for their display, we'll have paperbackbooks.
Resolution sucks (Score:2)
Seriously... couldn't they at least have 1280x720 instead of that 1024x600... though I doubt the processor is fast enough to decode regular 720p h264 movies.
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They mentioned an ARM Cortex A8 Freescale processor, that is probably the i.MX515. Like most other Cortex A8 chips it includes on chip audio/video hardware acceleration for popular formats including at least H.264/MPEG4.
Similar processors have been proven to handle 720p for hardware supported formats, though I don't really know how this particular one will fair.
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I think the HP Mini 111 has an upgrade screen with a broadcom video accelerator to push 720p content fullscreen. They exist, but they're about 50% more expensive than your regular, run of the mill HP Mini 110, which is already 300-350 depending on price and features. I think for the most part they're only avalible online. I've never seen one retail.
Looks familiar (Score:2)
This has been done before! (Score:3, Funny)
If only the Freescale device had 2 knobs.
http://www.etch-a-sketch.com/ [etch-a-sketch.com]
Cheers
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It's a touch screen, so it'll be easy to do that in software. In addition to this, it has an accelerometer, so it should be possible to detect when you shake the device. Result: expect an etch-a-sketch application for it any day now.
Would it have been that much more for native 720p? (Score:2)
1280x720 native resolution would have made far more sense, no?
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My guess is this device would also need more expensive CPU/GPU hardware to decompress 720p video data. Thus, a 720p screen by itself would not be an incredibly marketable feature. I'd sure be upset if I bought something with "720p!!!" that couldn't actually play a 720p video file.
Isn't this missing something? (Score:2)
They said all of this of netbooks too... (Score:2)
And good luck finding a retail, non-refurbished netbook at the $200 pricepoint these days.
I paid $300 for mine and I still feel I overpaid by about $100 for its underpoweredness.
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By this time next year, it might night be a problem. You can already get them for $250 new.
Then again, $200 starts getting into the range of too under powered to be a replacement for the more expensive bigger version.
You think that its a matter of not getting the price down, personally from your own statements about yours being underpowered, perhaps you don't actually want them to produce cheaper ones than they currently are.
Don't want a cheap model (Score:2)
Am I in the minority here, but I'd rather pay $300 for a model with a nice higher res OLED screen and a full GB of RAM rather than a cheap $200 model.
Total Cost of Ownership and the OLPC (Score:2)
The basic problem with devices like this tablet is they are largely disposable.
The _only_ netbook I have seen that is designed to be repaired is the OLPC. I can get parts for it at reasonable prices from places like http://xoexplosion.com/ [xoexplosion.com] and http://ilovemyxo.com/ [ilovemyxo.com] and the repair manuals for the OLPC are readily available.
I suspect that we'll see a _much_ longer lifespan for these OLPC devices than any proprietary tablets and what not.
Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type (Score:4, Funny)
So hows that job going?
You know, the one where you are the perfect proxy for the entire consumer market.
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Steve Jobs, is that you? -- Bill, green with envy
Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type (Score:4, Informative)
How do you do data entry, even touch screen, if you need both hands to hold it? If I want to put a computer on my lap, I'll buy a laptop. If I want a PDA, I'll use a PDA. A 2-handed PDA sucks.
You've never written on a clipboard? You hold it with one hand and write with the other.
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Clipboards are a -lot- lighter than tablets. I know, because I own both and have tried writing with a tablet held in 1 arm and writing with the other. It isn't as easy as one would hope, and precision is about impossible.
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Having been involved with evaluating tablets, I can say that they're certainly viable options. However, you will NEVER be as productive at typing text with one as you could be with a keyboard. PERIOD.
So, it all depends on what you want to do. If you want an ebook reader, something the size of a tablet is just great. If you want a chart/map reader with some basic calculations/etc for navigation, it would be wonderful. If you are doing procedure execution and need to jot down a few numbers or check boxes
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They have a dockable Keyboard to turn it into a netbook, practically.
As for touch screen, all you need is a spot to mount it on your dashboard to use it like a GPS.
It's not the worlds most amazing product, especially since its a mere $200, but the applications are there, you just aren't looking hard enough.
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What, other than a larger screen, does this bring that isn't already covered by a premium smartphone? Granted, a smartphone without a contract will cost quite a bit more, but with a contract the Motorola droid is $199 and can do pretty much everything I imagine this device doing with very similar specs, all while being small enough to fit in your pocket.
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A premium smart phone is a highly flawed implementation of this idea at best.
The whole phone form factor thing doesn't work out so well with the "premium"
bits yielding a larger and more awkward phone while the "phone" form factor
greatly limits things like storage and screen real estate.
The only thing that a "premium smartphone" has going for it is the fact that it
happens to be there in your pocket.
Beyond that, pretty much anything it does can be done better by a more specialized device.
It kinda sucks that m
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What, other than a larger screen, does this bring that isn't already covered by a premium smartphone? Granted, a smartphone without a contract will cost quite a bit more
Those are exactly the reasons this will have a niche market. Larger screen, no contract, same as a smartphone.
Velcro (Score:2, Funny)
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Are you Vanna White? (Score:2)
Tablets are designed as a highly portable data presentation device - using handwriting recognition software, they make a decent data capture device (e.g., handwritten notes) - but for data entry, get yourself a clerk and a desktop PC with a good keyboard.
And now you see why tablets have remained a very niche market - because there are only a handful of people who need a tool that excels at "data presentation" over input. The only group of people for whom such a tablet is optimized for input are artists, mo
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obviously, you haven't risen high enough in the IT industry to have had to make a presentation to management, have you?
I've done that many times. But when I did so it was using a projector with a laptop - because outside the small portion of the day I was presenting I still had to work.
Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type (Score:4, Informative)
$200 for the unit with the least amount of storage.
$45 for the keyboard dock.
$35 for their keyboard (the only one that will fit)
$15 for a pack of 3 styluses (doesn't come with one because it's "designed for finger use" even though finger use is shit on it and nastifies the screen).
$35 for the carrying bag which doesn't hold the keyboard dock or keyboard.
$30 for a little travel mouse
Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type (Score:4, Funny)
Uh, it's not made by Apple, you know.
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Additional storage: $30
Manufacturer supporting Linux by design: Priceless
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> $200 for the unit with the least amount of storage. ...
>
> $30 for a little travel mouse
Where's the "Priceless" punchline?
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it was replaced with
???
Profit
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Funny way to describe a girlfriend.
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Google's netbook is not going to require applications to be approved or signed by Google. The apps just need to run through your browser and come in from a remote server. This hardly the same thing. Furthermore its open source and if you really want to run local software you can make that happen.
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[Chrome OS] apps just need to run through your browser and come in from a remote server.
Chrome OS will also support installing JavaScript apps to local storage through HTML 5's offline features. But does it run WebGL? And does it allow changing playback rate and volume of audio?
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There's a good chance it will run full-fledged Java apps running on the Dalvik virtual machines. There's no reason to worry about its flexibility before you can even buy a machine that runs it.
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Absolutely not. Google has said that there is NO possibility of installing software locally, for security reasons. Any attempt will make it download a new image of the OS. So forget about it.
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I'll say.
Where do I go to order one of these beauties right now? I wish Freescale the best with this product. It looks exactly like what I've been waiting for.
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Don't know what you're referring to, but he means the device made by Apple. They charge by the ounce, you know...
At least provide a socket for more RAM! (Score:2, Insightful)
It was about a decade ago that I upgraded one of my lab machines to 640MB, because that "ought to be enough for anybody."
But these days it's way way way too small, mostly for browsers and caching. Lenovo's already lost one sale from me by selling a cute little Atom-based slab machine for $199 which only had 512MB in it (or maybe it was 1GB) because the packaging didn't say anything about whether it could be upgraded or not. Yes, I know they need to have a low-config price to get some people to buy it,
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again... This is an ARM Cortex A8, it is an integrated system on a chip, the ram is in the CPU. You can't just add a slot for expansion. Also, since you won't ever be loading windows on the thing, and will be using a lightweight linux distro, you don't need nearly as much ram.