Sunday, May 5, 2013

Android desktop computers are coming soon

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Motherboards that have been optimized for Android are starting to proliferate in the Chinese factories. These are ARM based (phone chipset) boards with a ssd drive of only 4G, which is ample for Android. They are clearly intended for use as a cheap Desktop computer, probably under $100 with a suitable case. Android is capable of running all Multimedia (videos, pictures and music) via VLC or XBMC. There are many online and offline office suites with Libreoffice almost ready for Android with 'Nightly builds' for testing. Web surfing and e-mail are well supported already. Keyboard and mouse are via USB or wireless. User files are stored with USB flash drives or external hard drives. There are other USB ports, rs232 ports and General IO ports that can be run from header connecters that are mounted on the motherboard. Dimensions are approx. 4" x 3".