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VIA's $49 Android-Based Mini-PC is No Bigger Than a Banana

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"APC was not built like an ordinary PC," the company said. "For openers, we started with an awareness that the purpose of a computer is to connect to the Internet. It is the Internet that now defines computing. When you begin here, magic happens. Expensive, overpowered CPUs and bloated software are no longer relevant."

word?
 
This would be a pretty good HTPC. If you loaded this with an SD card with movies, you could use mizuu to serve as your player/organizer (awesome program by the way with a scrubber that gets the movie info and poster art automatically for you). You could then download the Playon App and run Hulu, HBOGO etc. Unfortunately, it is only 720P but at least it is a start.
 
Oh also, someone would have to come up with a remote app that could be used to control the device or maybe even an ir dongle that you could use to program your harmony remote.
 
[citation][nom]chomlee[/nom]This would be a pretty good HTPC. If you loaded this with an SD card with movies, you could use mizuu to serve as your player/organizer (awesome program by the way with a scrubber that gets the movie info and poster art automatically for you). You could then download the Playon App and run Hulu, HBOGO etc. Unfortunately, it is only 720P but at least it is a start.[/citation]

If you have a 1080p display the size of which allows you to glean an actual advantage from having 1080p on vs 720p, you can probably afford to upgrade to one of the many 1080p media players that are out there for like $100. The really cool thing about this isnt movies or even HTPC necessarily, it's internet and interactivity at a superbly cheap price point, like low enough that for $100 you could get a cheap used display, keyboard, and mouse plus one of these boards (hopefully they will sell a
 
Does anyone else want a roundup of different ultra-portable/budget computers? I want to see how this benchmarks vs other similar computers like the Raspberry Pi
 
So, they are copying Raspberry Pi. And they are stating outright that over powered CPUs are irrelevant. I guess that makes sense for them, since VIA has never been able to produce a competitive 'over powered' CPU. I have tried two VIA cpu's (motherboards actually) of different generations and was disappointed both times. Never again.
 
[citation][nom]ddan49[/nom]Does anyone else want a roundup of different ultra-portable/budget computers? I want to see how this benchmarks vs other similar computers like the Raspberry Pi[/citation]


I agree, with all of the small computing options at varying price points that have been announced or released recently it would make an interesting read to have them all thrown into an article with all of them tested and compared.
 
[citation][nom]JasonAkkerman[/nom]If someone would just make a similar Tegra 3 based system capable of 1080p for below $100 I would buy one per TV in my house.[/citation]


Very True! Its pretty exciting to see these micro PC's, maybe they'll get good enough to replace a common HTPC , the size alone is worth the change even if its less powerful.
 
[citation][nom]JasonAkkerman[/nom]If someone would just make a similar Tegra 3 based system capable of 1080p for below $100 I would buy one per TV in my house.[/citation]
I would Soooo make a cluster out of those ! Although I may best wait for ARM64
 
[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]In other words, VIA admits that it's nothing compared to Intel and can't afford to power real PCs.[/citation]

Not really. Who knows if Via could compete with Intel and AMD if they really wanted to.
 
That thing has got to be S.L.O.W. slow. Check out the reviews for any wm8650 powered device. You get what you pay for for 50 bucks. Also 13.5Watts! Dual-core Atom systems run much less than that at load.
 
[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Not really. Who knows if Via could compete with Intel and AMD if they really wanted to.[/citation]

Well, they do and they don't... Check up on their Isaiah core. It wouldn't surprise me if they sell more of these than their embeded x86 CPU's.

This is clearly a niche product for hobbyists, signage usage, thin clients, or ultra-low income consumers.
 
[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Not really. Who knows if Via could compete with Intel and AMD if they really wanted to.[/citation]

They do have whats left of the centaur team behind them (I kind of miss the old Winchips) and the nano x2 is a great product, unfortunately its graphics and power usage stats just aren't up to par. I would love it if VIA got some serious capital backing and went full tilt with a higher end x86 chip but I just dont see it happening. They would need to secure some partners and convince them to tool up for their chips, they would need to definitely work on their graphics, lease some designs from someone else, or make their chips cheap enough that adding in graphics chips would be no big deal. In the end though, would it be worth competing in such a cut throat main stream environment against both Intel AND AMD? Both of whom have more resources, staff, and connections than VIA.
 
[citation][nom]stardude82[/nom]That thing has got to be S.L.O.W. slow. Check out the reviews for any wm8650 powered device. You get what you pay for for 50 bucks. Also 13.5Watts! Dual-core Atom systems run much less than that at load.[/citation]

A new Atom processor would cost about as much as this entire mini PC does and Atom also uses more power than you think it does. This device would also not be too slow at all, especially if it gets updated to a newer, faster version of Android and that's likely going to happen once Google gets X86 Android out more.
 
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