[Elect] Android 4 on a stick - convert your TV to a Smart TV with Android (from USD$40)

[sansp00]

Sorry, I had misread the spec ... Here it is:

7.6.1. Minimum Memory and Storage
Device implementations MUST have at least 340MB of memory available to the kernel and userspace. The 340MB
MUST be in addition to any memory dedicated to hardware components such as radio, video, and so on that is not
under the kernel's control.
Device implementations MUST have at least 350MB of non-volatile storage available for application private data.
That is, the /data partition MUST be at least 350MB.
The Android APIs include a Download Manager that applications may use to download data files [ Resources, 56].
The device implementation of the Download Manager MUST be capable of downloading individual files of at least
100MB in size to the default "cache" location.
7.6.2. Application Shared Storage
Device implementations MUST offer shared storage for applications. The shared storage provided MUST be at least
1GB in size.
Device implementations MUST be configured with shared storage mounted by default, "out of the box". If the shared
storage is not mounted on the Linux path /sdcard, then the device MUST include a Linux symbolic link from /sdcard
to the actual mount point.

[ToniCipriani]

With every new Google developer device, Google expects that operating system to be paired with those specs. Ideally it would be a gig (galaxy nexus). Its all assumed by devs at xda so don't take my word for it.

Yeah but he said require. Expect =/= require.

As in his correction the minimum requirement is 340MB and 1GB storage.

[BB88]

you guy can take a look at this

http://www.fxitech.com/products/

similar but more power to it, it is portable, still to expensive

This is the cotton candy I mentioned in the first post

[lead]

interesting device and since their appearing lets bring up a rather quiet point of discussion. Power and interface, or I guess we'll just call it usb 2.0 because thats it! thats all theres is! That means at the very min its expectation is 3.3/5v at 500mah for its psu. Thats it? Basically its designed to run off a usb 2.0 port and thats all the power it has.
Now argueably it could or probably should support up to 2.0amp power supplys. But because the device still needs to consume as little energy as possible and still output gpu/cpu video instructions while supporting the memory for os after boot(remember more memory more power consumption) thats leaves what it can alocate to sustain for storage or network and input device. Generally from what i could google most will offer one and only one usb host controller that is basically divided for the device(ethernet/wifi/usb slots/sd card slot).

So if its got wifi and storage usb then they'll split it's capable bandwidth? Now your thinking I'll get a powered usb expansion? nope that won't improve speed. Why because instead of 50-60mhz that generally a usb 2.0 device operates under. These little boards operate around 12-25mhz split among every device on the usb host controller. What does that mean. Don't expect usb 2.0 speed on anything attached. I bet at best you would see 6-7 megs a sec.

Anyone who has been reading about these devices please add in what you know. My interest in the topic came from the raspberry pi and it only offers 25mhz on 1 usb host controller thats its limit and it has to support 2 usb an ethernet port and sd card slot. Thats straight from the manuf spec of the board and raspberry pi forum.

Alot of people look at these devices and think it can do everything nas/htpc etc. You might be disapointed if you expected decent networking and or storage too. Actually you may have experience it on some tablets with slow usb and or wifi n. Its a cheap easy way to cut power consumption and decrease size.

[EugW]

1080p H.264 MKV should play fine on these, even at decent bitrates. However, navigation of Android 4.0 (including surfing) is pretty slow with 512 MB single-core ARM devices.

I think the sweet spot will be achieved later this year, with dual-core ARM A9 and 1 GB devices. So, I will wait. I'd expect these dual-core devices to be $140 or less from the cheap Chinese manufacturers. I suspect a popular CPU/GPU core for these as-yet unreleased devices will be Rockchip 3066.

As for storage, some of them include a non-powered mini-USB port, in addition to the larger USB port for power. This mini-USB port allows for external media (as long it has a separate power source), for video playback.

[TheRed]

Can you control this with a smartphone?

[kukugooder]

i think it's madeinChina, as long as the quality is ok and cheap， wherever it's Producd it's doesn't matter

[JeeZues]

Wouldn't the VIA APC be a better product (when it becomes available)
http://liliputing.com/2012/05/via-ap...arm11-cpu.html

[EugW]

Wouldn't the VIA APC be a better product (when it becomes available)
http://liliputing.com/2012/05/via-ap...arm11-cpu.html

Well, that won't fit in your pocket, and it doesn't even come with a shell either. There is a difference in potential usage with an on-a-stick device vs. a small form factor desktop.

Plus, it still looks like it's gonna be very slow.

[mockingjay404]

The question is not whether it can play 1080p/MKV - the more important question is, can it play them WELL? Or will playback quality/smoothness/motion compensation be compromised by a lack of horsepower? If the movie scene in question has a high level of movement and is difficult to compress, it will have a "bitrate spike" -- can this device handle bitrate spikes or is THAT where it'll "die"?

If so... why bother?

[supkhoa1]

The question is not whether it can play 1080p/MKV - the more important question is, can it play them WELL? Or will playback quality/smoothness/motion compensation be compromised by a lack of horsepower? If the movie scene in question has a high level of movement and is difficult to compress, it will have a "bitrate spike" -- can this device handle bitrate spikes or is THAT where it'll "die"?

If so... why bother?

I have not spent that much time encoding or decoding so I won't be able to tell you which H.264 profile it will run on. And do not have this device but I can tell you some experiences I have had with other android devices w.r.t 1080p video.

1080p brrip/bdrip from YIFY yields the following performances on my android devices:
- Motorola Atrix (Tegra 2 dual core 1ghz): good performance with spikes and desync from time to time in MX Video Player
- Samsung Infuse (1.2ghz single core): unable to watch on MX Video Player. it runs but the frame rate is way too low

Please note that this is with standard Android 2.3 that came with the phones (bloatware and no O/C). I would definitely wait for the dual or quad cores before running it as a mediabox (reliably).

BUT I will still try to get my hands on this baby so that I basically have a mini computer in my pocket. Hopefully the VM is good enough, then I would use on public PCs as well.

[Mr Nobody]

Here is the Always Innovating video you guys should watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YminTjV00wU

[wrdeal24]

I did a bit of research on these Android 4.0 sticks for those interested

Here's some specs taken off Arstechnica http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/...a-thumb-drive/

The small computer has an AllWinner A10 single-core 1.5GHz ARM CPU, a Mali 400 GPU, and 512MB of RAM. An HDMI port on the exterior allows users to plug the computer into a television. It outputs at 1080p and is said to be capable of playing high-definition video.

To give a general idea, the 1.5GHz processor is probably around the same range as the Nokia Lumia Windows phones or Samsung Galaxy W phones, which is by no means the fastest, but shouldn't chug most of the time. The Mali 400 GPU in here on the other hand is the same found on the Galaxy S II which is the reason it can decode 1080p, being quite a good GPU. So as long as you don't expect to be able to get away with major multitasking should be fine.

[Fantaz]

Here is the Always Innovating video you guys should watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YminTjV00wU

Very cool that the remote control also has a gyroscope.

[xaueious]

Aliexpress is a less secure version of Ebay. It's not popular in China per-day, and is only made for exports from China to the rest of the world.

It's full of random sellers all the same. But there are some legitimate sellers on there. Just about anyone can sell on Aliexpress.

To give a general idea, the 1.5GHz processor is probably around the same range as the Nokia Lumia Windows phones or Samsung Galaxy W phones, which is by no means the fastest, but shouldn't chug most of the time. The Mali 400 GPU in here on the other hand is the same found on the Galaxy S II which is the reason it can decode 1080p, being quite a good GPU. So as long as you don't expect to be able to get away with major multitasking should be fine.

Mali400 has nothing to do with the video decoding at all on Android on most devices. And Mali400 comes in different variants. Look up Mali400-MP.