$74 MK802 Android micro-PC take on the Cotton Candy, RasPi | Hacker News Reader

$74 MK802 Android micro-PC take on the Cotton Candy, RasPi

geek.com

47 points11031a25 comments

Please do not submit links like this. See the bottom of the "article" for its source, that one is so much better. http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/05/17/74-usd-allwinner-a10-...

cnx-software.com seems to be pretty good, too.

PC in a pendrive, plug it in the nearest monitor and there you have it, mobile computer on the cheap.

I like the idea.

Are these things fast enough to run MAME? I'd love to build a mini MAME cabinet with one of these.

They should be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zis6s8nMhCw&feature=relat...

So why would this be a good option over the many A10 + Mali based tablets around? Take the Ainol elf, not that much more but with its own screen etc?

Android kills the deal for me. Can I get it with linux?

Reposting a dead comment for you:

cnxsoft 4 hours ago | link [dead]

dding the Ubuntu or debian image (http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/a10_image/) to a 4GB microSD card should boot Linux in that device.

You may need to hack it a bit to make it work though, but information is available in the web.

Hopefully, we'll get stable images available soon.

-----

They are using the Allwinner A10. You ought to have some luck: http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/ (See the source and kernel sections.)

How many Linux apps run on ARM? I actually don't know, but I assume the vast majority of them.

I work with embedded linux on ARM. Check out EmDebian as an example of a full linux distro for ARM.

Android runs on Linux.

Android has a heavily modified kernel.

you can install a linux userspace inside android and chroot into it

dding the Ubuntu or debian image (http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/a10_image/) to a 4GB microSD card should boot Linux in that device.

You may need to hack it a bit to make it work though, but information is available in the web.

Hopefully, we'll get stable images available soon.

Considering I can get the tablet included for about the same price. And that allwinner a13 is on the market. The price should be dropping soon.

Would be nice for a cheap carputer. Although audio out might be an issue, I'm assuming it does audio over HDMI?

raspberry pi has standard analog audio out, at one third of the cost.

In every use case I can think of, the Raspberry Pi wins hands down.

.. Except for availability.

Up until a couple of days ago, it seems neither did the MK802 (not sure it's available now ...)

And within 3 months, RaspPi's availability is supposed to be mostly solved as well. I think the wait is more than worth it for the echo system that it has and is collecting in the meantime.

It seems the Raspberry Pi's standard audio out is noisy, low bitrate, basically unusable for music.

Could probably be done using a usb bluetooth dongle assuming your car is newish and supports a2dp.

There are an assload of set top android boxes on alibaba. Any of them hackable to run standard linuxes?

Just bought one.. WooHoo!!! Can't wait to get it and play with it. Went through http://bit.ly/J0PVYJ (not an affiliate link) original link is : http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/05/17/74-usd-allwinner-a10-...

Those links are the same. Which one did you buy it from?

(Man. I JUST recieved a Genesi Efika MX yesterday. $129 for 800 mhz, 512mb ram, 8gb SSD, runs ubuntu. Maybe that's not too shabby.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com