Mouse Box: An ARM computer in a mouse | Hacker News Reader

Mouse Box: An ARM computer in a mouse

mouse-box.com

20 pointsfotcorn13 comments

Why? Stuffing a computer in a mouse makes no sense, you'll need a keyboard anyways, so why don't you stuff a computer in a keyboard? Oh wait, somebody did this before. Bummer.

On most computers there is a virtual keyboard.

Do you really want to sit there and click on each letter on the virtual keyboard? Seems counterproductive.

It's useful for situations where you don't need a keyboard:

- Just like the video shows, you could hook it to the videoprojector to display your presentation

- If it has enough power, it could host your Kodi (http://kodi.tv/)

Chuck Moore did this a long time (10 or more years) ago: built a computer with a simple OS and capable of driving video on one of his Forth SoCs, and soldered it in place of the microcontroller inside a standard mouse. It was a nifty demonstration of "look how much functionality we can pack into a small space".

The site reports that it charges wirelessly, but the video lists the battery as optional - does this mean that on the non-battery version if I move my Mouse Box off the mat it'll shut down? Both the USB ports shown are host ports, so it's not going to be receiving power that way.

A computer "stuffed" into a USB-like drive would be cooler still.

Agreed. The Intel Compute Stick [1] does this well, and runs Windows or Linux. You can also buy a rebranded version called the MeeGoPad [2].

[1]: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-c...

[2]: https://www.chinavasion.com/china/wholesale/Android_Media_Pl...

Or perhaps something like Cotton Candy http://www.fxitech.com/cotton-candy/what-is-it/

Cotton candy Doesn't run windows.

I would rather have my phone be the one thing I carry around.

Would it be possible to beam the "regular" screen to a Chromecast while using the phone as a touch pad / virtual keyboard?

With Nexus 5 (and i think Nexus 7 too), you can cast the entire device onto your TV. The screen will even flip from landscape to portrait when you turn your phone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com