

A $149 ARM laptop that looks like a MacBook Air (and runs Android) - gosub
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/07/thd-n2-kirf-macbook-air-ics/

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ajross
Note that the quoted price is wholesale, in units of 500.

It's a 1.2GHz single-core Cortex A8 (not A9) with 1GB of RAM and a 1366x768
display. The article states 8G of "SSD" storage, but at that size and given
the feature sets of these SoCs it's much more likely to be a SD/eMMC device.
Frankly this is going to be a very poor laptop replacement, but as a
browsing/messaging box it might make sense.

And of course it looks exactly like a Macbook Air.

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wmf
_the device's build quality certainly isn't up to Apple's standards_

That sounds like a huge understatement. A good phone is $500, so I'd expect an
ARM laptop to have a similar price. For $150 they must be cutting a lot of
corners.

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th0ma5
I briefly read what you typed as something like you would cut yourself on the
corners, which also may well be true!

~~~
wmf
In Chinese Air clone, corners cut you.

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CountHackulus
If it ran Linux, I'd be all over it, but with Android, I'd much rather just
use a smartphone or a tablet. It's essentially a tablet without a touchscreen
as-is.

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th0ma5
A great deal of the Linux userland is available. On my Arm based phone, I can
vnc into an X windows session on the same device.

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zephjc
Impressive, though some of the machining around the various ports looks a
little naff.

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alexobenauer
$149? That's cheap. You get what you pay for: According to the article, this
thing has 8 GB of storage.

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tseabrooks
Is that a mag connector for the power? I didn't think anyone but apple could
use that.

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spobo
Ripping off the MagSafe or not doesn't even matter. They clearly didn't ask
Apple for permission for any of this as this has illegal written all over it.

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bsphil
>looks like a macbook air

Oh the Apple lawyers will be pissed about that.

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grecy
How long until someone installs OS X on this?

I've been running 10.5 on my Dell Mini 9 for almost 3 years without a single
problem. I'd love the bigger screen.

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wmf
OS X doesn't run on random ARM SoCs.

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duskwuff
OS X doesn't run on ARM at all. iOS might, with a ton of hacking, but as far
as I'm aware that hasn't been demonstrated by anyone yet.

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Sottilde
How is this - or is it - legal?

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jholman
Your question is confusing. Are you under the impression that Apple has
somehow gained legal protection for all aluminum clamshell laptops of a
certain colour scheme?

It's a laptop. Why wouldn't it be legal?

On a vaguely related note, the plaintiff lost in both Apple v. Microsoft (35
F.3d 1435) and Lotus v. Borland (516 U.S. 233). It would appear that you can
neither patent nor copyright Look and Feel.

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cube13
It's not the clamshell design that's the problem, I think. I think it's other
parts, like the charging apparatus.

The magsafe-like charging connector is pretty much identical in appearance to
Apple's design. I would be surprised if Apple doesn't have an industrial
design patent on that.

The keyboard is similar, but I don't think there's a problem, considering all
the other Chiclets-style keyboards out there.

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com
There is significant prior art around larger-than-Apple-magsafe magnetic-
attach power connectors - if you ever used a Japanese-made domestic deep fryer
in the 80s or 90s, you'll have noticed the same concept. Design IP is a
different matter of course.

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drivebyacct2
Why, why, why? Why do people want Android on a non-mobile/tablet device? It's
not designed for a mouse, arguably not even for a keyboard...

Ubuntu would rock on that thing. Okay, maybe not Ubuntu, maybe something a bit
better tuned for 1GB of RAM, but still, this would be fun to have for $150.

Also, are those ports empty? ha, Or at least, what is the port that is
analogous to the MBA's Thunderbolt port? I don't recognize it.

 _edit_ Actually, I'd definitely get down with Chrome OS on this. Is there a
usable ARM port of Chrome OS?

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georgemcbay
Android from Honeycomb on is quite nice with a mouse/keyboard combination,
particularly if the "mouse" is really a multitouch touchpad.

I use my ASUS Transformer in that configuration more than I use it in tablet
form, and I find that both the hardward keyboard and the touchpad work
perfectly fine. The real downside isn't the OS support, but the app selection.
There are still far too few apps built assuming that some percentage of the
userbase will be using richer-than-touchscreen-only input methods, but this is
beginning to slowly change as more full-featured office apps and IDEs are
starting to appear.

