
Hackable Linux clamshell goes on sale for $99 - davidw
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Qi-Hardware-Ben-NanoNote/
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duck
_Ethernet and WiFi are not built in, but the device is compatible with several
WiFi SDIO cards, including the Spectec SDW-821 and SDW-823, says Qi Hardware._

That seems like a big mistake and it's no longer $99 for most people.

~~~
JeremyChase
Some people are never happy. For the love of Pete; this thing is only $99.

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axod
You can get a zipit for $49.99.

<http://www.zipitwireless.com/default.aspx?skinid=1>

Which includes wifi, color 320x240 LCD, qwerty backlit keyboard.

Here's a NES emulator running on it [http://hackaday.com/2009/09/25/with-
zipit-who-needs-a-netboo...](http://hackaday.com/2009/09/25/with-zipit-who-
needs-a-netbook/)

~~~
sp332
Hak.5 did a how-to / review of rooted zipit, it's pretty cool for $50.
[http://www.hak5.org/mod/unlocking-linux-on-the-
zipit-z2-a-50...](http://www.hak5.org/mod/unlocking-linux-on-the-
zipit-z2-a-50-hacktop) They've also got a how-to on running Doom
<http://www.hak5.org/episodes/episode-618>

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nathan82
I think the Pandora handheld is much more exciting. <http://www.open-
pandora.org/> Specifically this- "But the most interesting part is probably
that it isn't designed by a large company, it was designed by the suggestions
and requests of hundreds of people on the gp32x forums." The form factor is
very impressive considering the sheer volume of physical buttons and i/o
options. Even more so considering it was design-by-committee. Could have been
hideous.

~~~
sireat
We are going into offtopic territory here, but how long has Pandora been in
development?

You see the nice DONE checkboxes on Pandora site,but people have been waiting
for Pandora for a long time.

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brk
A small point, but this isn't $99, it's $136. It's 99 _EUR_ not _USD_.

<http://hackable-devices.com/shop/product/nanonote>

~~~
Luff
You can buy it for USD99 at the other site they linked to:
<http://sharism.cc/shop/>

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davidw
The only thing that looks dubious to me is: "3-inch, 320 x 240 display".
That's awfully small; it's exactly the same resolution that my Nokia phone has
(well, if you swap the height/width).

I wonder if it would run Android...

~~~
anthonyb
Well, it looks semi-reasonable from what I can see of the screenshots:

Quake: <http://www.openmobilefree.net/?p=367> GTK:
[http://nanl.de/blog/2009/10/gtk2-running-on-top-of-
directfb-...](http://nanl.de/blog/2009/10/gtk2-running-on-top-of-directfb-on-
openwrt/)

<http://sharism.cc/> has a few more details/projects.

~~~
davidw
What's a browser look like, though? Gmail?

~~~
thingie
What you mean? The website seems to suggest that the only browser available
now is… lynx. (And with 32 MiB RAM, well, what would you expect? Could be
possible with some adapted and modified browser, but off-shell Firefox and
Gmail with this? Uhm.)

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Poiesis
I was really excited by the Sharp Zaurus when it was coming out, and by that
openMoko idea and all that, and the the iPhone came out and actually made all
that stuff practical. Ok, so I can't hack my own UI on the thing. BFD. I don't
have time to. I can develop apps for it, and I don't have to "roll my own"
support for my typical uses, and that's just fine.

~~~
windsurfer
My N900 is almost like the openMoko, but awesome. It has GTK and QT support if
you want to hack your own UI.

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astine
I'm curious as to their choice of OpenWrt. OpenWrt is meant for wireless
routers and this thing doesn't even have wifi. As a general purpose Linux
distribution OpenWrt rather minimal. I understand Ubuntu might be a bit much
for the hw specs, but surely they could install Slackware or Gentoo?

~~~
dmm
They probably chose OpenWrt because it is a distro already configured for very
low memory environments. The device in question only has 32MB of ram.

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theblackbox
I was just taking a look at the Openmoko dev progress yesterday, been wanting
one for a while, but like with software it's always best to check up on the
issue queue and the pace of developments. I've not been so impressed recently.
This looks like an interesting contender, and along with the Pandora Handheld
(linked by nathan82) it's looking like some healthy competition is finally
entering this market. I can't wait to see how this unfolds.

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tzury
Just bought one for my 3 years old son. He loves his mother's MacBook too much
so giving him this one is much cheaper than sending the MacBook to a repair
;-)

~~~
davidw
I have had a business idea for a while: some kind of mobile phone like device
for kids. No actual phone stuff (no emergency calls or accidental calls to
random people), but a basic Java ME chip, graphics, and sound. You could
almost certainly do it for less than $100, and it would be great fun for
programmer dads/moms to create little applications... and also something that
children could have themselves rather than constantly trying to grab mom/dad's
cell phone/computer.

~~~
psnj
A startup in the co-working space I'm in is addressing this very problem:
<http://www.zeebu.com/>

They create smartphone games for little kids. Twenty-first century pacifiers?
Apparently the kids love them!

~~~
davidw
That's pretty cool. What they do is, it looks like, create an app that first
and foremost makes it so kids can't mess with your phone (calls, opening other
apps, whatever), and also adds some fun stuff.

What I'm thinking of, though, is a dedicated device. You don't need a smart
phone for kids games; all you need is some audio/graphics and whatever it is
that runs Java ME in these things. Given the price of cheap Nokias, it should
be doable for less than $100, especially since you don't even need the actual
phone machinery.

A large part of the reason for a dedicated device is that most kids are not
going to accidentally make calls, they're going to accidentally drop your
expensive phone or something else that will physically damage it. A 'toy
phone' could be made a bit more resilient...

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naturalethic
The more likely translation of 本 is "book".

~~~
xiangfu
本 can translate to : 1\. this 2\. origin 3\. source 4\. root 5\. the current
6\. basis

in Qi Hardware. it's should translate to root. source. origin.

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mseebach
Cool! I've been looking for something like that to base a home-rolled
Squeezebox on. I've got an eee-box connected to the TV and stereo for movies,
but don't want to turn the TV to listen to music.

~~~
andrewcooke
not sure exactly what you mean, but i run the squeezebox server on a barebones
machine that has a via-c7 chip (think early netbook) with a usb data disk, and
it is very slow. the music streams just fine, but the web based server is
noticeably sluggish. i guess it might be the usb disk, but i think the
computer itself is underpowered (the server software is perl-based).

[edit: ah, no, i think you just want a client; you've got the sever on the
eee? in which case ignore this. you know you can buy the little controller
handset things?]

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utnick
cool , saw this being demoed at FOSDEM

I believe in addition to running linux, the complete hardware design of this
thing is open source so you could in theory build one yourself.

