

$100 Novo7 tablet: Android 4.0, 7" capacitive screen, USB 2.0, HDMI - sssparkkk
http://www.ainovo.com/

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angusgr
I thought I'd seen this all before with the $100 tablets last year, but then I
noticed something that sent my jaw to the floor:
<http://en.ingenic.cn/product.aspx?ID=78>

That's the manufacturer for the JZ4770 SoC (system-on-a-chip) used in the
Novo7. Their page has:

\- Product Datasheet (admittedly with only physical/electrical not logical
details.)

\- Links to Android NDK, Linux toolchain, Linux source, uboot source, sample
Linux rootfs for the SoC family.

This is more open development information than almost any other SoC platform
used in cheap Android hardware! Admittedly, it all looks a little old but even
as an indication of attitude, it's a great sign.

To date, nearly every vendor of these kind of designs has kept this
information close to their chest and charges for it - if it's available it's
nearly always because of leaks not releases. That's one of the underlying
reasons why most of the cheap tablets violate GPL.

Unfortunately, I can't turn up any information about the "vivante gc860"
graphics engine - drivers for that will probably be binary blobs (like on
nearly every other Android device, at any price point.)

Anyhow, I'm excited that if Ingenic put out sufficient information about this
SoC and its features, and if the hardware is "good enough", you might expect
to see some interesting other uses & ports in the coming months.

~~~
angusgr
Ah, of course - the JZ4770 is the big sibling of the SoC used in the Ben
Nanonote series of "fully open source" mini-netbooks, and the Dingoo A320
gaming handhelds, and the like.

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leot
One nice property of tablets is they don't need to go obsolete like laptops or
desktop computers. They can be turned in to picture frames, home automation
interfaces, cookbooks, mini-TVs, combined into larger interfaces, (if only
they had narrower borders!) etc.

The only real obstacle to making them really useful is power supply, but
wireless electricity should solve that problem shortly (and tablet computers
might be their "killer app").

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mchusma
Really bizarre formatting on this page, looks almost like a stitching together
of images. That, plus the way its worded makes me suspicious of some kind of
scam (worst) or is not fully baked (likely). Does anyone know more? Anyone
have the same thoughts?

~~~
freehunter
From a Youtube demonstration[1] it looks a little laggy. Looks like it can
barely power Angry Birds at a decent speed. Oddly though, the Spiderman game
looks like it runs a bit better. Not perfect, but better. I don't have sound
at work, so the guy might be saying something related to his personal
experience with it.

It's MIPS-based, not ARM. I don't know if that gives it anything of note. The
thing _does_ exist, people have them in their hands. Not saying it's a
worthwhile investment, but it might be.

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJb3k4fZpB8&feature=yout...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJb3k4fZpB8&feature=youtube_gdata)

~~~
jmarinez
Here's another Youtube video I found. This one running ICS instead of the
older version from the previous video.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuYE_u19i44&feature=rela...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuYE_u19i44&feature=related)

This one is in Spanish, but you can see the FPS performance in a number of
games, flash, PDF, etc..

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkDKgNBjlTw&feature=rela...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkDKgNBjlTw&feature=related)

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hmottestad
Anyone notice that it can handle 1080p, not just 720p. Not that you would be
able to notice on that 7" screen.

Always the option of plugging it into the tv....but I have never ever in my
life seen anyone do that.

~~~
hackernews
I plug in my Samsung E4GT into my TV to stream netflix, watch videos, and
listen to music.

Works well as a "HTPC". Although I haven't found a solution for a remote yet
so it's like the good old days when the remote to the tv was physically
tethered with a long cord.

~~~
mhitza
In the youtube link posted by freehunter
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3320245> the tablet actually has a remote
control with it.

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rikelme
Video from MIPS Technologies showing this tablet:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq79h-HA5lU>

~~~
angusgr
It's interesting that MIPS are getting behind this one, I assume they're
hoping they can steal some share back from ARM in this space.

However, as it's a marketing video there are approximately 4 seconds of
"actual device" footage on there. Here's a video purporting to show 4.0
actually running on the Novo7:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuYE_u19i44>

Looks good, although they don't really do anything apart from navigating
around menus.

(Lots of videos show Novo tablets with Android 3.x, which it apparently
already shipped with. Which I don't understand at all, did Google provide
MIPS/Novo with sources to build Honeycomb for MIPS?)

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devindotcom
Wrote this up last night: [http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/05/99-chinese-tablet-
is-mips-b...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/05/99-chinese-tablet-is-mips-
based-runs-android-4-0/)

I thought it was interesting for a couple reasons, though of course at a
hundred bucks you're not going to get an impressive device, merely functional.
It's running a MIPS-compatible processor, which was what caught my eye.

~~~
justanotheratom
Do you happen to know if it supports Bluetooth?

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unfocused
Hmmm...already sold out. The owner of this website is registered using the
email of the domain of this company:
[http://ainol.com/plugin.php?identifier=ainol&module=page...](http://ainol.com/plugin.php?identifier=ainol&module=page&action=info&pageid=1)

So it's probably not vaporware, but the lack of English certainly doesn't help
me figure out anything.

~~~
farlington
It's hard to look at stuff like this and think that western companies have
much of a future in China.

~~~
r00fus
The counter examples are legion, but Apple's future growth is dominated by
Asia (esp. China).

Western companies selling (likely chinese-made) goods to China without
investing in serious design, development and marketing (not to mention
ecosystem and support) are not going to have much of a future, I agree.

~~~
nooneelse
I'm curious about the other direction. Will the little scrappy Chinese
companies be able to win over a significant fraction of Western customers, or
will brand-recognition act as to much of a deterrent against them?

~~~
gcb
My motto when buying Chinese stuff is to steer clear of brands that try to be
fake.

Such as not buying Hyundai because their logo tries to mimic Honda's.

~~~
tikhonj
That isn't a very good example because Hyundai now makes some rather good cars
and isn't Chinese. It's also a bit like avoiding Porsches because their logo
looks like Ferrari's.

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runjake
It goes without saying, you get what you pay for. Quality parts, which are
required for a quality experience, cost money.

This isn't going to be in the same league as an iPad, or even a Kindle Fire no
matter what tweaks or custom ROMs you load.

~~~
jvehent
Did you actually test it ?

~~~
sigzero
For $100? Do you really need to?

~~~
draganHR
Yes

~~~
dlikhten
Ok I am not expecting miracles here. How usable is it? Will it play angry
birds (smoke test). Bascially, is this a repeat of the previous $100 android
tablet fiasco?

~~~
Klinky
It looks like it has a 1Ghz MIPS CPU & a GPU that supports OpenGL ES 2.0 &
operates @ 444Mhz, so I would say Angry Birds is a yes.

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patrickgzill
If it runs video Skype, I am in...

