VIA announces its $49 Android PC, poses a real threat to the Raspberry Pi

[EthenHunt]

Dubbed APC, this cheap PC runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and carries a $49 price tag. This is slightly more expensive than the $25/$35 Raspberr Pi, but you also get better specs.

Powered by a WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC with a WM8750 processor clocked at 800MHz, the APC packs 512MB DDR3 RAM, 2GB on-board flash storage, 4USB 2.0 ports, microSD slot and Ethernet port. Display connection options include VGA and HDMI display ports.

OpenGL-ES 2.0 is enabled and supports H.264 video encoding and 720p video playback. This means you could use it as a cheap media center and because all that comes in the package is a single board, you could put it virtually everywhere.

VIA has started taking pre-orders and promises the first units to arrive early July

Link

 

[jpmlore]

oh ho...i had ordered Raspberry Pi just last week.. :sad:...delivery will take another 3 weeks...
this seems better now.....

 

[anm]

how about using it as a music player?

 

[s_sachin]

how about using it as a music player?

exactly what i was thinking. Perfect with an async DAC , unless there is something like good usb/bad usb

Other thing obviosly that this will need to reed from external hard disk as only 2GB on board. Dont know if that will affect music playback.

 

[anm]

I tried external HDD (usb) along with hrt streamer with my voyage as music player (with mpd). Result was awful. I still have to try with network streaming.

 

[kaushik]

oh ho...i had ordered Raspberry Pi just last week.. :sad:...delivery will take another 3 weeks...
this seems better now.....

oh why are eating that dirty pie... there are ready media players in 4k mark onwards with android and all options

link

a circuit board is not a player it self
there is casing work, cables ,power supply , software tweaking all these are pain in a** .
these boards are good for experiments ..in a way the substandard generic board like viaPc
is far inferior

 

[gryph0n]

oh why are eating that dirty pie... there are ready media players in 4k mark onwards with android and all options

Well, for one, finding software, documentation, etc. will be easier when the board is well known/popular.

Right now, there are ready-made ports of ArchLinux and Fedora for the RaspberryPi board. Makes one's life easier to use these than to build the distro from scratch.

Going with the unknown players, while they might provide better/more hardware, when it comes to support, as you've stated yourself, it would be a pain.

 

[jpmlore]

Well, for one, finding software, documentation, etc. will be easier when the board is well known/popular.

Right now, there are ready-made ports of ArchLinux and Fedora for the RaspberryPi board. Makes one's life easier to use these than to build the distro from scratch.

Going with the unknown players, while they might provide better/more hardware, when it comes to support, as you've stated yourself, it would be a pain.

agree with you..somewhat relieved now..i was thinking that Via was cheaper option..this i may use for experiments then...i already have egreat r300 BTW..android and all...i have flashed it with a modded firmware from a dev site..
R-Pi has generated a curiosity form the developer community...
have a look at this site : Leap Motion gesture control technology hands-on -- Engadget
a new cheaper gesture control tech..awesome..

 

[jpmlore]

I tried external HDD (usb) along with hrt streamer with my voyage as music player (with mpd). Result was awful. I still have to try with network streaming.

i remember something like committing the entire file to memory before transferring to DAC..i am not sure if this was for streaming or DAC..will search again post link...

 

[anm]

hmm I am not sure if that happens with mpd installed on the machine.
USB bandwidth seemingly was not enough for simultaneous file read and 24/192 async usb dac.

 

[kaushik]

Some points to consider for the experimenters :
1. many times the tweaked media player will make ur feel some thing missing :
like "OH is just missed xys_123dsp decoder so shadow regions are not proper"
these details are distraction..
2.the known hardware cant be a magic factor for new formats /feature to come,for eg hardware 720p max failed for 1080p and 2d well decoders were not doing 3d..and this race goes on and on
3.most rips are covered by recent ready made player yes you need to choose based on buyer review , does the PIE do almost all formats ,with just a small loading of decoder module

 

[s_sachin]

Five Things You Can Do With the New Raspberry Pi

Anyone got their PI yet ?