This USB-Size Cloud Computer From Dell Is A Total Game Changer

what worries me most about this device is the over heating. im guessing no fans or cooling.

reply to post by SecludedGamer


1 watt.

I can passively cool a sandy bridge desktop processor.

It's the same kind of SOCs as is in your smartphone, and they don't need a cooler.

I'm actually on the market for a mini PC just for media streaming, playing Xvid/mp4s and image storage (via NAS). Have yet to find a solution that does it all (have considered Roku). Does anyone know of a decent Android or (preferably) Linux based HDMI connect pc that can handle 1080p video??

reply to post by boxertwin


Here's a site that has many.

This one is only $41!!

You can plug into HDMI on one end, and the USB into a mass storage device

Link

The husband is already squaking about this one in the OP. He uses a Raspbery Pi for some work stuff already. Pretty neato if you move between buildings and etc at work

How powerful is it?

The GPU provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode.

The GPU is capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24 GFLOPs of general purpose compute and features a bunch of texture filtering and DMA infrastructure.

That is, graphics capabilities are roughly equivalent to Xbox 1 level of performance. Overall real world performance is something like a 300MHz Pentium 2, only with much, much swankier graphics.

www.raspberrypi.org...

reply to post by boxertwin


Not sure if they still make it but the acer aspire revo worked great for me for streaming mythtv. But obviously you needed an external dvd drive because of the small size.

reply to post by PhoenixOD

So could this be the beginning of the end for PC's as we know them? Will you be quick to embrace the cloud?

PCs will never die. Especially for gamers. They're just no alternative. I mean maybe in a long time, cloud computing could handle hardcore gaming, but the technology is just not even close.

Everyone has a computer or PC these days....BUT that doesn't mean everyone is a real fan, or knows anything about PCs. I feel like anyone who prefers this idea to PCs isn't a real fan, and just going with the latest technology.

It's a neat idea sure. And it'd be nice to have in addition to a PC. But I'd rather have my computing power in front of me.
If you really know much about PCs, you'd know they won't be replaced anytime soon.

Originally posted by Ghost375

PCs will never die. Especially for gamers. They're just no alternative. I mean maybe in a long time, cloud computing could handle hardcore gaming, but the technology is just not even close.

Define "close".

Google has already rolled out gigabit internet connections in a city or two, and the internet two (10Gbps) will trickle down from universities and the government into the public consumer market within the decade. Once we have +1Gbps connections to the house the delay will be imperceivable, and everything you do on a workstation will be easily done on a flexible sheet of smart paper via 5g wireless.

PC's are toast by 2020.

reply to post by boxertwin


This model is the latest MK series which is one of the few devices to run XBMC at 1080P.

www.justop.com...

So some of these devices advertise a USB port, and one goes as far as to mention using a webcam as a peripheral. I would like to run a standard webcam to Ustream with something like this.

As these are all Android OS based, is there a driver solution that will allow me to run say a Microsoft HD 3000 webcam.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


I am ordering one of these this month. I think it might be cheaper and better. Mini PC Android 4.0

reply to post by dainoyfb


The most interesting stick for me is the Zealz GK802 as the manufacturer is helping with the development of a stable ubuntu build. That would be your best option as you could install a web browser and it would act like a regular pc and have more drivers available.

liliputing.com...

reply to post by mclarenmp4


Indeed.

It seems the only major obstacle left is getting hardware acceleration to work.

Link

reply to post by unityemissions


Hopefully with the manufacturer helping they'll get there soon enough.
I only started looking into these properly this week as I have just recently built an HTPC with windows and XBMC as the backend and frontend. This drives my satellite system using NextPVR as the backend decoder/card client and XBMC Frodo RC3 as the frontend.

I have been looking into small devices able to handle 1080P playback and run XBMC. The options I had were running a mini PCI-E hd decoder on an old D430 laptop with a faulty screen hooked up to a docking station to my tv or a raspberry pi running XBMC natively. I have been following the raspberry pi forums for a while and it seems awfully complicated and not that stable as yet,

So these devices are now a real option since XBMC is now on android but even better for me would be to run XBMC Frodo as a live installation with ubuntu as the backend,
I am going to wait for a little while as I would like a version with 2gb of ram but I think in a few months time the choice will be a lot better and the boys and girls over at XDA Developers & XBMC forums will have had time to play about with kernels to have a stable enough build to be workable.

reply to post by mclarenmp4


Thanks for the suggestion. My application requires remote desktop too so Ubuntu would be a more probable approach. Still concerned about finding a driver for the webcam. What would surely solve my problems is a Windows based device that drew 40 watts or less and cost under $100.

reply to post by dainoyfb


Yeah that would be perfect but they would have to find a way of porting Windows RT over which will be a problem as I believe Windows RT's footprint is about 12gb. I'm sure it will happen eventually but I think it's a long way off.

I don't think you'll have any problem with drivers for your cam in ubuntu, here's a quick post I found which even though it's a bug report the last post suggests that he got it solved by changing the flash player plugin in chrome.
So there's definitely a driver out for it.

bugs.launchpad.net...

The only problem it seem at the moment is hardware acceleration with these devices in Ubuntu but hopefully because these sticks are getting support from the manufacture they will get that issue resolved soon.

This isn't new, there have been may cloudbased OS's, mainly jolicloud. The only difference is instead of true opensource, Companies will now be using android to build there own closedsource OS.

Yeah I'll just stick with linux, and knowing where my data is.

reply to post by mclarenmp4


Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I'm looking forward to giving this direction a try.

reply to post by PhoenixOD

I remember hearing or reading about a bigtime executive in the computer industry saying that it was no secret that they wanted to move software onto "farms" and away from PC's.

One thing it'll do is potentially reduce the amount of piracy. But the biggest thing it does is it removes the headache of maintaining your own PC and applying patches.

Still I think that localizing processing and storage is going to stick around. Fact is, I don't see communication speeds going up enough for there to be a big move away from it.

BUT if people like the convenience of cloud computing then they might accept some of its hangups as "just" sacrifice for its awesome ease of use. Look at how popular portable devices and tablets are. People don't require supercomputers. Most people it seems are content with small amounts of computing power. The future seems to be more about convenience than raw power. I guess most people aren't playing Crysis-type games. We didn't need them in school, did we? However, the need for power is very important in some things, especially math-intensive processes.

The only portables I've owned were some calculators. The TI-85 and a Sharp EL 9900. I've sometimes wished to have something like a e-reader to read books or maybe a notebook-sized computer. But I don't move around a lot so I don't find myself needing those things. And there're still a lot of books laying around so I can always find something to read. However, in another 50-100 years, I don't think there'll be a lot of paper books laying around. Maybe in museums. Kind of a sobering thought.

reply to post by dainoyfb


No problem glad I could help.

I would recommend keeping an eye on this thread regarding the development in linux seems like they are already making good progress.

forum.xda-developers.com...