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Authored by: Ian Al on Wednesday, February 06 2013 @ 02:48 AM EST |
You may know that I like Raspberry Pi. I run mine using an external USB hub and
sharing an HDMI switcher with my other computer (an Acer Revo) and PVR (my TV is
a DRM antagonistic glass bottle).
The Acer is bolted to the back of the HDMI monitor. It uses much more power than
the Raspberry Pi and it is only used occasionally for electronic and computer
playtime. However, it has just about enough performance to be a great general
purpose computer with modest power consumption. We are talking about 40 watts
for computer plus screen. This makes my interminable Groklaw comments quite
expensive.
One tablet to cure everything:
2 USB3 sockets with one used via a docking station that provides charging, HDMI,
external sound input and output, extra battery power and wireless connected
mouse and keyboard.
Large, 1440 x 900 (if 1920 x 1080 is not economically achievable) Pixel Qi.
colour, touchscreen.
Multicore ARM plus graphics processor (including ARM's low power core for power
management).
320 - 512 GB integrated SSD.
Micro SD card slot.
WiFi (with on-demand power management to save power).
Field replaceable battery (not an expensive plug-in version, but a standard,
squishy, Li-ion pack).
Two cameras, one microphone and headphone socket. Possibly, Bluetooth for
external microphone, earphones, keyboard and mouse. Again, all with on-demand
power management to save power).
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This device would replace both the Raspberry Pi and the Acer, because it would
support the Raspi development stuff and the daily compute. The GPIO part of
Raspi fun can be displaced with Arduino.
The operating system would be a Linux distribution with Android integration. I
have explained in the past how switching between absolute touchscreen and
relative laptop touchpad mode makes running both environments a doddle.
Now I can use the unadorned pad on the move with WiFi hotspots, play with
Android apps including rolling my own (once Python replaces Java, perhaps), Scan
QCode squares, Skype and access my TwitFace service. It would be bulkier and
more heavy than the cool toys, in part because it will be dismantle-able and
have a standard serviceable battery. I don't do mobile phones which makes
extreme portability less of an issue.
The question is whether I am prepared to wait for the hardware to arrive or to
weaken and get one of the early Ubuntu/Android tablets and make do with limited
interoperability.
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Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid![ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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