Reply
Thread Tools
Posts: 101 | Thanked: 8 times | Joined on Mar 2007
#1
MID with Linux ???





Chinese PMP firm Moses have unveiled their first Mobile Internet Device (MID), the SmartQ 5, complete with a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth. That means no 3G, sadly, but Moses are apparently hoping to make a case for the SmartQ 5 by making it cheap.
Source: Slash Gear

According to Moses, take-up of MID-style devices in China has been slow primarily because the devices themselves are too expensive. We’d argue that actually that’s the case in general, not just in China. Rather, then, than pack their MID full of connectivity options and the like, Moses have gone for a more straightforward approach, turning out something more like an internet-enabled PMP than a do-everything mini-computer.
Everything is controlled via the touchscreen, aside from four hardware buttons along the top, and as you can see this is still just a render and not even a finalized design. The Moses SmartQ 5 is shaping up more along the lines of the iPod touch, but depending on what price they can bring it in at, that might not be a bad thing.
http://www.gadgetted.com/?p=4258
 
johnkzin's Avatar
Posts: 1,878 | Thanked: 646 times | Joined on Sep 2007 @ San Jose, CA
#2
Where did you see that it's going to have Linux?
__________________
My Personal Blog
 
Johnx's Avatar
Posts: 643 | Thanked: 628 times | Joined on Mar 2007 @ Seattle (or thereabouts)
#3
Check here: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/11/s...ped-for-reals/

It certainly looks like xfce or lxde.
 
johnkzin's Avatar
Posts: 1,878 | Thanked: 646 times | Joined on Sep 2007 @ San Jose, CA
#4
I was thinking sort of the opposite ... "It doesn't look like much of anything at all". (Not meaning "nothing special", but instead meaning "nothing specific").

That could be ANY windowing environment. The only reason to rule out, say, Windows, is that there's no start bar at the bottom. But not all WinMo based interfaces have that (see the HTC interfaces lately).
__________________
My Personal Blog
 
Johnx's Avatar
Posts: 643 | Thanked: 628 times | Joined on Mar 2007 @ Seattle (or thereabouts)
#5
If you look closely you can see the network manager icon. Also I seem to recognize that GTK theme. It´s all about the details.
 
Posts: 137 | Thanked: 71 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#6
Posting some info I saw somewhere on the pandora forums

Post from a member there that had spoken to a SmartQ rep.

"I just got off AIM with a SmartQ rep, and he says:

1. It will indeed have a stylus that works with capacitive screen

2. The linux environment is LXDE

3. The price is indeed 899 Yuan, but that is the China store price. Shipping to US will cost more, and will be slightly under $200 for the unit, shipping, accessories, and a 1 year direct swap warranty for any defects.

specs are
It also has 3D acceleration (4M triangles/sec) with OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 support!

Specs on the CPU:

• ARM1176ZJF 533/667MHz
• 65nm low-power process
• DVFS power management
• mDDR/DDR and mSDR/SDR
• WVGA or higher display resolution
• Hard-wired 3D GFX accelerator
? – OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0
• Hard-wired multimedia (>WVGA)
? – MPEG-4 SP codec
? – H.264/263 BP codec
? – VC-1 (WMV9) decoder
? – JPEG/2D hardware
? – Hardware rotator & post processor
? – TV encoder
• DMA
• Security hardware: DES/3DES, AES, SHA-1
• High-speed connectivity
? – UART
? – High-speed SPI
? – USB 2.0 OTG
? – High-speed MMC
? – MMC+/eMMC
? – SDHC 4-bit
? – SD cards/iNAND 2.0
? – I2S
• Pin compatible with S3C6400 & S3C6430
• Package: 424 pins, 13x13, 0.5mm pitch FBGA"

If the above information/specs are true, this seems to be a very well priced(for the consumer) device.
 

The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to tekplay For This Useful Post:
Posts: 69 | Thanked: 20 times | Joined on Feb 2009
#7
http://www.engadget.com/tag/SmartQ5/

The SmartQ 5 from SmartDevices just took itself from me-too MID of the millisecond to a quite interesting value proposition. The touchscreen device, which features a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 screen, is now running an ARM-friendly Ubuntu distro, and has been given the low, low pricetag of 899 Chinese Yuan, about $132. Sure, it'll probably never surface Stateside, especially not for that price, but it's a good demonstration of what a little bit of decent ARM hardware and a popular Linux distro can do when they work together, hand in hand.
 
Posts: 874 | Thanked: 316 times | Joined on Jun 2007 @ London UK
#8
That could be ANY windowing environment. The only reason to rule out, say, Windows, is that there's no start bar at the bottom. But not all WinMo based interfaces have that (see the HTC interfaces lately).
"Its system is the world's most popular Ubuntu system"

http://translate.google.com/translat...istory_state0=
 
tso's Avatar
Posts: 4,783 | Thanked: 1,253 times | Joined on Aug 2007 @ norway
#9
they can make a nice sum if they start selling them globally...
 
johnkzin's Avatar
Posts: 1,878 | Thanked: 646 times | Joined on Sep 2007 @ San Jose, CA
#10
I think I'd pay the extra for the known hardware quality, and physical keyboard, of an N810.
__________________
My Personal Blog
 
Reply

Tags
parting of the red sea


 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:39.