Have you ever found yourself in a position where you're working on some project on your PC [or Mac] with all your programs and desktop laid out just the way you like it and then you have to go somewhere else? You could hall along your laptop, cabling but there are bound to be times when even that is too big to carry for where you're going. Another scenario might be that you're a developer of Android Apps and you'd like to have a separate operating system to test your App, but don't want to work off two laptops? Or perhaps as a developer you want to run a server off another PC which is networked to your laptop rather than the computer your working on but you can't lug another desktop or laptop around with you everywhere? Well a PC (Personal Computer) solution may soon be available for under €150.00, which you can fit into your wallet. Well The Cotton Candy PC, named after an American confection because it weighs less than 21 grams and developed by a Norweigen company called FXI Tech, may be just the thing.
The Cotton Candy has a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos ARM CPU (same as in the Galaxy S II), 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI-out and a microSD card slot for memory and most importantly has a USB key on the other side. Designed to be slotted into any monitor, TV, lapto, Desktop PC or Mac or connected via Bluetooth to an iPhone, iPad or other device the miniature PC is loaded with an Android operating system although it supports Ubuntu too and will take power from the device its plugged into. Once plugged in an Android window will open up on whatever desktop, monitor / TV device you are using, take over that device virtualising all input and output devices and displaying all your own files and programs that you own and like to have at your fingertips. You can move files from the host computer onto the Cotton Candy and either store the information there or sync the data to a Cloud service. The device can also support 1.2 Gigapixels of 3D graphics output, quite impressive!
Check out the CEO talking about it recently:
My only wonder is how hot the device could get? There is also another device called the Rasberry Pi which is a another mini-computer which will cost less than €25.00. Equivalent to the performance of a PC from 2002 (Pentium 2) it is not for the general market but is aimed at the educational market to encourage children of 16 and 17 to get interested in computer science. The developers are a charity based in Cambridge University, England who have been working on this project for three to four years. The developers are aiming to go into production in early 2012. See the video explanation below:
Earlier this year, I along with three other colleagues explored possible ways of bringing IT skills like computer programming and hardware development skills to Irish Transition Year schools. We found from our research that there is tremendous demand from all stakeholders but in this climate nobody is willing to cough up money to support such a scheme and because there is such a shortage of skilled practicioners it is dificult to find volunteers with time on there hands to teach kids or too expensive too employ professionals to teach to secondary school persons. The Computer Dojo Club in Limerick and Dublin will begin to fill that gap and some sterling work is being done in the technology in education sections of colleges like Tallight Institute of Technology and The College of Ireland but there is still room for other players to get involved in nurturing IT skills in schools and among the unemployed pool. The Rasberry Pi PC may go someway to bringing computers to everybody in the cash strapped environment of today
Please leave a comment about this article.
And check out the following sites:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/sample-page
http://blog.laptopmag.com/usb-stick-contains-dual-core-computer-turns-any-screen-into-an-android-station#comments
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