Submitted by People have been saying for some time that operating systems will eventually just become windows to the “cloud” (essentially browsers) and everyone will just use web applications, but now a company called CherryPal is really doing it. Plus, the CherryPal uses only 2 Watts of power.
I like the idea of the CherryPal, but it sounds very limited. I guess I won’t know until I try using one exclusively for a few days, but I think what I’d save not buying a more traditional desktop computer, I’d easily spend on stuff like a USB hard drive, a DVD burner, a screen, and a keyboard and mouse. Plus a couple of cheap USB hubs, since this only has two USB ports, and no PS/2, so once you have a keyboard and mouse, you can’t plug in your flash drive.
I agree with you, it is a little too limited for my use. So you will have to buy a cheap USB hub to plug in your USB devices. If it had Firewire and a DVI video output with a faster CPU I would buy one. Asus has a mini PC Box version of the eee which is more powerful and would probably serve better as a Linux box.
this is basically what efika2 will be.
Does it seriously say it includes iTunes? When was there iTunes for Linux?
That piqued my interest too. It might be iTunes with a hacked WINE wrapper, but I think it’s more likely to be Banshee or Rhythmbox.
Or maybe when you plug in an iPod it throws RockBox on there 😉
If you pay attention to the specs and look at it, it’s definitely an EFIKA. It’s got roughly the same graphics chip as the iPhone. I submitted a story about the $99 Freescale laptop from their developer summit that never got posted here, and Genesi was involved with that (same specs, definitely an EFIKA with an LCD screen). I’ll let R&B talk about this one themselves
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The issue isn’t the hardware (which runs Linux quite well, thank you), but the not so good job on the OS/UI combination, and the other distractions. Cherrypal seems to be a bit on the weird side, especially after their Craigslist stunt (http://kristian.tumblr.com/post/42357658/cherrypal-lets-see-what-th…) where they attempted to build a “street team” that failed miserably.
Personally, I wish it cost less. $249 isn’t the price point that sells these, especially when one can spend much less ($0), save a P3 PC from a landfill, and put Linux on it. $99-$149 gets you into the “hey, maybe this can replace the old Evo mini desktop I have” territory, and the “hey, maybe I can run an Xterm on this in my living room” territory.
Its a very nice idea, and it runs on real hardware that has really good Linux support. However, charging $249 and having really strange marketing/promotion takes away from the idea.
Since these are all just SOC’s, this is pretty much identical. Its just a MPC5121e. The efika2 will use the 5121e. the difference, maybe the efika will use smartfirmware 1.4 and cherrypal doesnt. I dont know what it uses (uboot or smartfirmware…)
They made a mistake with no DVI. There is no simple way to integrate VGA into a home theater environment. Only a few TVs have VGA integrated and it is a mess to route the audio. This box had good potential in a home theater setup.
It wasn’t intended to be a home theater set top box it was intended to be a cheap PC without the hassles. However I feel they failed on both accounts. By the time you add a keyboard, mouse, LCD monitor, External HD, External DVDR, Hub, and a few other things, you might as well buy a real computer. But alas this might not be a bad deal if you have a wife that is tired of her old 400 mhz iMac and only surfs the web and reads email, and you just so happen to have a keyboard, mouse and monitor laying around. hehehe OK so it is not for everyone… 😉
this is basically a browser in a can…
dont try and turn it into something more like some people are doing with the eeepc and friends by putting windows on them.
No i would not say that this would be usable for htpc even if it did have a dvi port.
that hardware could at most handle sd content.
Although unlikely, I will not be surprised if MS pulls one of too now via a third party vendor such as DELL, HP. They (Microsoft) normally get involved everywhere — EEE PC, OLPC…you name it, they are there.
In relation to this CherryPal PC, looks cool but you might be able to get a real PC for extra $50 if not for the same price as this.
Vested interests love to push cloud computing/software as a service. Most users who understand the difference actually prefer to rely on their own hardware and software rather than a distant cloud.
for this reason people who want a PC will not buy it. I am an example. I do not like the cloud computing idea but a cheap PC with an alterntive CPU is attractive. But CherryPal is not in this category. I cannot understand why is it so difficult to make PCs out of these SBCs. The only limmitation I see is the soldered RAM.
I thought one of the big selling points of all of these machines was that they would use Linux and thus the cost would be significantly lower. In the end, as other comments have pointed out, you can get a low end PC with Vista or whatever for like $50 more. This isn’t worth it.
No x86 compatibility = no market share.
I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is. As soon as Joe Average finds out he can’t install his favorite programs he’ll return the device. This unit might find a niche to fill, but it won’t be selling in the thousands.
i like the idea lot, but i will wait for the second hardware revision.
What about any cheap PC with http://byzgl.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
400mhz is slow for todays tasks. when you consider it has to do the job of the chipsets as well things start to look a bit grim.
Considering the board probably costs at most a third of the asking price of the machine, the mark-up seems a little excessive for something aimed at emmerging markets!
This is basically a thin client box with Firefox at it’s front end. I don’t know exactly how CherryPal cloud works but if it’s a true cloud computing it would be able to pull a real iTune out of a Windows server.
This is similar to how ThinServer XP works :-
http://www.aikotech.com/thinserver.htm