Another Raspberry Pi? VIA announces $49 ARM Single-Board Computer with Android

[garyopa]

Running on an 800 MHz VIA core.

http://www.maxconsole.com/maxconsole/contents/RKLS0000008877/icon_xl.jpg

VIA has introduced an amazing $49 APC Android computer, the 170 x 85mm 'APC' is expected to ship this July.

VIA has announced a new APC computer. This one is a $49 Android based system, and runs on an 800 MHz VIA core.

The board measures 170 x 85mm and is expected to ship this July. It also has 2GB of flash storage and 512MB of DDR3 memory.



The APC computer is a $49 Android system based on the brand new Neo-ITX form factor which measures in at roughly half the size of standard Mini-ITX based motherboards. It features an 800MHz ARM SOC (VIA WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC) with 512MB of DDR3 memory and 2GB of onboard flash memory for storage. A modified version of Google Android 2.3 uses up most of that 2GB of flash storage, but there are external storage options. On the back I/O is a microSD slot and of course you could hook in an external USB 2.0 drive. VIA spent a lot of time customizing Android to enable keyboard and mouse support which natively it does not support. The system also comes with the modified apps such as a YouTube player, Angry Birds, a file manager, web browser and more.



http://scmods.com/pictures/24233_7_via_introduces_amazing_49_apc_android_comp uter_we_go_hands_on.jpg

http://scmods.com/pictures/24233_2_via_introduces_amazing_49_apc_android_comp uter_we_go_hands_on_full.jpg

VIA will be selling the APC directly on http://www.apc.io. Pre-orders will begin very soon!

Check out the video below and see how it looks. Also, go to the official device website for more info.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dNA3yHEl2s

NEWS SOURCE #1: APC IO (via) Official Site (http://apc.io/about/)
NEWS SOURCE #2: VIA introduces amazing 49 APC Android computer we go hands on (via) TweakTown (http://www.tweaktown.com/news/24233/via_introduces_amazing_49_apc_android_computer_we_ go_hands_on/index.html)

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[msanchez]

I wonder what the media capabilities of these little thing are? VIA chips h ave always underwhelmed me when it comes to gaming/media decoding. There's one very good this things has going for it, and that is the amount of USB ports. The Raspberry Pi could have also used 2 more ports me thinks.

[DEDDOA]

Aye thats what I was thinking, VIA are a bit to hit and miss for me, infact they are the prime reason I got the Intel route these days after many years as an AMD fan (Intel chips may have the performance but the price performance ration sits firmly in the AMD court), as I know what I will get is pretty reliable in performance terms. I will keep an eye on this as I am with all these palm sized PC's as they are definelty the future of the media centre in my eyes.

[msanchez]

...I will keep an eye on this as I am with all these palm sized PC's as they are definelty the future of the media centre in my eyes.

Most definitely. There's so many of these damn little boards I want to buy ;) Now I'm just waiting for a DVR app for android. Is there an XBMC port that works on ARM cpus? cause that and having XBMC support netflix and hulu in linux (without having to jump through 800000 hoops) would be the icing on this cake.