Via introduces APC Paper: A $99 Android PC

Ubuntu/Unity (and Gnome shell) are doing all the wrong things and this shows it.<p>Ubuntu especially are now focusing on blingy desktops that somehow require really new cards and hardware only, and yet are also trying to throw away the traditional desktop to cram themselves onto a phone. And yet with high end requirements they are now not the desktop OS of the light weight / poor hardware people, they are for the high end only paradoxically.<p>Android is coming the other way: a good core set of features now slowly building out into a potential desktop replacement. Because the desktop is still important, especially for anyone looking to do any productivity work.<p>And after watching a fast demo on the site, I see another thing Android is doing right. Somehow even though it's incredibly low resource it has animated desktops. I was first exposed to the idea in the mid 2000s with a video demoing Enlightenment 17 showing animated desktops. I even made a bug with Gnome asking for the feature. No dice. Even with all their modern "bling" and high and hardware requirements, they can't do live wallpapers/desktops. So with a lame static desktop, try running them on this hardware? EXPLDOE. Won't work.<p>Meanwhile light little android also has this cute feature.<p>And this really just underscores to me that in all ways Ubuntu/Unity/Gnome shell are just going in all the wrong directions while Android seems to be increasingly going in many of the right ones.

I recently purchased an APC 8750, and I found that it is very good quality hardware. It worked out of the box, and the community forum answered most of my questions. Overall, the web browsing performance and UI has too many problems to be usable as a PC. I bought it to explore using Android as a platform for IOT and other such projects and unfortunately, it fell down here as well because it has no GPIO interface to drive other hardware including LEDs, LCD displays, sensors, IR devices, motors, etc. Further, Google did a great job of addressing this requirement with Android by releasing the ADK of 2011 which provides built in integration with Arduino via a USB ADB interface, but the ADK requires Android 3.1 or higher.<p>Looking at the Paper's new faster performance, the addition of GPIOs, and Android 4.0, and an optional case, it is clear that VIA has been listening to user feedback. They certainly delivered on my wishlist. In the end the 8750 was a $65 lesson on how far Android has come in such a short period of time.<p>Android applications are excellent, so while I see plenty of complaints about what it doesn't have, it is certainly getting the developer attention necessary for applications that can / will replace productivity applications on Windows machines. For the 80%, the desktop is nearly dead.<p>Further, Android is a great platform for embedded applications, and it looks like APC has delivered an inexpensive platform for the maker / hacker community.<p>Though a direct comparison to RPi is unfair, an APC comes with a power supply and 4GB of flash, so I consider a Raspberry Pi to actually cost $75: $45 (Actual street price of a Pi) $15 Memory Card $15 for a decent USB power supply (a low quality PS causes many of the RPi stability and Ext4 corruption issues I have seen on forums). (Also, Android is preloaded, so it is a much lower effort to get running.)<p>And the comment about fire made me laugh. The CPU of the 8750 might have reached 40 degrees under very heavy load and the power supply is external, so cardboard certainly won't be an issue. I thought it was funny because I actually use the cardboard box the 8750 comes in because it is virtually impossible to find a Neo-ITX case for the board.<p>Hope that provides some insight. I am glad to see VIA remains committed to this project.

Cortex-A9 @800Mhz, 512MB Memory, 4GB NAND Flash, not yet available.<p>For $50-$60 you can already buy an Android mini-PC with double capacity in each of these specs.<p>For instance:<p><a href="http://www.aliexpress.com/item/MK809-II-Android-4-1-Mini-PC-HDMI-Stick-Rockchip-RK3066-1-6GHz-Cortex-A9-Dual/722503926.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.aliexpress.com/item/MK809-II-Android-4-1-Mini-PC-...</a>

I find it odd that there are so many desktop-ish things based on Android instead of Ubuntu. One would get a lot more software and a much more familiar experience with Ubuntu.

I hope that this is the restart of the under $200 PC era. I also hope that young boys and girls are provided real tools to program these things out of the box. Thinking about it, a new version of BASIC might not be such a bad thing, but that might just be nostalgia for my Atari 400 8-bit BASIC cartridge.

People seem to be a lot more interested in putting android in small computers than Chrome(ium)OS. I hope Google notices.

Another fail from VIA after their earlier Android PC, which was derided on their forums for being too slow. There are tons of mini pcs now available with double the specs of the VIA pc and up to 2x lower price. Some even have 2GB RAM and can run Ubuntu with hardware acceleration.

Heat generation + cardboard = fire hazard?<p>EDIT: Would that ever get a UL seal? I wonder!

Why would you pay 99$ for this? You can have the ODROID-U2 for just 89$, which is better (performance wise) and supports Ubuntu 12.10 and Android 4. <a href="http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.ph...</a>

There are quite a lot of Android based desktop computers available, some with better specs and cheaper than the VIA offering. Just google for "Android USB Mini PC".<p>This could be a potential problem for Microsoft.

I absolutely love the book case. Wish you could buy those.<p>Would be neat for a Raspberry Pi and ironic for a DVR device.<p>I guess overheating is not a problem? I don't see any vents.

Seems a little short-sighted to only feature 2 USB ports. If you have one of these set up with a keyboard and mouse and you wish to use a flash or external drive, you'll have to temporarily sacrifice an input device or use a hub. Surely they could have squeezed in one or two more without too much of a cost increase.

You can already order what looks to be the baseboard without the case:<p><a href="http://apc.io/products/rock/" rel="nofollow">http://apc.io/products/rock/</a><p>$20 cheaper, and a VGA port :D

Interesting aesthetic, but there's no way it won't look out of place with all the wires sticking out of it. And I think I'd want something more durable than cardboard for the case.

It looks good, but knowing VIA, it's not a question of <i>if</i> they screwed something up, but <i>where</i>.

Looks like it'll make a nice XBMC box!

What do they mean by Android 4.0 (PC System)? How is it a PC and not just Android?

What if you spill on it? Does the case stain?

power consumption is what got me into this kind of thing. I donot expect a good browsing experience nor gaming on this kind of stuff. please quit ranting about the spec.

Wow, that'd be really nice for hiding in a campus network closet, to surreptitiously download things using a University IP address.

This is a non-starter. You can get much more powerful machines for cheaper.

Can we stop calling something a PC until it comes with a proper input and output device? Let's just call it a CPU, if that is a more accurate term here.<p>Also wondering if we connect a screen, a USB keyboard and power supply, will it still "blend into the office environment"?