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alexsop2 | 11 years ago

I think the bigger news here is the Chromebit. A $100 device that turns any monitor into a computer? Fascinating.

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jhardcastle|11 years ago

More details on Cnet - http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/asus-chromebit/

Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11AC, USB 2.0 for accessories, 2GB of RAM and 16GB SSD

lewisl9029|11 years ago

Wow. AC wireless in a $100 device. Now I'm interested.

What does it do for power? Through the USB port like most other similar devices I'm assuming?

pronoiac|11 years ago

> The Raspberry Pi is a nearly stick-like mini computer that can run Windows or Linux.

What? Is this about the future version of Windows that will run on ARM?

jonknee|11 years ago

Amusing that it has a more useful port than the new Macbook.

philip1209|11 years ago

It seems like a good alternative to raspberry pis. We use these types of small computers to power dashboards, and frankly the Pis are a pain to set up for this purpose. I hope the Chromebit works well for just loading a website.

vially|11 years ago

That's exactly why I was considering buying a raspberry pi for. Have you also considered the chromecast for this (maybe by creating a custom app/plugin for your dashboard)?

dpcan|11 years ago

I thought this was interesting too... but are you also carrying around a keyboard and mouse?

georgemcbay|11 years ago

Not necessarily.

I do virtually all my work split between my home office and an actual workplace office. Currently I drag a laptop back and forth between the two, but having a monitor/keyboard/mouse at both (which I already do and dock the laptop into) and just bringing a small stick literally in my pocket that I can plug in to either place and get my full, familiar, always-up-to-date development environment is very appealing.

Obviously YMMV depending upon use case, for me a full laptop (even a small one) is overkill for what I need for a work machine, since I never really use it anyplace other than work or home and in both places I plug it into "full-sized" keyboard/mouse/monitors anyway.

Since I do Android development, ChromeOS isn't the ideal platform for this, but I suspect these sticks will run crouton like other ChromeOS devices...

rm445|11 years ago

That doesn't surprise me, because I already have a Chromecast.

And there are many other instances of small cheap computers too, but my point is this: once you've seen a little device that plugs into a TV/monitor and does stuff, you've already seen a computer, because all these things are computers nowadays. Hardware has to be seriously small and special-purpose nowadays to even consider a microcontroller. It's the age of system-on-a-chip.

lazyjones|11 years ago

I see no point in carrying around a little stick to use as a computer but not as storage. Plenty of flash-based local storage would be easy to add (with locally encrypted backups to the cloud if needed) and turn the privacy-impaired ChromeOS products into decent personal computing devices.

malenm|11 years ago

I wonder how much thought they put into theft prevention if this is really intended to be used in schools - the ability to just pull this out the the USB port and walk off seems entirely too tempting in a school setting.

maaku|11 years ago

Glue.

maaku|11 years ago

One of those running XBMC would be awesome.

jvandonsel|11 years ago

Any monitor? Not mine. HDMI required.

egypturnash|11 years ago

Where d you even get a monitor that doesn't do HDMI any more?

thehoff|11 years ago

Beat me to it. I agree, the Chromebit is way more interesting.