Mini Android PC From EachMall

In a previous entry, I pointed out some of the interesting mini-computers that are now out there.  The most well known of these are the Rasberry Pi and the BeagleBoard.  These mainly run Linux, tho there is work being done to put other OSs on them.

I think from a research perspective, these give some interesting avenues of investigation for security matters.  Especially at such low cost, one could have several devices to test against.  Instead of having a rack of full blown PCs, one could have several such mini PCs.

For those wanting to research Android security, things seem kind of slim.  I don’t like the idea of using my own smartphone for such work, tho I could see using a separate pre-paid Android phone for this.  But that could still get costly.

Another alternative is the Mini Android PC available from, well, Mini Android PC (another company selling similar items is Timing Power).  They sell several models, even ones with dual and quad core processors.  The more recent ones have Android 4.2.1, which isn’t THE latest version.  I think they would be useful to do some testing. 

An article I came across did some comparision between the Rasberry Pi and a couple of the Mini Android PC, but with the idea of using them as desktop replacements, which I think is a bit too ambious.  
And I discovered there are several companies putting out this mini Android PCs.  I found a recent article that looks like a good overview of them on eachmall.com.

Anyone have experience using them for security research?  Any stories to tell?  Please comment.

APC Android Mini PC

Via Technologies only put its new APC Android PC system up for pre-order in the last 24 hours and its already sold out. Just three weeks ago Via took the wraps off their new barebones Android mini PC

Which is capable of running Google’s latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system, and just like the popular Raspberry Pi mini computer, has now sold out in the first day of being available.

Equipped with a VIA WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC at 800 MHz processor., the mini PC system supports 720p HD video with hardware acceleration, and includes 2 GB of flash storage, with 512 MB of integrated DDR3 SDRAM.

Other features include a microSD card slot on the back panel for storage expansion, VGA out, HDMI out, four USB 2.0 ports, audio outputs, and Ethernet.

Android 4.1 Mini PC – Another arrival from China

So I went ahead and made my first purchase on eachmall.com – After being a member for over 2 years,a mini PC .Postage took about 10 days which is twice as fast as some Chinese eBay-ers. No customs charge. Woohoo!

As it is all open source and runs on any ARM9 the quality is – what it is. You cannot compare it to anything else. So that is always worrying since it comes from China.

We gave it a quick test run at work. Plugged it into a monitor, plugged a USB mouse in. Booted in 30 seconds. The main menu is a bit weird, but everything is there  Settings, appstore, facebook, youtube and media player and media share.

Just using a mouse I was able to connect to WiFi with the on screen keyboard. Then I could search anything on Youtube using the on screen keyboard again. Everything is drag to scroll. The scroll wheel did nothing and right click is “back”
We palyed an HD movie of Youtube on a 22″ screen. And it was really good. All I want this to do is play movies on my new photo frame. (I wanted to use Raspberry Pi but there is no OpenGL:ES support for it yet – as of writing now)

Over all for £40 delivered, it is a nice piece of kit to take apart and stuff into my photo frame. Nice thin is my wireless blue tooth keyboard will work with too. (or Wifi remote access?)

MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC’s as a potential music server

Synchrotech lent me a MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Player for a weekend. Since I don’t have a television at home with HDMI, I borrowed an HDMI monitor as well.

I had never used an Android device before, but aside from some interface clunkiness, it wasn’t too hard to navigate around on the device. While many people have touted the device’s video playback, internet, and gaming abilities, I was far more interested in its potential as a power efficient music server.

At home I have a Bose Wave® radio II, but I don’t always want to start a computer to use Soundlink—which inevitably requires a time consuming Bluetooth re-pair almost every time I use it. Nor do I always want to use with my iPod, which due to its capacity, has song file bit-rates that sound somewhat flat on the Bose. I’ve always wanted a reliable, but inexpensive music server with a wired connection to the Bose that had ample storage and a usable interface. Preferably with the capability to play FLAC or ALAC. Synchrotech had already tested the MK802 with USB Hard Drives, so there’s no worries about large music collections.

While the specifications for the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC don’t list FLAC as one of its audio CODECs, the specifications for the Android 4.0 do, so the first thing I wanted to try was FLAC playback. It turns out that FLAC files play just fine on the device. I also tested a variety of MP3 and AAC files with the MK802. Things were looking pretty good at that point.

 

Playing FLAC audio files on the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Player

If there was one issue I had with the native Android audio player was that it didn’t display the album artwork for any of the files tested. I asked a friend who has had a variety of Android phones and tablets and he said that he wasn’t sure why that was happening, and suggested I try other music players like Spotify and WinAmp for Android. The former has problems with the screen orientation for the MK802 and promptly displayed its interface upside down. No matter what we did, we couldn’t get Spotify to display correctly. Hope that’s something that will get fixed in the future. We couldn’t get WinAmp for Android to run at all on the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC, even though we installed it via Google Play (née Android Marketplace). Any other suggestions for a robust music player better than the built in version are welcome. Displaying album cover art is pretty much a must considering it’s a unit for TV display. A visualizer like the one in iTunes would be a nice bonus too. What did run well was Pandora, but unfortunately that doesn’t give us the option to play our own files.

 

Pandora running on the MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC Smart TV Player

I’m looking forward to another loaner unit in the future to run more experiments.

Android Mini PC: The Next Tech Revolution?

After a Christmas delay, I’m back with another article! Thanks for reading my previous article on The Gingerbread Problem.

With streaming devices like the Roku, Apple TV, and Google TV set top boxes highly available, it seems that consumers have a lot of choice when it comes to consuming media. These devices allow users to stream and rent video from many different services but have very limited app selection, can be expensive, and each have their own drawbacks and limitations.

But what if I told you that was about to change? That there is a growing market in the tech industry just around the corner that can very well shape the landscape the way tablets did?

A device that has all the internals that a Android tablet has but with no screen. What it does have is a HDMI output that allows it to connect to your existing HD television. All while running on the latest version of Android with a dual core processor and smaller than any set top box on the market.

The asking price?

A mere $60 USD.

This is an Android Mini PC. A device that makes your dumb HDTV into a Smart HDTV. A device capable of vast media playback and support for over 700,000 Android applications. An Android device without the screen.

A device filled with endless possibilities.

Now this article isn’t meant to say who had the idea first or to be an exact retelling of history. It is meant to be an outline of the product that is an Android mini PC.

Android Mini PCs are a relatively new product. The concept is simple. A small device with good internal specifications, running the latest Android, and an HDMI output for the screen. This allows a user to have access to the best Android has to offer on their big screen television. Imagine checking your E-mail, using over 700,000 apps in the Google Play Store, watching videos, listening to music, or browsing the web all from the comfort of your couch.

In order to interact with the device, since there is no touch screen, you need a USB keyboard for text input and a USB mouse for touch input. There are Air Mouse controllers that can duplicate a touch like input with a built in keyboard as well as the standard keyboard and trackpad combos. These input devices work rather well and most certainly make up for the lack of a touch screen.

But where did these devices come from? How well do they work? And which one is best?

The answer is not so simple.