Qi Hardware launches NanoNote
The 本 NanoNote is an ultra-portable, ultra-hackable pocket computer with a 3" screen - but, sadly, no wireless networking.
The Qi Hardware 本 NanoNote - also known as the Ben NanoNote, and pictured over on Engadget - is a Linux-based palmtop with QWERTY keyboard designed to be hacked into anything your heart desires: a media player, a note-taking tool, a Wikipedia reader, an RSS aggregator, or whatever you can imagine.
While the size - with its teeny-tiny 3" display and pocket-friendly 126g weight - is pretty impressive, the specifications of the first model are likely to limit your options somewhat: the NanoNote is equipped with a 320x240 display, a 336MHz XBurst JZ4720 processor, 32MB of RAM, and an internal storage of 2GB of flash - although this can be upgraded via a microSD slot. Sadly - and this could be the killer - the device is lacking any network option, making it an offline-only gadget - although the official European distributor claims SDIO support.
While the power might be lacking, the flexibility is certainly there: designed to boot from USB, the NanoNote comes with a bare-bones Linux distribution originally developed for routers as standard, but Qi Hardware is keen for developers to replace it with their own, custom software to better tailor the device to their particular requirements.
The NanoNote is available now for $99 (£66) from the company's official shop.
Can you think of the killer app for a cheap, low-powered device such as this, or will the lack of wireless networking render it almost completely useless in a world populated with near-ubiquitous smartphones? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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12 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyAll bad things aside it is a cool step in a nice direction. I would love the thing if it had internet capabilities. Its small and cheap which is perfect for quick email access. Its like a really dumbed down netbook which for the price would be quite nice.
i was thinking that but they are a bit bulky
now ive thought of soemthing why not internalise it
people have managed to internalise a lot more stuff in psp so it should be able to be done
PS does any one know what inputs it has, does it support usb as host mode(that could fix "internet-lessness")
Edit: Just noticed it only has a 8bit RGB LCD that makes it pretty useless for GFX or picture viewing :(
Indeed it does already run Doom & Quake. It does also have a MicroUSB host port, so in theory you could connect a USB wifi dongle - wouldn't look very good though, as you'd need adaptors/cables to go from full USB to MicroUSB... Plus, you'd have to port and probably heavily customise the drivers; that's not impossible, and exactly what the device was intended for - hacking :) (note the correct use of the term!!). Although it does have a MiniSDIO port and the manufacturer advises that it is compatible out of the box with several MiniSDIO WiFi chips already on the market. Although these cards are around £60-£80, from what I can see; which makes it very cost in-effective.
Reading the comments in the Engagdet link, I found a smaller Linux hacker toy already available that has WiFi built in and is cheaper: the Zipit Z2 wireless messenger (http://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_en-GBGB368GB371&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Zipit+Z2). It was designed to be a wifi-based IM device for "teens", but it can be hacked to run Linux quite easily. In fact it already runs Linux, but it's locked down so it's just a matter of replacing the kernel & software. Plus it's only $50. Although the only company I could find that will ship to Britain want to charge an extra $30 for shipping - can't really justify that. eBay was even more expensive.