Mele A1000 is a $70 hackable, Android powered Linux-friendly ARM-based PC

LazyLion

LazyLion

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http://liliputing.com/2012/03/mele-a1000-is-a-70-hackable-linux-friendly-arm-based-pc.html

Powered by a 1 GHz Allwinner A10 ARM Cortex-A8 processor, the Mele A1000 should be noticeably faster than the Raspberry Pi, which has a 700 MHz ARM11 chip.

While the Mele A1000 is described as a TV box, it’s basically a little ARM-based computer with HDMI, VGA, USB, and Ethernet ports, as well as support for an external SATA hard drive.

Ali Express is selling the box for $70 plus shipping, or you can spend $100 to get a version from DealExtreme with a remote control, external hard drive cover, and Android 2.3 software.

Now for the most interesting part (if you happen to be a free software enthusiast): The folks at Rhombus Tech have been working on a free and open source platform based around the Allwinner A10 chip.

The project is entirely GPL compliant, and the goal is to work with a Chinese company to produce a PCMCIA-sized computer which is capable of running Linux-based software without any proprietary, closed source drivers. Rhombus Tech hopes the platform can be used in all sorts of devices including tablets, notebooks, desktop PCs, and in-car systems. Theoretically the price could be as low as $15 per unit… assuming an order size of 100,000. Right now the cost is higher.

But thanks to the efforts of the folks at Rhombus Tech, developers have access to all the drivers needed to make use of any device with the Allwinner A10 processor, and that includes the Mele A1000.

Some folks have already started to port Ubuntu Linux to run on the set-top-box.

With a little more work, it’s not hard to imagine the Mele 1000 becoming a $100 desktop PC running Ubuntu or another Linux distribition, or a media center PC capable of running the new Ubuntu TV software.
Click to expand...

mele_01.jpg
 
OK, so as you know I got one of these things yesterday. I paid $70 dollars for mine. That's about R610.00.
The total with Shipping came to $137.49. That's about R1,200.00 total.
The VAT and shipping charges at the Post Office when I picked it up were about R35.00.

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/202970109.html

The unit runs Android 4.0.4 out of the Box.
You just have to change the language settings to English and uninstall a few Chinese Apps.
It comes rooted.
I have it plugged into my tv via the HDMI cable at the moment.
I also have a USB mouse plugged in and my ethernet cable.
It also has built in wi-fi.
I slapped an 8 GB SD card in the side... soon I will add a SATA Hard drive in the built in docking bay.
I installed SAMBA sharing and "SharesFinder" to find all my network shares.

The only slight hiccup was that the power supply came with a USA type two prong adapter, but with a little bit of jimmying around and some wires, that was sorted out. It can handle our voltage just fine.

The thing is very stable so far. Not the fastest processor on the planet.
Will do some HD Video tests now.
 
Keep a watch out for the Rockchip quadcore unit before Christmas. Same company that sells the ug802 mini PC(which has a dual core processor, quad core GPU and scores 3 times better than these allwinner devices) will launch it soon.

Linux Ubuntu Quantal is also in development at present.
 
The Mele system works great, but does not play full HD video.
The processor could definitely be more powerful.
It's nice for lower end games and general Android usage on your TV.
Gonna install Plex on it now and see how it streams from my Plex server.
 
Damn this thing looks cool. Nice little box to run Plex on. What does the Plex interface look like on Android tablet/TV?
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Damn this thing looks cool. Nice little box to run Plex on. What does the Plex interface look like on Android tablet/TV?
Click to expand...

How do you mean? it just looks like a Media Player App.
You have to buy it for Android though. It's $4.99 for the App.
But once you have paid for it you can install it on all your Android devices that are registered with your Google Account.
 
I checked out the OUYA. Looks neat, very small and is bundled with a game controller.
Thing is: I'm looking for an Android-based media player with a remote to play movies, not games.

Can I buy something modern (dual/quad core Cortex running Android Jelly Bean) retail? Or do I still have to look at importing?
 
I checked out the OUYA. Looks neat, very small and is bundled with a game controller.
Thing is: I'm looking for an Android-based media player with a remote to play movies, not games.

Can I buy something modern (dual/quad core Cortex running Android Jelly Bean) retail? Or do I still have to look at importing?
 
R1k for a media player solution is great!
Personally, I'll wait until I get something with Android Jelly Bean or better.
Android 2.3 and Cortex A8 don't appeal to me as my Samsung Galaxy Nexus with a dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex A9 has play-back problems with my Game of Thrones MKVs (1.6GB for an hour/ or just over 3.5Mb/s) which is less than the 60Mb/s the STYLUS unit claims it can handle.
I'm looking for something hassle-free that can handle most movies I throw at it.
 
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