[HH] MK802 PC-on-a-stick, Pocket TV

[Tom Metro]

In the conclusion of the linuxlink Raspberry Pi review notes:

  There are a number of single-board alternatives to the Raspberry Pi
  such as the Via APC, FXI Cotton Candy, MK802, BeagleBoard, and Mele
  A1000, all looking to capture the market. Out of these, the
  computer-on-a-stick MK802 looks the most interesting if you are
  looking for an Android device.


A blurb on the MK802:

$74 MK802 PC-on-a-stick beats Cotton Candy to market, has ICS on board
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/mk802-beats-cotton-candy-to-market/

  If you're willing to step down in specs, the Chinese-made MK802 could
  be the PC in your pocket. For $74 (versus $199 for the Cotton Candy),
  this 7-ounce device gives you a 1.5-GHz Allwinner A10 CPU, 512MB of
  RAM, 4GB of storage and, like the Cotton Candy, Android 4.0. FXI's
  version, on the other hand, packs a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos
  processor...


The manufacturer's store:

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/563764893-Freeshipping-MK802-Mini-PC-Mini-Android4-0-dongle-android-IPTV-google-tv-smart-android-box-allwinner-wholesalers.html

(Note on the site says they are out of stock until mid-June.)

Page has links to a few videos and a forum. You can see in the video how
it is considerably larger than the Cotton Candy, though still small
enough to easily velcro to the back of a TV.

The related videos suggested by YouTube show other very similar devices
are available, like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiYK1Hfy8X4&NR=1&feature=endscreen
  You can buy it at: http://amzn.to/MVjdxQ This Boxchip based HDMI stick
  has been talked about over the past couple weeks on some blogs under
  the names MK802, Zero Devices Z802 etc. The Bill of Materials for this
  device might be as low as $20 but it's being sold at around $70 at
  retail at the moment.

(Seems like several distributors are competing to brand the product as
their own.)

The video above is probably the best of the ones I saw. They do a demo
of it working, then tear the case off to show the internals.

They all seems to be running an Android version that isn't really made
for TV use. I see mouse pointers and they use wireless mice to move the
pointer around. GoogleTV doesn't do that, does it?

(Speaking of Android...I thought you couldn't get the Google market
("Google Play") on unlicensed Android devices, which I'm assuming these
are, yet they so it in the demos. A forum posting says it doesn't come
installed on the device, but can be installed by the user. So is there
some easy D-I-Y hack to get around the licensing?)


And in related news:

The Pocket TV: Makes any TV a Smart TV
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/484889112/the-pocket-tv-makes-any-tv-a-smart-tv

  The Pocket TV is a small pocket-sized dongle that connects to the HDMI
  port of any regular TV (even your 5-year-old TV) and converts it into
  a Smart TV. It's basically a fully functioning micro-computer the size
  of your thumb which runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) much like
  today's latest smartphones. The processing power in the Pocket TV will
  allow you to display Android on your TV turning it into a mega-sized
  tablet (just imagine a 50 inch iPad). You can download apps from the
  Google Play Store to stream videos, play games, connect with your
  friends on Facebook, catch up on news, do some work or simply surf the
  web. You can even attach a video camera to do Skype video-calls...
  Yes, all that on your TV!
  [...]
  The Pocket TV has a Cortex A9 processor packing 1GHz of power and run
  Android 4.0... It uses the HDMI port for display and can be controlled
  with either a standard IR remote or the more interactive Air Remote.
  You can connect it to any standard TV set as long as it has a HDMI
  port and it will display up to 1080p resolution. It also has a USB
  port so you can attach an external hard drive, a wireless keyboard and
  mouse or a video camera for video calls. Oh and did we mention it also
  has a Micro SD card slot so you can add extra storage?
  [...]
  If you're a developer and want to develop Apps, MODs or even ROMs for
  the Pocket TV, we want to work with you. Drop us a message and we can
  work together on your idea or project.

Sounds a lot like the same thing as the others, just in a different
plastic enclosure. (A spec chart doesn't identify an SoC vendor, but
does say it uses a "Mali-400MP" GPU.)

A $100 pledge gets you the device plus a simple remote. $135 gets you an
upgrade to the remote with a gyroscopic sensor and QUERTY keyboard on
the back.

Again, seems like something people will quickly become frustrated with
if it isn't a TV optimized UI.

 -Tom