4 ms·

Its got a resistive touchscreen and probably no Market access, but it would be a really good Ubuntu tablet, if you don't mind using a stylus. The price is so lo

Its got a resistive touchscreen and probably no Market access, but it would be a really good Ubuntu tablet, if you don't mind using a stylus. The price is so low, I imagine a lot of hackers might start buying it. It shouldn't take long in that case to get a functioning port.

r0s 16y ago
Might make a decent car computer, with some add-ons. It's kind of crazy you can't buy a discreet touch screen this size for less than twice the price.
- hugh3 16y ago
  If it had a GPS it'd make a great car computer. Never mind, I'll wait a year and probably be able to pick up something exactly as I described. Replace my car iPod and my GPS with one device. I suppose I could do this right now with an iPad but I'd have to pay for the 3G to get google maps -- I'd rather have internal maps.
  - jrwoodruff 16y ago
    No you wouldn't. You'd have to buy the 3G version to get the GPS censor, but there are plenty of apps available that store your maps on the iPad. I'm pretty sure the GPS censor works fine without a 3G plan...
    - thehigherlife 16y ago
      it does.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
  - bronson 16y ago
    If you're going to mount it in a car, just plug in a USB GPS. I'm skipping this one as a car computer because I bet the screen is junk and the memory is awfully small. In a year there should be a bunch of good ones to choose from.
angusgr 16y ago
Unfortunately, it won't run any of the most recent versions of Ubuntu because it's an ARM9 (ARMv5). However, people have a minimal-esque Debian installation running on its other WM8505-based cousins fairly well: http://www.slatedroid.com/eken-m001-debian/ http://www.slatedroid.com/eken-m001-debian/
- spiffworks 16y ago
  Thanks for the link. I didn't know of this site. Can you recommend any cheap tablets that would be fun to hack on?
  - angusgr 16y ago
    I only have an M001, which has the advantage of being popular so there are people modding it, and some people working on a clean implementation of the linux kernel (groups.google.com/group/vt8500-wm8505-linux-kernel) If you want to do some kernel device driver writing, binary reverse-engineering, or port Android 2.2, those are all good things you can try on the M001 (or the Walgreens tablet, same SoC.) However, there are better cheap tablets. $200ish can get you one built around the TI OMAP3 platform. One is called the Wits A81E. For a lot of tinkering, that's probably a much better buy - Android 2.2 already runs, you get a Cortex A8 instead of an ARM9 (so it -will- run recent Ubuntu versions), and the OMAP3 SoCs have properly open sourced and mature linux drivers. I haven't actually used one, though. It really depends on what you want to do with it, I guess.

r0s 16y ago

Might make a decent car computer, with some add-ons. It's kind of crazy you can't buy a discreet touch screen this size for less than twice the price.

hugh3 16y ago
If it had a GPS it'd make a great car computer. Never mind, I'll wait a year and probably be able to pick up something exactly as I described. Replace my car iPod and my GPS with one device. I suppose I could do this right now with an iPad but I'd have to pay for the 3G to get google maps -- I'd rather have internal maps.
- jrwoodruff 16y ago
  No you wouldn't. You'd have to buy the 3G version to get the GPS censor, but there are plenty of apps available that store your maps on the iPad. I'm pretty sure the GPS censor works fine without a 3G plan...
  - thehigherlife 16y ago
    it does.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
- bronson 16y ago
  If you're going to mount it in a car, just plug in a USB GPS. I'm skipping this one as a car computer because I bet the screen is junk and the memory is awfully small. In a year there should be a bunch of good ones to choose from.

angusgr 16y ago

Unfortunately, it won't run any of the most recent versions of Ubuntu because it's an ARM9 (ARMv5). However, people have a minimal-esque Debian installation running on its other WM8505-based cousins fairly well: http://www.slatedroid.com/eken-m001-debian/ http://www.slatedroid.com/eken-m001-debian/

spiffworks 16y ago
Thanks for the link. I didn't know of this site. Can you recommend any cheap tablets that would be fun to hack on?
- angusgr 16y ago
  I only have an M001, which has the advantage of being popular so there are people modding it, and some people working on a clean implementation of the linux kernel (groups.google.com/group/vt8500-wm8505-linux-kernel) If you want to do some kernel device driver writing, binary reverse-engineering, or port Android 2.2, those are all good things you can try on the M001 (or the Walgreens tablet, same SoC.) However, there are better cheap tablets. $200ish can get you one built around the TI OMAP3 platform. One is called the Wits A81E. For a lot of tinkering, that's probably a much better buy - Android 2.2 already runs, you get a Cortex A8 instead of an ARM9 (so it -will- run recent Ubuntu versions), and the OMAP3 SoCs have properly open sourced and mature linux drivers. I haven't actually used one, though. It really depends on what you want to do with it, I guess.