Google has made no secret about its plans for Android. Smartphones
and tablets are just the beginning — the company wants Android
everywhere. And thanks to FXI Technologies’ Cotton Candy USB device, we
may not have to wait long to see Android on more than just our mobile
devices.
The Cotton Candy USB computing device by FXI Technologies is a tiny, pocket-sized computer.
FXI essentially built an ultra-lean computer inside a small USB
stick. Stick it into any device that supports USB storage, and Cotton
Candy will register as a USB drive. From there, you can run the Android
OS in a secure environment inside your desktop, courtesy of a
Windows/OSX/Linux-compatible virtualization client embedded in the
device.
Stick Cotton Candy into a computer, and Android will appear in a
virtualized window on your desktop. But get this: The USB key also
features an HDMI connector. This way, you can connect the stick to your
TV and use Android on the big screen (though you’ll need some kind of
secondary input device, like a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo, to get
anything done.)
Cotton Candy is far more than just Android on a stick. Under its Hot
Wheels-sized hood, the device sports a 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A9-based
processor (the same basic processor architecture you’ll find in the
fastest chips from Apple and Nvidia), as well as ARM’s quad-core Mali
GPU and 1GB of RAM. It’s an impressive laundry list of specs, and seems
more than capable of fueling Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread, the version
of the OS that comes on the device.
From TVs to car stereo head units to refrigerators and lighting fixtures,
it seems no piece of consumer electronics is out of Android’s reach.
And, ultimately, getting Android on as many devices as possible gets
Google’s search bar and services onto multitudinous screens beyond the
desktop environment. This potentially means more ads served, and more
revenue for the search company’s core business.
Android has already appeared is a small number of refrigerators, TVs and automobiles, and if widely adopted in the greater gadgetsphere, app-makers could make better, appliance-specific Android apps.
For now, the Cotton Candy USB stick is a stopgap item — a small taste
of what Android can be before it bursts outside its mobile boundaries.
Unfortunately, since it’s not a proper Android device per se — i.e., it
doesn’t comply with enough of Google’s requirements to be considered
“official” — you’ll be unable to access the Android Market from the
device. Sideloading is still an option, though, so you won’t be left completely app-less.
Expect Cotton Candy to pop up for less than $200 around mid-2012.
By Mike Isaac
From wired
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