Details Emerge About Spark Linux-Based Tablet

MojoKid writes "There's a new tablet in town called the Spark. The Linux-driven tablet, based on the Zenithink C71 and KDE was unveiled by developer Aaron Seigo recently. The tablet will be available for pre-order this week and will start shipping worldwide in May. In terms of specifications, the 7-inch (800x480) multi-touch slate will run a 1GHz AMLogic ARM processor and Mali-400 GPU, sport 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage (with a microSD slot for expandability), 802/11b/g WiFi, a pair of USB ports, a front-facing 1.3MP webcam, and an audio jack. The UI of choice is Plasma Active and there will apparently be a content store where developers can peddle their wares and users can snag software."

Comments

The dev team thinks of everything

[emurphy42]

From TFA:

Seigo also noted that the tablet will indeed blend, although that would void the warranty.

Re:The dev team thinks of everything

[symbolset]

If somebody comes out with an Android tablet that will blend and not void the warranty, I'm buying it. I have small kids.

Rise of Linux

[Wowsers]

I am interested in this tablet, not because it is best / most up to date, but it pushes Linux. What I mean is, it's not relying on a locked down version that the likes of Google pretend is Linux. It's not just a question of free as in no cost OS, but freedom to do what you like... which is not the same as installing re-engineered OS versions but might brick your device as that's how the hardware was designed.

To that end, I'd love to see a 100% Linux phone, nothing relying on Google with it's bits locked down or tracking

Re:Rise of Linux

[loufoque]

Try the Linux phones Nokia made before being bought by Microsoft.

Re:Rise of Linux

[MrHanky]

Untrue. Nokia still develops Qt for use with future phones, both Symbian (which is being phased out in a few years) and cheaper 'feature phones' targetting what Nokia calls 'the next billion' internet users. Nokia has stated the Swipe UI of the N9 is going to live on, and obviously not in Windows phones.

Preorder...

[psergiu]

This "preorder" business sounds fishy.

Anyone remembers the "CherryPal Africa" $99 laptops ? I preordered two. And almost 3 months after the date they were supposed to be shipping i got the money back by filling a complaint with my bank. Some of the people who preordered used Western Union or simmilar money transfer services and they never got their money back OR the laptop.

Be carefull if preordering vapourware from unknown companies.

Re:Preorder...

[MtHuurne]

There is always some risk in preorders, but I think this one is relatively safe:

• Aaron Seigo is a long time high profile KDE developer and he was president of their foundation for two years.
• The hardware already exists: they're re-using an Android tablet.
• The software already exists: you can already download images of Mer with Plasma Active. It's a work in progress, but it's not vapourware.

Obligatory...

[axedog]

2012 - year of the linux tablet!

Re:Zenithink rubish

[psergiu]

> Wife reception becomes even worse if you "do not hold it right"

Learn to hold yor wife right and she'll be more receptive :)

They're doomed

[TuringTest]

"The vision of Plasma Active is to create an innovative and fresh data-centric UI which is not concerned with applications but rather offers a user oriented interface with logically combined items through activities, which reflect the workflow and usage of the device by the user".

Didn't understand a word? Me neither. And this is from a commercial company trying to sell the thing. No more luck with the promotional video, which only shows some loading times for some unexplained tasks for which the benefit is not clear.

Until they hire some marketing people able to explain why consumers should buy the thing, and some UX people making the users feel at home when using it, nobody -not even geeks- will want to buy one.

Re:Difference between Android and Linux ??

[MrHanky]

Are you sure that four digit UID really is yours?

Re:Difference between Android and Linux ??

[chrb]

Android and traditional "Linux" are not quite the same thing. Imagine taking a generic Linux distribution like Ubuntu, cutting it to the bare minimum, replacing xorg and the desktop with an app launcher, add a web browser and media player, add a Java runtime environment like the JRE linked to an online app market, and then you have something that resembles Android. Command line Linux apps will run on Android, but you will usually have to recompile them if nobody else has (you can cheat though, and say, run Debian in a chroot). Linux graphical apps (X) will not run on Android (you can hypothetically run them through VNC, but it's not great). Apps written for other graphical backends like OpenGL and SDL should work on Android once you get them to compile. Android apps will not run on Linux because there is no Android runtime environment for Linux. At some point I expect we'll see an open source "Android player", but nobody has done it yet (I recall Canonical working on it at one point, but I haven't heard anything about that for a while).

Re:Difference between Android and Linux ??

[chrb]

seeing how simple it is to set up the Android qemu/kvm based SDK in a virtual machine on Linux, I don't know if that itch is really very scratchy.

BlueStacks got over $10m funding, so some people think it's a good idea. It should be really easy to do, too - all the source required is open and already runs on Linux/Android, it just needs porting to Linux/desktop.

please tell us more about this debian chroot solution.

http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/debian-on-android http://www.saurik.com/id/10