FXI Cotton Candy

Glaucus · 1 Mar 2012 at 13:00

I started a thread in the mobile section.
But it could really do with discussion in here as well. Anyone getting one of these as HTPC?

http://fxitech.us4.list-manage.com/...683ae0ae0c61a23243&id=59fc6b6c89&e=b9527c2155

http://www.fxitech.com/products/

The Cotton Candy is a USB stick sized compute device allows users a single, secure point of access to all personal cloud services and apps through their favorite operating system, while delivering a consistent experience on any screen.* The device will serve as a companion to smartphones, tablets, and notebook PC and Macs, as well add smart capabilities to existing displays, TVs, set top boxes and other media that supports USB mass storage. Download Product Brief.

Quad Core ARM®*Mali™-400MP Graphics Processing Unit
– Quad-core ARM Mali-400MP 720p / 1080p OpenGL ES v2.0
– 30M Polygons,*1.2 GPixels / s
ARM®*Cortex™[email protected]
– NEON extensions
– TrustZone extensions
Connectivity
Wifi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Memory*
1GB DRAM
Up to 64GB memory local storage (microSD)
Software
– Android
– Ubuntu
– Virtualization client for Windows, Linux, Mac, embedded
Video / Audio / Media Support
– 480p/720p/1080p decode of MPEG4-SP/H.263/H.264 AVC/MPEG-2/VC1
– MP3, AAC, AAC+, Real Audio
– JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG
– Additional video, audio and image formats can be supported through 3rd party codecs
Connectors
– USB 2.0 male form factor for power and connection to devices that supports USB mass storage
– HDMI 1.3a*with audio for connection to devices that does not support USB mass storage
–*Female micro USB (2.0) connector for connecting USB peripherals to your Cotton Candy

Bigsy · 2 Mar 2012 at 22:00

Great device, just a bit too expensive.

chrisarm · 4 Mar 2012 at 08:44

Isn't david braben (the bloke who made elite and frontier) making one of these for about £20 called the raspberry pi?

Glaucus · 4 Mar 2012 at 09:41

chrisarm said:
Isn't david braben (the bloke who made elite and frontier) making one of these for about £20 called the raspberry pi?

Yep, but it's not very capable.
It's fine for running Xbmc and your own ripped movie files but that's it as a HTPC, it's not designed for consumers and is unlikely ever to get more support due to licensing and hardware, from what's been said on the R-PI forums and someone just porting android to it doesn't solve the issues.
Where this, as it runs android has the hardware and licensing, you can have things like Netflix, SkyGo apps and the rest. Making it a much better device. You can also browse the web without it massively flickering when scrolling.

People have just seen it running Xbmc and over estimate its capabilities. I was looking at it, but reading around the forum it lacks any support or capabilities for doing pretty much anything else that HtPC should be capable off.
I was looking at the R-PI months ago as a HTPC but after reading around their forums, decided against it. Just doesn't and can't do what I want.

Turambar · 4 Mar 2012 at 10:30

Lack of ethernet lets it down for me. Pandaboard is similarly specced (it has a weaker, less open GPU) and slightly cheaper (caseless) but probably suffers from the same licensing issues as the Pi, it's not something I've looked into.

Glaucus · 4 Mar 2012 at 11:32

Turambar said:
Lack of ethernet lets it down for me. Pandaboard is similarly specced (it has a weaker, less open GPU) and slightly cheaper (caseless) but probably suffers from the same licensing issues as the Pi, it's not something I've looked into.

it has micro usb, so just plugin a usb hub and Ethernet connector. You wouldn't fit an Ethernet connector on that size, device and its meant to be a go anywhere device. .

R088ieS86 · 4 Mar 2012 at 15:37

Glaucus said:
it has micro usb, so just plugin a usb hub and Ethernet connector.

This was my thought, or just a microUSB to ethernet adapter. This is looking very promising, much more power and scope than the R-Pi. Just a lot more ££.
But considerable less than a full blown htpc.

Glaucus · 4 Mar 2012 at 18:50

R088ieS86 said:
, much more power and scope than the R-Pi. Just a lot more ££.
But considerable less than a full blown htpc.

exactly the R-PI is not a HTPC replacement however cheap it is. Some might get it to do what they want. But it's no full HTPC.

Where this will do pretty much everything a HTPC can, except windows/iTunes due to drm, cheaper and more importantly for me, tiny and hidden.

I hope I can controll it with a cheap 7" tablet. Need to look at software. Which means I don't need the microusb, or maybe I'll connect an external harddrive, just as an extra back up drive.

Edward78 · 5 Mar 2012 at 15:06

It does look & sound cool.

Glaucus · 9 Mar 2012 at 12:35

They finally updated their website to state it has a micro USB port as well, just in case anyone was still a little confused.

Quad Core ARM®*Mali™-400MP Graphics Processing Unit
– Quad-core ARM Mali-400MP 720p / 1080p OpenGL ES v2.0
– 30M Polygons,*1.2 GPixels / s
ARM®*Cortex™[email protected]
– NEON extensions
– TrustZone extensions
Connectivity
Wifi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Memory*
1GB DRAM
Up to 64GB memory local storage (microSD)
Software
– Android
– Ubuntu
– Virtualization client for Windows, Linux, Mac, embedded
Video / Audio / Media Support
– 480p/720p/1080p decode of MPEG4-SP/H.263/H.264 AVC/MPEG-2/VC1
– MP3, AAC, AAC+, Real Audio
– JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG
– Additional video, audio and image formats can be supported through 3rd party codecs
Connectors
– USB 2.0 male form factor for power and connection to devices that supports USB mass storage
– HDMI 1.3a*with audio for connection to devices that does not support USB mass storage
–*Female micro USB (2.0) connector for connecting USB peripherals to your Cotton Candy

I'm also assuming its the TrustZone extensions on It, which means it can handle DRM and R-PI will never be able to.

quickshot89 · 9 Mar 2012 at 12:43

As I think i said in the RPi thread, the RPi isn't just about the media applications, which a lot of people seem to think it is about. Having said that, the Cotten Candy is impressive, just a little expensive.

Glaucus · 9 Mar 2012 at 12:53

quickshot89 said:
As I think i said in the RPi thread, the RPi isn't just about the media applications, .

I agree, I'm waiting to see what people do with the PI, but people seem to be buying it thinking it'll be great for media.
I don't think it is expensive. Considering what internals it has. It's like comparing a single core athalon device with an i7, one is super cheap compared to the others.