512mb is plenty even for modern browsers if you pick the right one. Opera 11 worked just fine on an Eeepc 701, for instance (the last version of Firefox that worked on it was 2.0). Likewise Opera mobile works superbly on this Archos g9 80 tablet, which also only has 512mb of ram.
Yes. Technology has moved on. Sitting in front of the TV with a bare board and a mess of wires isn't very appealing, compared to sitting with a laptop at a desk, running a fast and modern OS and applications.
Because Linux is in no way modern.
If you add up all the costs for the Pi
$20 for a DVI cable, $20 for a 16Gb flash card. Case by dollar store. Keyboards and mice I have, but even if you haven't, a half decent set will cost $20 tops.
the price difference isn't all that interesting either.
Less than $100 verses what... $500 for a laptop that won't die within 6months? Ok, if you say so.
The laptop will cost a bit more
Even if you have to purchase all of the above, it's still 5 times the price. Hardly "a bit".
and it will run (Open)Office
So will this. It's even in the FAQs.
IM software teenagers want to use.
Hmm, linux doesn't run IM software? I must be imagining the Pidgin icon in my tray then.
For any kind of hardware tinkering, the Pi is very closed, and doesn't offer much interesting I/O.
As I pointed out to you, there are datasheets out there for the CPU... Whilst that might not be enough for some people, it's a start.
Not everyone is looking at this from the perspective of "from scratch" tinkering and just because it's not the Arduino doesn't mean that others might not find it interesting.
Also, if you make something useful, you can't make your own hardware based on it.
The designs are there, and quite frankly this is a complete nonsense of an argument. Good luck trying to find anyone willing to build you hugely complex multi layer circuit boards in single units at anything like a price mortal man can afford.
Taking your argument PC's are also useless, because you can't get all the parts in single unit prices to roll your own either.
Unless you're talking about games, there isn't a whole lot this thing won't be able to handle that you'd usually do on an entry level Win7 laptop
An entry level Win7 laptop will run Windows, for starters. Plus it will run a lot faster.
And cost at a bare minimum 15 times as much.
As far as the internet goes, the bottleneck is the pipe, not the computer for the most part. Lightweight applications on this thing will do just fine. And I guess you could have some fun on that front too if you were so inclined: Just how much could you get this thing to do and it still be usable.
And of course, teenagers want to play games, too.
Most teens I know have consoles of some description alongside their PCs. Obviously YMMV on that of course. But then again, whilst this could be put to general purpose use and probably be ok in that role, it's not what it was designed for.
the cpu it's bolted to has plenty of documentation to go with it.
Really? I tried the Broadcom site, and I couldn't find anything. Do you have a link ?
Sure!
http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.ddi0301h/DDI0301H_arm1176jzfs_r0p7_trm.pdf
Was cited in the Rasberry Pi wiki: http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard
Not surprised you didn't find anything on the Broadcom site though... It's a bit of a pig to navigate around.
but I don't think you're going to end up with something that's very attractive to a modern teenager who wants to do the same things their friend is doing who can afford a proper laptop running Win7..
Unless you're talking about games, there isn't a whole lot this thing won't be able to handle that you'd usually do on an entry level Win7 laptop... Browsing Facebook, watching youtube vids and typing up the odd bit of homework would be well within the capabilities of this device.
700Mhz and 256Mb of ram is a huge amount of resource to work with if you have even the slightest of clues when it comes to linux distributions. And lets face it here, anyone buying one of these, is likely to fall into that category.
I doubt we'll be seeing these things on supermarket shelves any time soon.
And for the more adventurous hacker kids who enjoy taking things apart, a computer that basically consists of a single SoC without documentation isn't very attractive either.
And what of those who aren't "more adventurous"? The case modders, those wanting to learn about alternate architectures? Whilst the GPU may or may not become open source in the future, the cpu it's bolted to has plenty of documentation to go with it.
Hell, this is even before we start considering the possibility of Android working on it. At which point, things get very interesting.
There are plenty of modern distros out there that will work quite comfortably with "only" 256Mb of ram.
And Firefox is not the be all and end all of browsing. There are faster, lighter browsers out there that could fulfil that role just as well... Practically anything using Webkit for it's engine for starters....
Exactly - "Sorry, I've been waiting for this call, excuse me".
There is little the other person can say or do to stop it without themselves being rude, either way, you have your out.
The Samsung Tocco Lite has a fake call feature, just press and hold the volume button for a couple of seconds and it's good to go. A few moments later and you get what looks to be an incoming call from someone withholding their number.
Very useful for getting out of a situation where you don't want to talk but at the same time don't wish to be rude.
Editing images to suit themselves again?
Iirc they got slapped for that in the UK for doing exactly the same with their comparisons between the macbook air and the EeePC.
Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
