Since leaked photos of the iPad circulated the web last year, Shenzhenâs many electronics companies have been tripping up over themselves to bring out their version of the iPad. Not just something that looks similar to the real iPad, but a flat screened tablet device that will give Apples a genuine run for their money!
The current clones look the business, but are a little underpowered when compared to the iPad. Their 600Mhz processors are up to the task for most things, but tend to be choppy when playing HD movie content, and with games developers really pushing the boundaries of tablet gaming that 600Mhz clock speed will quickly become a real hindrance.
But, what about in a few months time? How about 1GHz clock speed from an ARM based Cortex A8 processor?
Thatâs what Rockchip and many other companies are planning, and claim that their next generation faster 1Ghz (iPad speed) tablet will be available by around September time.
What does this mean for us? A 1Ghz tablet from a big company like Rockchip and running open source O.S such as Google Android (as pictured here) will mean iPad speed without the âApple Taxâ. A similarly specâd Shenzhen iPad clone could cost as little as half of the iPads retail price, and will probably offers features that Apple doesnât such as built in SD card reader and USB plugs.
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[Source: Shanzaiben.com]
All the Linux apps DON’T run on Google’s version of Linux because Linux apps use the X Window System (or ‘X’) for graphics, for network display and for input device handling.
It would be nice if the Chinese manufacturers would offer Linux with X so that we can actually run Linux apps on their tablets.
Google’s Android is a version of Linux that requires a rewrite of the way graphics and input devices are done, as well as an embrace of Google’s special brand of Java. Android doesn’t do remote display like X does, either, so Android may be ‘open source’, but it’s not Linux with X, like all the other Linux distributions are, and it’s not acceptable as a version of Linux to a lot of us because we don’t want to surrender the ability to do remote display and we don’t want to rewrite all of our apps to do the GUI in Java according to Google.
Yes, its a shame they don’t use something like Puppy Linux on them. It’s small and nippy, however how many regular average consumers have heard of Linux over Google? It’s all marketing. Good news is that its probably possible to install Linux on these systems yourself with a bit of work!
Thanks for the detailed comment!