The Hummingboard, a personal ARM computer the size of a mouse, is available for pre-order today, starting at $US45 from SolidRun. It looks like a toy for a child with small, delicate hands, but it’s really a toy for adults of all hand sizes who like to rig up their own media centres. Finally, Raspberry Pi has some competition.
This is good news for people who like to tinker and bad news for the Raspberry Pi, the original tiny personal computer. Like the Raspberry Pi, the Hummingboard is aimed at people who make homebrew tech. People can run Android, Ubuntu or a variety of other open-source operating systems on the computer.
Here’s SolidRun’s overview:
There are three versions: the HummingBoard-i1 is the basic and most inexpensive, while the HummingBoard-i2 and the HummingBoard-i2eX offer more advanced options (the i2eX has four USB options and a faster processor, for example). They’re priced at $US45, $US75 and $US100. That’s slightly pricier than your basic Raspberry Pi, but certainly not bank-breaking.
Here’s how the two stack up, in easily digestible video form:
Raspberry Pi has the advantage of being the beloved innovator with a dedicated fanbase, but SolidRun’s Hummingboard offers more advanced specs for just a little more money. If Hummingboard works as advertised, the world of affordable mini-computers just got far more competitive. [Business Insider]