Looks like we have an interesting mystery device here. The SmartQ 5 MID has been captured in the wild. The background image of the device immediately reminded me of the background of the Nokia N810 [Portal page]. At first I thought it might be running Maemo, but seeing as this device is not from Nokia, I’d say that is highly unlikely. It appears to be running a simple Linux distro. The hardware itself seems very simple, with a 4.3” 800×480 screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, and just four hardware buttons on the top of the device. The source puts the price of the unit at $132 which prompts Chippy to assume that it is Arm 11 based. So far there aren’t many more details other than some images of it running FBreader, a Linux based e-Book reader. Considering the fact that it is Linux based, I’m sure it will be able to plenty of common Linux tasks, but it will all come down to a matter of how quickly, and how well the interface is adapted for touch. After seeing that the stylus is featured in many of the photos, I don’t have my hopes up for a finger usable interface, and the lack of keyboard probably means this device will turn out to be more of a toy than a productive pocket computer. Does that sound a bit pessimistic?
March 11th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
more pictures with some application called FBReader and some specifications: fb2、HTML、CHM、plucker、Palmdoc、zTxt、TCR、RTF、OEB、OpenReader、Non-DRM’ed mobipocket、Plain text
http://www.imp3.net/10/show.php?itemid=20969
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March 11th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
http://tinyurl.com/blmyo3
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March 12th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
There is a bunch of so called “mp5 players” out of china, essentially mp4 players with extra features, with 4.3in screens. The prices go even below $100, and most use the Rockchip RK2706 400MHz chip that is ARM based (or compatible? I don’t know if they have a license). Typically they also have 8-16GB flash storage. I assume that this is essentially the same hardware with linux instead. As a product it makes a lot of sense as a very cheap low powered open source MID, essentially a more modern PDA.
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March 24th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
This is the second time I visit your blog and find an interesting article perfectly matching what I was searching for so I decided to add your feed to my RSS Reader. Thanks for you work.
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July 7th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
http://www.allpmp.com/goods-585-SmartQ+5+MID+Official+English+Version.html
about 95 pounds only
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August 9th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
hi, i bought SmartQ5 at http://www.jiongtang.com/shop , and there is a wonderful leather case for SmartQ5 , you can have a try
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