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From Ars Technica: Another tiny computer: VIA’s $49 APC offers Android, HDMI video out

Is that an Android computer in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Taiwanese hardware manufacturer VIA has announced a new product called the Android PC System (APC), a seven-inch ARM board that ships with a custom version of the Android mobile operating system. The device will be available in July for $49.

The APC includes a VIA ARM11 SoC, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of flash storage, VGA and HDMI video outputs, speaker and microphone jacks, a microSD slot, an ethernet port, and four USB ports. It also reportedly supports hardware-accelerated video decoding. According to VIA, the board consumes only 4 watts when idle and 13.5 watts under maximum load.

The Raspberry Pi foundation’s $35 computer, which launched earlier this year, attracted considerable interest from Linux hobbyists and embedded computing enthusiasts. The foundation partnered with two manufacturers, but has struggled to meet demand for the product. VIA could help fill the unmet demand for a low-cost ARM system that is suitable for the hobbyist market.

from Ars Technica

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From Autoblog: Video: ABC: Thousands of rejected/condemned gas pumps in use, could cost you $$$

gas pump measurement

Most of us likely assume that the gas pump that is providing petrol is giving you the fuel that you pay for – no more or less. While that may be true in most cases, ABC News in Baltimore, Maryland proves that sometimes pumps do bad things to good people.

The report details Maryland state gas station inspections that have revealed over 4,000 defective pumps over the last four years. In all, that’s between five and six percent of the 40,000 gas pumps in Maryland, or way too many error-prone pumps for our tastes.

While our primary concern is that customers aren’t getting what they pay for, it seems the gas station owners are more likely to get the short end of the stick. The report claims that station owners are three times more likely to lose money than the customer. Scroll down to watch the ABC Newsreport.

 

from Autoblog

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From Wired Top Stories: The Future of Stuff: Vending Machine that Prints in 3-D

No matter how fast postal delivery gets, nothing beats the immediate gratification of pushing a button on a vending machine and having your purchase tumble down into the delivery box. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/weird-vending-machines-live-crabs-cupcakes-umbrellas-push-a-button-gallery-1.88951 The Chinese live crab dispensor and http://www.artomat.org/ Art-O-Mat are old news, but the machine of the moment is the DreamVendor, a set of four MakerBot Thing-O-Maticsthat sit behind glass and 3-D prints your tchotchke of choice.

from Wired Top Stories