MTube does Linux, WiMAX, weighs five ounces

Check out the MTube. Sure, the name is weird and maybe a little pointless, but the device itself is pretty interesting. We don't have a ton of detail on the little guy -- which was put together by Taiwan's Science and Technology Advisory Group -- except that it's built atop VIA's Mobile-ITX motherboard, features a 2.8-inch, 640 x 480 touchscreen, 8GB of flash memory, a 1GHz VIA CPU, and is running some form of Linux. The new, miniscule ITX form factor apparently also includes a CDMA baseband chip, which opens up wireless connectivity possibilities for devices of this type. Right now this is just a prototype, but production is planned for 2009, and once VIA's credit-card sized motherboard hits the market, we suspect we'll be seeing all kinds of new gadgetry like this popping up.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

[Paul @ Oct 9th 2007 10:41AM]

Specs are a lot like the Iphone: Touchscreen (somewhat small screen), 8 GB flash, CPU is around the same speed, and a modified OS. However, I'm sure the MTube will encourage 3rd party apps.

[Cagrino @ Oct 9th 2007 10:49AM]

CPU is nothing like the iPhone. iPhone has ARM processor at 620MHz. This is an x86 running at 1GHz.

[Alexander @ Oct 9th 2007 11:31AM]

Not to mention that x86 is about a bazillion times easier to program for... And Linux onboard means that hacking is pretty much a given.

[membrane @ Oct 10th 2007 11:50AM]

In reply to Alexander the Arm processor is not that hard to program for it's no more difficult then X86 once you are familiar with the tools also even the most energy hungry arm processor still uses 10x less power then the most efficient X86.
I guess you call it hard because you can't just load a live CD and click some menus to get an OS installed.
BTW I find asm on arm a lot less insane then asm on X86 which in my opinion has the worst instruction set of all platforms though most codding is in C and C++ these days.

[Cagrino @ Oct 9th 2007 10:45AM]

I like the possibilities of this. But do we have to wait until 2009 for this? Surely they can speed this up.

[berryhill @ Oct 9th 2007 10:55AM]

Iphone Killer

[contreras @ Oct 9th 2007 10:58AM]

Does it support WiMAX, CDMA or both?

[Geoff @ Oct 9th 2007 11:03AM]

I don't know that the name is that silly and pointless. When they're showcasing the device's ability to view YouTube on the go (as in "mobile"), "MTube" is pretty relevant.

Having said that, I don't like it :)

[Mike @ Oct 9th 2007 11:22AM]

Way too many devices can view youtube on the fly, but not enough can do Flash 9 :(

When can I watch tv-links.co.uk on the go?!?!?! :(

[riggs @ Oct 9th 2007 11:38AM]

tv links ftw!

[Tor Slettnes @ Oct 9th 2007 12:45PM]

When can I watch tv-links.co.uk on the go?!?!?! :(

Now. Use a Nokia N800 (which BTW has flash, and does YouTube as well). You'll need WiFi or a cell phone for internet access though.

[micmickimo @ Oct 9th 2007 11:28AM]

You can view flash in MTube,

because it's run on Ubuntu 7.0, with full-fledge browser
firefox 2.0

[micmickimo @ Oct 9th 2007 12:00PM]

OK, some translation from Chinese website about MTube,

it's running Linux, Ubuntu 7, with Firefox 2.0
it does also WiMAX
and supporting all video codecs,
and has it ads engines built in that can fetch relative ads
while user's viewing the video.

and it's able of running DVB-T, wi-fi, but no 3G and phone features.

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 9th 2007 2:37PM]

"Sure, the name is weird and maybe a little pointless"

MTube is just as silly as http://m.engadget.com ... does the M in MTube make sense now?

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 9th 2007 3:12PM]

"Sure, the name is weird and maybe a little pointless"

Just as pointless as m.engadget.com ... MTube just doesn't make sense at all. Nope. /sarcasm

[membrane @ Oct 10th 2007 11:51AM]

iphone or any phone killer no why because even the VIA c3 is uses 1 to 2 orders of power more then a typical ARM processor many people are fairly clueless when it comes to embedded systems such as you must get by with milliwatts while a power efficient X86 processor will use several watts of power.
Also arm is not harder to program for it's no harder then X86 also the code can be more compact with mods such as thumb mode.
If you find arm difficult to program then you are not a real programmer.

[Lurch @ Oct 11th 2007 8:33AM]

I agree, but the advantage of an x86 CPU is that there are more video codecs released (especially closed-source ones) for x86 than for ARM :-/
f.e. Last I looked you couldn't even get Flash for _PPC_ Linux :(