TCL's iOpen-081A: no lipstick on this pig

We simply can't get enough of cheap, nasty, and niche Windows CE devices -- which is why the iOpen-081A is like music to our ears. Awesome music. This garish pile of plastic does just about everything you'd want a portable device to do, unless you need to do a lot of data entry (or any, since it doesn't have a keyboard of any sort). Still, the iOpen features a 480 x 272 touchscreen display, an ARM926 CPU, 2GB of flash storage, 64MB of SDRAM, 802.11b/g, GPS, SD and MMC card support, as well as a USB port for hooking up something like a keyboard or flash drive. As a media player, it seems to support all of the familiar formats (MP3, MP4, WMA, AVI), and we wouldn't be surprised if there were a few emulators hanging around on this bad boy. Hey, if you've got 2300 yuan (about $336) to spare and absolutely no concerns about what your devices look like, you could do worse.

[Via Pocketables]

[Greg @ Sep 11th 2008 9:29PM]

Was the Obama speech comment really necessary ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPd4yk0x-eg

[Jinto @ Sep 11th 2008 9:35PM]

Either side, for or against Palin, there is really no place for the comment. So what does this have to do with her or Oboma?

[Aguiluz @ Sep 11th 2008 9:54PM]

What!?

What has this gadget to do with Obama?

[V @ Sep 11th 2008 10:08PM]

Um, first off, this isn't an Obama speech comment. McCain first used this in a campain speech like mid-last year. Then Palin used it, and then Obama used it. Don't be pretending like you didn't know that.

Btw, do you know what the Bush doctrine is? If you do, you're brighter than Palin herself.

[Flashpoint @ Sep 11th 2008 10:14PM]

Thank God we have Youtube to show people that Obama used a comment used by Mccain and many other people in history to represent their opinion of porkbarrel politics.

UNFORTUNATELY, if you hate someone, you don't care what they are saying. You just look for the worst in them to justify your hate. They could say "I love iPods" and you turn it into an anti-Microsoft hate rant.

[fred @ Sep 11th 2008 10:31PM]

Cut the politics!

There is already enough flaming over OSs and PMPs.

[webon @ Sep 11th 2008 10:38PM]

wait, I understand deleting a comment of that someones calling someone a pig but why delete fred's comment there is enough flaming over OSs

[Reader @ Sep 11th 2008 10:44PM]

Seriously, if the use of this term for the next 3 months always brings up this debate I'm building an underground city and moving in.

[Dave @ Sep 11th 2008 11:24PM]

I WISH Obama had been referring to Palin. Why don't the Republicans grow some balls? They're more easily offended than my grandma.

[hungry @ Sep 11th 2008 9:39PM]

If any of u had a gun would u shoot me?

[Aguiluz @ Sep 11th 2008 9:57PM]

*grabs a water gun*

[Ryan @ Sep 11th 2008 9:39PM]

Poor choice in title

[Matt @ Sep 11th 2008 9:51PM]

WOW engadget has hit a new low...way to stay bipartisan!

[GorillaSalsa @ Sep 12th 2008 1:21PM]

Really, I never would've expected this from engadget. Even though it's not like they took one particular side (they could've said something in the description against either candidate), It's still disappointing that I can't escape politics even at engadget.

[Marc-O @ Sep 11th 2008 10:22PM]

How was that partisan exactly ? Who was that title rooting for ?

[DeoWulf @ Sep 11th 2008 10:38PM]

It was just a joke on all the controversy going around. Considering both candidates have used the expression I wouldn't say it's partisan, either.

People need to lighten up. Then again, it is an election year.

[Aguiluz @ Sep 11th 2008 9:56PM]

"Pocket Internet cafe?"

Nice translation. :)

[sam @ Sep 11th 2008 10:03PM]

why is engadget so obsessed with the looks of gadgets? its not that bad looking? can a gadget be "unattractive"? wait, i forgot who this blog is really meant for (hint: it rhymes with... never mind this blog is for people who like apple computers- because they're prettier and more expensive)

[wootman @ Sep 12th 2008 12:33AM]

this this is a POS, even if it came in a gold and dimond case assembled by unicorns.
The pandora (another device similar to this) has...
a smaller CPU (no L2 cache...)
a smaller RAM (64M, against the 128M of the pandora)
an inferior display
they dont even speak about the GPU
no bluetooth but a GPS.

[ethana2 @ Sep 11th 2008 10:31PM]

Why the frick would a sane person bother with windows if it's an ARM CPU?!

Oh yeah, gotta have all your ARM games, right? *rolls eyes*

[h_2_o @ Sep 11th 2008 10:42PM]

if you have to have all that why not just go get an axim x51v, it will do all that and more, plus has a higher res screen.

[Limezor @ Sep 11th 2008 11:23PM]

Actually, the title made me spit out my ice cream in laughter.

[AJ in the East Bay @ Sep 12th 2008 3:27AM]

I LOL'd too. I totally didn't expect it on this blog which made it even funnier.

[wootman @ Sep 12th 2008 12:32AM]

Ha, and people say the pandora is a bad value for your money.

[Sarig @ Sep 12th 2008 1:38AM]

I, uhh, kind of like it. If someone gave me that thing, I wouldn't be afraid of using it in public, is what I'm saying.

[Atanas Boev @ Sep 12th 2008 2:13AM]

Reminds me the patented Creative PMP from few posts ago :)

[GPS @ Sep 12th 2008 2:32AM]

Anyone noticed the snap looks like XP, but text indicates CE..

[Sarig @ Sep 12th 2008 2:57AM]

It looks like CE with the default xp background, that's all :)

[tanooki2003 @ Sep 12th 2008 4:26PM]

I have one of these devices and let's just say that it can be easily miscategorized. Before more of you just glance at it as another cheap wannabe toy trying to be something let me just say this. First of all does anyone remembers the once famous Tapwave Zodiac 1 and 2? It was supposed to be a revolutionary PDA (PalmOS Based) geared towards gaming, while having the capabilities of playing MP3's, and videos (granted they were encoded with the poorly supported program or installing TCPMP)

Now the best way to classify this PDA device is think of the things that the Tapwave Zodiac can do, plus playing all formats of music & videos, playing games, having built in WiFi (instead of having to shell out big bucks for a wifi SD card), having a fully functional USB that can detect USB flash drives, USB hard drives, keyboards, mice, etc, and optionally having an integrated GPS, along with having the common typical PDA productivity tools such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation viewer, ink writer, email, web browser, and PIM (personal information management) functions. It can do all of these functions with the bonus of operating on Windows Embedded CE 5.0, instead of the more quirky Windows Mobile 5.

Unfortunately since most people in America are all driven and attracted to only big brand names, it's only common that most would consider this a cheap POS instead of really looking at how fully functional an item like this can be for them. I bet if it had the brand name of Archos or Apple then it would get a lot of attention and turn heads. All I can say is that most just don't know what they are really missing when they stick to their brand names.

I use this PDA device a lot in the car because i bought mine with GPS navigation and a built in 3.0 MP camera, mostly for quick snapshots. It serves as a great in car navigational entertainment device. When i am not using the GPS I play my huge TV show collection that I have stored on a 16GB SD card.

[Raz @ Sep 13th 2008 8:47AM]

Nothing really new (lots of pics):
http://www.mp4nation.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2112

And that thread started back in march.