ClarionMiND MID on sale in the US for $649.99

Americans have been waiting with bated breath for months on end for Clarion's MiND mobile internet device to launch, and just as we were promised in September, said device is finally on sale in the month of November. Available in black, red or white hues, the MID boasts a 4.8-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen, preloaded maps of the entire US and Canada, built-in RealPlayer, Linux OS, an Intel Atom CPU, 512MB of RAM, a 4GB SSD, Firefox browser, Bluetooth 2.0 / WiFi, a microSD card slot, 2 USB ports and a battery good for around 1.5-hours of usage. Pop one under the tree for that someone special in your life for just $649.99. Or get them a full-fledged netbook for less, your call.

[Via Pocketables]

[brandon @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:04PM]

That would make one hell of a carputer!!!

[GiF @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:09PM]

You mean like a GPS/Media Player/DVD Player? That would be awesome!
Or we could just hot-glue an iPod touch to the dashboard.

[brandon @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:10PM]

Since when does an iPod touch have GPS and play DVDs???

[ybd @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:13PM]

brandon: Well for the latter - since media converting was invented and for the former... well you are saving ~430$, you can easily get a good GPS with that kind of money

[brandon @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:27PM]

It's still not the point; this is a physically-capable unit running linux with usable I/O capabilities meaning it can be programmed for multiple tasks.

iPod Touch still has no GPS or DVD slot, and is NOT open source

[Matthew @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:49PM]

I don't know why you'd want DVD slot when you could skip on the bulkiness and just play MP4.

[iEye @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:13PM]

I never liked those touch sensitive buttons...

[[ W ] @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:28PM]

but they look cool :)

[ChillyCat @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:55PM]

you still continuing your TROLLING HABITS ?

Go outside and breath fresh air.

[Patriks7 @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:06PM]

And I never really liked you..

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:18PM]

Touch sensitive buttons = no
Touch screen = good.

How exactly does your world work?

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Nov 23rd 2008 10:08PM]

@iEye

agreed with touch button controls aren't as good as touch screen buttons

[Patriks7 @ Nov 24th 2008 3:29PM]

"agreed with touch button controls aren't as good as touch screen buttons"
They are practically the same thing.. Just wait until Apple releases some touch sensitive buttons somewhere and you guys will be wanking over it daily, thinking why no one has made it before...

[Eddie @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:26PM]

Notice how a lot of devices are copying Sony Ericsson now with their blue illuminated touchbuttons down the side of the screen.

[brandon @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:29PM]

Notice how Sony Ericsson invented blue illuminated buttons

(face-palms)

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:19PM]

Wait, did Sony Ericsson invent blue or buttons?

[KilgoreTrout @ Nov 23rd 2008 7:26PM]

my first car had a stereo with the very same buttons in the same color and the same background, it was a Blaupunkt and it was in 1981

[Chris @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:26PM]

Why dont companies install VLC on PMP's? Dont you have to pay royalties or something to Real to use their player on your device?

[Valicore @ Nov 23rd 2008 6:39PM]

Pay royalties to Real for that piece of shit bloatware/malware/spyware/bag of hurt in a bad way? Real probably paid them billions of dollars and begged on hands and knees to get them to put that on there.

[midlover @ Nov 24th 2008 4:33PM]

VLC is a piece of shit. Real at least plays all the codecs/formats and can play media reliably. From a presentation I attended, the Clarion guys were really happy with the RealPlayer, they mentioned that there were very few bugs and that it was a market-ready solution.

You have to pay royalties for codecs no matter what solution you use. Just because VLC/gstreamer is open-source fartware doesnt mean that you are not required to pay royalties to patent-licensing bodies.

[Truth Seeker @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:36PM]

An hour and a half battery life??????????????????? ROTFLMAO...

My Acer Aspire One netbook gets 4.5 hours while using wifi and surfing with Firefox the entire time.

Even my Palm TX gets over 4 hours while using the wifi.

For that kind of money- I don't think so.

I like the fact it's running Linux though... ;-)

[Richard @ Nov 23rd 2008 6:46PM]

I agree... it sounded good until you get to that joke of a battery life.

[sinjinn @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:38PM]

the touch button on the ps3 is especially annoying

[BigD145 @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:39PM]

Or buy an Archos for less and get 5+ hours of use.

[scott @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:55PM]

ahhahah true.

[ethana2 @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:54PM]

That kernel seems pretty old, but I don't suppose it matters all that much..

[izzy @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:01PM]

Why does all the good free open source products have to have major down side OMFG ROFLMAO!?!?!?!?!1.5 hours battery life!?!?!?

The neo freerunnner has a crappy small touch screen - linux

this clarion mind mid has a crappy deisgn, its big and bulgy. 1.5 horus battery life !?!?!?!?!?- again (linux)

Archos 8 with nice design and descent user interface - 450$ omfg!?!?!/ -once again - linux

why god why?!?!?!?!?!?

THE FCC IS TOTAL DOODOO

[John H. @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:06PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZWYwYqbfuM

[brandon @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:14PM]

Please don't feed the trolls.........

[Robert @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:16PM]

Greetings:

There has been great advances in Mobile devices, one of them are Netbooks, which are priced between $300-$500US.

Now why can't someone out there make a MID priced at about $300 or less.

If the ClarionMiND MID is priced at $649, I would rather buy a Netbook or Laptop, than put
over $600 in a MID.

MID's should be priced at $300 or less, then they will sell like hotcakes.

Regards Robert

[Kanakstyle @ Nov 24th 2008 10:37AM]

Robert, this was made and optimized for car usage.....you guys
should consider that...Now you can get 649$ to have internet
connection and services in cars....it´s good for first generation...
so far no competitor with car solution dude....

good way for next generations

[JeffEd @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:35PM]

Way off topic but to engagdet writers... why has there been nothing ever mentioned of the Samsung Behold? It looks like mostly a T-Mobile clone of the Instinct but just a mention of it somewhere seems like it would be appropriate. I've seen ads for it everywhere.

[Truth Seeker @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:36PM]

I want something small enough to fit in a coat pocket. Plus these other features:

4.5 to 5.5" inch touch screen.
Clamshell design with qwerty keyboard.
Wifi.
No more than 1 pound in weight
Linux OS
SSD hard drive, I'd settle for 16 gigs
SD card slot, able to accept 8 GB cards
USB port (or mini usb port)
Headphone jack
User replaceable battery
4 hour battery life minimum.

And for around $350. I'd whip out the plastic for that in a heartbeat.

[takemetoyourtoaster @ Nov 24th 2008 11:36AM]

try the nokia n810, I'll sell you mine for like 300 or so (got a netbook), then buy a big sd card with the money you saved
I'll also give you the usb charger that was sold seperatly and no I'm not joking, i havent really used it that much since i got my Wind, trying to sell it, also it has like 4.3 inch touch screen if thats ok

[Warner @ Nov 23rd 2008 9:16PM]

You are in luck, sir: www.openpandora.org
May be a bit before tye next batch ships out, though.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 23rd 2008 6:12PM]

What is the best MID?
Suggestions please.

[Robert @ Nov 23rd 2008 7:04PM]

Greetings Thi mam:

I would place the Apple Ipod Touch as number 1, with the Nokia N800/810 a close second.

Regards Robert

[hitsthings @ Nov 23rd 2008 7:27PM]

Dude, you gotta lose the opening and closing on your posts.

That, or buy some stamps and send a letter.

[DeoWulf @ Nov 23rd 2008 9:12PM]

@hitsthings-- I don't know, it adds a sort of charm and respect that's been abandoned in internet interactions.

[pseudomind @ Nov 23rd 2008 7:25PM]

Sounds kindof spiffy but just 1.5 hours of battery life... I think I'll pass. My N800 only lives for 3-4 hours during heavy browsing sessions and I find that to be unsatisfactory, so even less than that would just be a farce.

I am starting to understand Canonical's support push for the arm7v platform. They could make something very much like this but perhaps with 8 hours of battery life instead, it would be killer.

[KilgoreTrout @ Nov 23rd 2008 7:32PM]

it looks nice , shame it's totally useless.

[Maria @ Nov 23rd 2008 8:18PM]

I am interested in a MID with skype.

[some guy in canada @ Nov 23rd 2008 9:04PM]

This thing is designed to bring the Internet to your car. Now the Geo Metro you guys drive can be online and hooked up!

Anyways, they have a bigger battery available for it.

The thing will accept POIs directly from www.google.com

It has google maps on board, as well as youtube, myspace, a full web browser with JAVA and FLASH (My dang iPhone can't do that).

[carl @ Nov 23rd 2008 10:20PM]

lmao!!!! 1.5 hours

[rudy @ Nov 23rd 2008 10:34PM]

To expensive, I'm still holding out on that elusive tegra based pmp/mid that will be coming out next yr.

Just hope they price it better than this one, 650 is to expensive, 450 should be the max maybe 500

[rudy @ Nov 23rd 2008 10:44PM]

Everyone keeps saying www.openpandora.org

but that thing is ugly, if it was something sexy then we'd be talking.

[Jash Sayani @ Nov 24th 2008 6:03AM]

$649 is a little more for mobile internet. Wouldn't a 7" netbook be much cheaper.... And if you need more portability, then and iPod touch would be good enough at one third price....

[J @ Nov 24th 2008 1:48PM]

It's mostly intended for use in a car, thus attached to constant power, so the 1.5 hour battery life is really not much of an issue. I think is ok, although pricey. A netbook would just be too cumbersome for the car (due to the keyb), unless it's a convertible. This thingy should fit like an PMP or GPS unit.

[gps tracking @ Nov 27th 2008 4:28AM]

I have a GPS system on my car bought from http://www.lweshop.com/ and it really has helped enormously in finding new locations. I found this blog most interesting as I didn’t realize all of the wide range of applications out there today for GPS technology