Posted 14. May 2012 |
Engadget
By Zach Honig
“Is that an Ice Cream Sandwich riding shotgun atop your Cotton Candy stick? It may sound like a delicious carnival delight, but munching on this bad boy will send you to the hospital faster than a family pack of deep-fried Oreos. Keeping up the confection theme, FXI has coined the treat in question as Cotton Candy, and we got our first taste of the refresh back in February at Mobile World Congress, where we went hands-on with the bite-size computer-on-a-stick. FXI reps promised a March ship date at that point, but the refreshed model appears to have been worth the wait, with a 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor, quad-core ARM Mali-400MP graphics and support for Android 4.0 and Ubuntu, along with embedded virtualization clients for Windows, Linux and Mac.”
Read the full article on Engadget
Posted 14. May 2012 |
The Cstick Cotton Candy development units are delayed beyond the original March ship date, due to some hardware modifications and extended software testing. Scandanavian pre-orders start shipping this month, with the balance of the pre-orders shipping throughout the Summer. At this time, pre-orders are closed as we have gone beyond our expected volume of orders.
Below is further explanation about the status of the Cstick Cotton Candy any screen micro-computer. 
1. Hardware – FXI decided to change the plastic cover on the device. This change has allowed us to also add a micro USB port for adding more input devices and peripherals. The new plastic also enhances the durability of the product. We have included some photos of the final plastics and packaging taken right off of our production line. It’s looking great! Cotton Candy will be very nice to carry in a purse, briefcase or pocket and will remain protected with its’ rubber USB and HDMI covers.
2. Software – FXI’s engineering team is in the process of completing the evaluation and testing of the most recent release of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS.
3. Where’s my candy? - Development units will begin shipping this month and the balance of the orders will be fulfilled throughout the Summer. Orders are being delivered first to those in our hometown of Norway and Scandinavia, closely followed by other geographical regions. You will be notified by email when your pre-order is ready to ship, and at that time, you will be asked to pay for the device. Be sure to respond promptly!
FXI Cotton Candy branded consumer device delivery will be better estimated as we move forward in the development process, therefore at this time we do not wish to estimate an exact date.
4. As we mentioned before, Cotton Candy will be priced under $200. However, when considering Cotton Candy is the most robust micro computer introduced that packs the productivity and entertainment benefits of a tablet, laptop, mobile phone and a set top box all in one portable package – Cotton Candy is sure to impress your technology sweet tooth.
The Cstick Cotton Candy platform brings immense value to a variety of consumer electronics devices and markets, including but not limited to, Cloud Service Partners, Content and Game Publishers, IPTV and OTT Operators, Mobile Device Vendors, Mobile Operators, Mobile Phone Makers, and PC Makers. Therefore, in addition to the FXI Cotton Candy, we expect a variety of unique OEM branded products will be making their way to market in different form factors.
At FXI, we strive to provide you with the most complete version of the product that you were expecting, and for that reason delays have happened. We hope this helps clarify the current status of deliveries. Please keep an eye out in the next few weeks for photos and video from the lab. Ongoing updates will be available via our newsletter, the FXI blog, on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and within the Cotton Candy community – www.cstick.com.
Posted 10. May 2012 |
In our last marketing blog we were in a somewhat nostalgic mood referring back to the old Commodore 64 days. Today’s topic is platform. More specifically open platform. What difference can it make, compared the opposite – a closed platform?
Again I am going to head back into history. You may call this a morbid blog, as this story also involves the perishing of the Swedish automobile company SAAB.
SAAB was well recognized as an innovative and leading-edge technology adopter, that introduced many of today’s standard automotive features, starting with the seat belt (http://www.saabsunited.com/2005/12/saab-innovations.html).
By 1990 in the midst of a changing industry, SAAB became a part of General Motors where the new parent company chose to design cars based on a GM platform. Three years later when cars came off the line, loyal SAAB customers were disappointed and no longer considered SAAB in the class of BMW or Mercedes Benz.
The story ends with SAAB, limited by its GM platform, was no longer able to capitalize from the strength of individuality and innovativeness that made them who they are. It is a painful lesson of business cruelty that a company with such engineering skills and enthusiasm was tied to a closed platform.
Unlike in car business, aren’t we lucky we have open platforms in computing industry?! What a great benefit it is for start-up companies, new R&D projects, public sector, government organizations etc. to have a freedom of choice without paying any licensing fees and royalties. What a brilliant opportunity for any individual architect, designer, developer alone or within a company to exploit their creativeness and skills.
The FXI Cstick Cotton Candy is totally open platform!
Feel free to develop and ship content for it. Deploy your own services to enterprises and individuals. But if you like you can leave it open and that is only a start. The development doesn’t have to stop when the end user gets Cotton Candy – they can create their own solutions as well. At the end of the day the limitation is not tools, not operating systems, not screen size, not money – It is your own imagination.
Put the platform in your pocket!
