Now it looks like someone has beaten FXI to the punch. Although not as powerful as Cotton Candy (it is a single core 1.5 GHz and 512MB RAM) the MK802 scores over Cotton Candy in two very important way. First it is slightly cheaper ($74.00 rather than $200) and second (no, it does not have Don’t Panic on it) it is available. After CES we heard that Cotton Candy could possibly hit the stores around April-May, however we have not heard anything about it since.

There are a few other differences that might be of importance to buyers. The MK802 has dual USB ports (one male, one female). With Cotton Candy you have one USB and one HDMI connector. Both share the same GPU though with a Mali 400 inside.

We find the thought of systems like the MK802, Cotton Candy and even the Raspberry Pie that has been in the news lately. They represent and interesting class of computer. On the one hand you have your own system you can carry around with you; all you need is a monitor really. Some have said that this type of computer is going to usher in a new age of hacking. Potential bad guys would be able to take this with them to the library or almost anywhere they can plug one of these into an HDMI port (with the exception of the Raspberry Pi) and you have a system complete with a very specialized form of Linux.

Still devices like these are very fun to think about and to play with. We will be reaching out to FXI and also to the makers of the MK802 to see if we can get one of these in the lab. Although both the Cotton Candy and MK802 will be running Android they are not fully supported in the Google App Store. However you should be able to get more than a few third party apps on there from someone like Amazon or a number of forums that are dedicated to Android development.

Discuss this in our Forum