{"id":47199,"date":"2014-01-21T17:33:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T17:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=47199"},"modified":"2014-01-21T17:33:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T17:33:52","slug":"50-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/50-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"The $50 PC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<h4>The $50 PC<\/h4>\n<p>By Bob Rankin<\/p>\n<p><i><font SIZE=\"2\">$50 now gets you a real computer capable of most home computing needs.&#8211;PC Pitstop<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n<p><strong>Would You Buy a $50 PC?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>OK, now it\u2019s getting ridiculous. I mean the miniaturization of PCs and their prices. A fully functional computer, capable of performing most home computing chores now costs $50, and fits in a chassis the size of a USB thumb drive? Yes, it&#8217;s for real. Read on to learn more about Android-based mini-PCs&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Introducing the $50 Personal Computer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m talking about the Android Mini-PC MK802, an all-purpose general computer that runs the Android operating system or open-source Ubuntu Linux. The Mini-PC by Rikomagic looks like a USB flash drive, and plugs into your TV.<\/p>\n<p>The hardware specs of the latest version (MK802 IV) include a quad-core ARM processor that hits 1.8-2.0 GHz; up to 4 GB of RAM; a Mali-400 GPU; 802.11 b\/g\/n WiFi built in; and a VPU capable of displaying 1080p video.<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t really need to understand any of those tech specs &#8212; here&#8217;s the important thing to know: Just add a display and an input device to this little gadget, and you have a powerful, flexible, secure, and very inexpensive computer that requires almost no maintenance. (Those with kids or tech-challenged parents will see right away how awesome this could be.)<\/p>\n<p>Any HD TV (or computer monitor) with an HDMI port will do. A wireless keyboard or mouse are the most common input devices, but some specialized Mini-PCs use wireless game controllers.<\/p>\n<p>Software is not a problem. There are thousands of apps available for Android systems. In general, if an app runs on your Android smartphone, tablet, or Kindle, it will run on the Mini-PC. Some pundits say that Android is the new Windows, in part because so many software developers are writing apps for Android.<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/askbobrankin.com\/would_you_buy_a_50_pc.html?pcp\" target=\"_blank\">Is It a Real Computer? &#8211; Article Continued Here<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Excerpt shared with permission from Bob Rankin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/techtalk.pcpitstop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/android-mini-pc-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"android-mini-pc\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-47206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/android-mini-pc-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/android-mini-pc-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>$50 now gets you a real computer capable of most home computing needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":66012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4614],"class_list":["post-47199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bob-rankin","tag-cheap-computers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The $50 PC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The $50 PC -- $50 now gets you a real computer capable of most home computing needs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/50-pc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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