USB

Cotton Candy Is a Sweet Pocket-Sized Dual-Core Computer

Why mess around with a tiny touchscreen interface when you can run your android OS from your big screen TV—or really any screen for that matter?

This prototype dongle, codenamed Cotton Candy, is designed by Norwegian company FXI Technologies. It's about the size of a normal USB stick, 8cm x 2.5cm and 21 grams, but packs both USB 2.0 and HDMI-out plugs. It's powered by a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos ARM CPU—the same one that powers the Galaxy S II—and employs a microSD card slot for data storage. It also includes 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Cotton Candy currently uses the Android 2.3 OS but can also support Ubuntu as well as a virtualization client for Windows, Linux, Mac.

The device is designed to work on anything with a screen and USB port—TVs, laptops, smart phones, anything. You can hook it up to a HDTV and stream 1080p videos from the net. When you hook it up to a computer, either Windows or Mac, it will run android applications in a secure window—essentially creating a dumb terminal.

While the final price and release date haven't yet been set, FXI estimates the device will cost under $200 when it does go on sale. [FXI Tech via Laptop Magazine]