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View Full Version : $38 Zipit Wireless Messenger receives Linux injection, becomes $38 netbook



wraggster
September 28th, 2009, 17:39
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/09/zipit-tux-20090928-440.jpg

Poor Zipit. As a $149.99 instant messenger client nobody got particularly excited about you. Even now, as a $38 IM client you aren't exactly in high demand -- but as a $38 portable Linux machine, well, that's another story altogether. The machines have been tweaked before, but the latest and greatest is this hack from Hunter Davis, who can turn a virgin Zipit Z2 into a full-featured Linux machine in under five minutes, as shown in the video below. To do the same all you need is Hunter's hacked firmware and a microSD card to throw it onto. Once completely tweaked you'll get full mouse support, WiFi connectivity, and even audio output so that you can rock some tunes on the go -- though the command-line interface won't make it the most compelling PMP ever. With only a 300MHz processor and 32MB of RAM we wouldn't go compiling our COMP-SCI 101 homework on here, but this little firmware refresh certainly makes for a tastier experience than before.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/38-zipit-wireless-messenger-receives-linux-injection-becomes/