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A Look at the Ben NanoNote

Issue 198

From Issue #198
October 2010

Dec 01, 2010  By Daniel Bartholomew
 in
The Ben NanoNote provides a command line you can fit in your pocket. It's lighter than most smartphones, it costs around $100, and it's based on free and open-source software and hardware.

Games on the NanoNote

No geeky device of the last ten years has been considered much of anything if you couldn't play id Software's first-person-shooter (FPS) DOOM on it. The Ben NanoNote is no different. I wouldn't call DOOM on the NanoNote “playable”, but you can walk around, shoot things and get through the various levels without dying too much, provided the difficulty is set to “I'm too young to die.”

Quake, another FPS game from id Software, also can be run on the NanoNote. Again, the usability is low (it's harder to play than DOOM), but it does work in a slow, jerky sort of way.

A more usable game available for the Ben NanoNote, from the same developer who provided the DOOM and Quake binaries I used, is Frotz. Frotz is an interpreter for Infocom-style text adventures (like Zork). There are some issues with text wrapping weirdly with strange line breaks, but the games I tried played fine.

Playing an old Infocom adventure on the Ben NanoNote.

Playing DOOM on the Ben NanoNote. Seems like everything plays this game.

You also can play Quake on the Ben NanoNote, but not very well.

Resources

Qi Hardware: qi-hardware.com

Ben NanoNote Wiki: en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote

Applications Included (or Proposed for Inclusion) with the Default Firmware: en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Applications

Xburst Tools: projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/xburst-tools/downloads

Instructions for Installing Debian: pyneo.org/howto/debian/nano.html

Games for the NanoNote: downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/zear/games

GMU: wejp.k.vu/category/gmu

OpenWrt: openwrt.org

Daniel Bartholomew works for Monty Program montyprogram.com as a technical writer and system administrator. He lives with his wife and children in North Carolina and often can be found hanging out on #maria and #linuxjournal on Freenode IRC.

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WiFi data rate on Ben NanoNode and SDW823

Jorg Conradt's picture
Submitted by Jorg Conradt (not verified) on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 09:05.

Hi everyone!

For a research project I am considering a Ben NanoNode with WiFi; but I need "reasonable" data rates. The official web pages (http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_in_Nanonote) state super high rates, so I have trouble believing that:

* Throughput
TCP Tx 15.3Mbps
TCP Rx 19.2Mbps
UDP Tx 12.6Mbps
UDP Rx 14.9Mbps

Can anyone confirm these rates or has anyone other experiences? What is a typical data rate on Spectec SDW823 + Ben NanoNode?

Thanks for any comments!!

Jorg

Wi-Fi should be possible with a MicroSD card

Søren Lund's picture
Submitted by Søren Lund (not verified) on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 08:58.

According to the wiki[1] it is possible to get Wi-Fi on the Nanonote. You need a Spectec SDW-823 MicroSD card[2], that costs around $90 and seems to be a little difficult to find.

[1] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote_Wi-Fi
[2] http://www.spectec.com.tw/sdw-823.html

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