A startup called FXI has managed to bring a Samsung Exynos 4210 dual core chipset clocked at 1.2GHz with an ARM Mali-400 MP quad core GPU, Wi-Fi, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot and an HDMI jack into a USB flash drive sized PC called Cotton Candy.
That is essentially some of the hardware found in the Samsung Galaxy S II without the onboard storage or the capacitive touchscreen (and battery).
When plugged into a PC or Mac via a USB port (or even a tablet or smartphone we reckon), it transforms into a fully fledged computer that runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread but without Android Marketplace access.
Cotton Candy can be controlled via a separate window on the host operating system like in a virtualised environment.
The device has yet to be released or priced, although Joanna Stern from the Verge says that it will cost well under $200 and will come in the second half of 2012.
The issue here is that by the time it is released, FXI may find itself facing an uphill struggle with many rivals launching an alternative Apple TV-like device that would be just as versatile but also cheaper and possibly with Ice Cream Sandwich support.
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