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i-opener network appliance and Linux

Introduction

The i-opener is a cheap (currently $99), small, network appliance for surfing the web and email. It's design is very similar to a laptop. The computer is built right into the back of the color 800x600 dual scan monitor. It has a separate keyboard with a built in "mouse". It does not run on batteries but the AC adapter is external and one could easily rig up a 19V battery pack. It has a serial port, 56K modem, parallel port, and a USB port. It does not have ISA, PCI, or PCMCIA slots. It has no floppy or hard drive but you can add an inexpensive hard drive.

I found the screen quite readable.

This is clearly being sold at a loss; the company probably expects to make back the money by selling internet service and possibly by building market share and an order backlog for an IPO.

The i-opener has 32MB of RAM (1 SODIMM socket (standard laptop memory) and a 16MB ide flash disk.

For its intended purpose

This looks a lot nicer than web TV. Although you can only use their internet service, there is no service commitment. This looks like a good device for people who cannot afford a regular computer or who do not want to have to maintain it (software is pre-installed and automatically updated). The cost of their internet service is $21.95/month (prepaid options also availible) which isn't badly inflated.

Browser features: HTML 3.2. No PDF. GIF/JPEG images. Real audio sound. Javascript but no java (security conscious people turn both off, anyway). It will have some problems with badly written web sites - this is a criticism more of the web sites than the device. It offers 128 Bit SSL encryption. Cookies are supported.

Hacking

This machine is very PC compatible since it was built from standard PC components. People have installed Linux, Windows, BeOS, FreeBSD, and others.

The deal with the IDE cable funkyness: it looks like they forgot to reverse the PCB layout when the put the connector on the "wrong" side of the board. It is also a 2.5" notebook style IDE cable. One needs a cable that swaps the odd and even numbered pins. This can be done by various tricks or there are people selling the cables. One of the sites listed below has a $35 kit with IDE cable, PS/2 keyboard/mouse adapter, and a hard drive mounting bracket.

It looks like a second USB port could be added if you soldered in the connector. There is a punchout on the case.

I get the impression the modem can be converted to a second serial by removing the modem card and adding a cable. Plus, with USB you could add floppy, hard drive, cd-rom, ethernet, scanner, and various other external peripherals as needed.

The modem may be a dumb one which will not work under Linux.

You can get a cheap desktop PC with a cheap CRT monitor for not a lot more than an expanded i-opener would cost. The i-openers small size and LCD monitor would still make it appealing. An LCD monitor equipped PC would cost much more and would still be more bulky. A fully expanded i-opener could cost more than a desktop PC (USB peripherals being more expensive than internal ones) and you could have a rats nets of usb cables and boxes. But, it offers scaleability. You can start small and move up if you want to.

For about $50 you can buy 3 gel cells and the necessary connector at Batteries Plus. Three 6V 3AH gel cells can probably power the unit for about two hours. For the same price you can get 6V 7AH batteries for 4 hours of operation but they weigh more. You will need a way to charge the batteries. It is possible that the existing AC adapter could be used to slow charge the batteries with a current limiting resistor and a jack added to the battery pack. The gel cells could be glued with silicone rubber between two thin sheets of fiberglass or other material to make a reasonably sturdy battery pack which can be attached to the back of the i-opener with velcro.

Applications

  • embeded control (such as my CNC milling machine)
  • basic web server For $250 you can add a hard drive and a USB ethernet (not sure anyone has USB ethernet working yet, parallel port does). Stick the damn thing on the wall.
  • info kiosks
  • conference email rooms 6' conference table, 6 chairs, 6 i-openers, 6-usb to ethernet, 1 ethernet hub, 1 hard drive (run the other as heavily firewalled diskless clients if you dare :-) ). Plug it into a phone line and presto.
  • classroom similar to conference room
  • smart conference room
  • Stick one of these on top of the monitor on every desk at a secure site. Block browser access from their normal workstation. Now you have two entirely separate nets, a secure inside net and an insecure web browsing net. It's cheaper than vmware.
  • same as above but put two on each desk, one for the inside and one for the outside.
  • Corporate thin client stations
  • cheap X terminals
  • Point of Sale terminals
  • cyber cafe terminals and public access terminals at libraries
  • use in areas where space is tight, such as kitchen, nightstand, etc.
  • friends and family who don't have net access.
  • display only applications. Status screens. Promotional displays. Remote readout for firewall status, etc.
  • Inexpensive computer for kids
  • Laptop. Use it as an AC powered portable machine or add a battery pack.
  • A machine on every desk in a school.
  • Dedicated home terminals for logging in to the office network. Use of peoples personal machine for this purpose compromises the security of the corporate network.

    • Links

    Future

    The company will probably raise the price to $199 (web site lists price as "introductory special $99, regularly $199) after they build some market share. There is speculation the company will require service contracts or otherwise make the machine less appealing to hackers to prevent lost revenue. There are a number of reasons for them not to do this, however. The lost revenue from not using the internet service is made up for by exposure; they get web coverage and probably magazine coverage as a result. The people who are hacking these machines are people that other people come to for purchase recommendations and are often involved in getting people who don't have net access on the net. The hacking could result in many interesting applications which could increase demand and reduce cost through manufacturing economy of scale. The hacking could result in better software being availible for the unit cheaper. People who are reluctant to buy a unit because they may want more capabilities in the future have the option to upgrade these machines as a result of the hacking. They probably gain more money from sales from the lack of service commitment worries than they lose from people not using them.

    The cost of a bunch of hackers buying these below cost and not subscribing to the service is totally negligable compared to the $1.5 million dollar 30 second commercials during superbowl.

    If they do require a service commitment, presumably the units would also be availible at a higher price without it (like cell phones). Hopefully, they have made the internet service usable from other computers even if the i-opener isn't usable with its standard software with other internet service providers; if that is the case, many hackers will use their internet service from the i-opener running linux or for travel with their laptop, or access from their main linux box.

    Machines would probably be availible in any case at a fair price to "partners" who develop other applications for the unit. There is an enormous market potential here. But this market potential will fizzle if hackers can't develop the applications to start with.

    They would want to arrange things so they recover their cost plus a fair profit for bulk purchasers (corporations, schools, VARs, etc) but it may be to their advantage to make these machines readily availible to individual hackers, even if it is at a loss. Hackers ultimately add much more value to the product than the loss of ISP revenue.

    Other companies will make similar machines targetted at both network appliance and home/office computing. If i-opener bungles their attitute towards using these machines for non-appliance purposes, they will lose a very big chunk of market share.

    In summary, their stategy should be:

    This file is maintained by Mark Whitis (whitis@freelabs.com).

    Senior Engineer for hire
    Software Development - Electronic Design - Embedded Systems - Device Drivers - System/Network Administration and Security - Motor Control, RobotCNC - Linux/Un*x - 25+ years experience
    The author of these pages is looking for a new gig.
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    Engineers and electronic hobbyists: The new Open Symbol Project is creating open schematic symbols and PCB footprints for a variety of different CAD packages.

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