The MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC is a tiny computer that sells for around $80 or less. It runs Google Android 4.0 and features a USB port and HDMI port so you can plug in peripherals including a monitor, mouse, or keyboard.

But it doesn’t currently support all USB peripherals. For instance, if you’re running the software that comes with the MK802 you can’t plug in a USB camera or USB Ethernet adapter… yet.

MK802

The folks at Rikomagic UK have been in touch with their counterparts in China, and it looks like the next software update for the MK802 will add support for both of those things.

Rikomagic also plans to offer the ability to change screen resolutions, although it’s not clear yet if that means the software update will enable 1080p HD support. Right now the stock Android 4.0 software for the MK802 only seems to support 720p output.

The Chinese manufacturer added a firmware downloads section to its website this weekend. But despite the 6/29/2012 date for the most recent recovery image, the new software isn’t available yet. Rikomagic UK reports it should be released in mid-July, on or around the 17th.

While it’s good to know that the manufacturer is working to improve the software experience, there are other options. It’s already possible to run Ubuntu, Fedora, or Puppy Linux on the MK802. Those operating systems also support 1080p display resolutions.

I also suspect we’ll start to see custom versions of Android for the MK802 soon. Independent developers have already figured out how to build custom disk images that you can flash to the MK802’s internal storage using the LiveSuit utility.

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9 replies on “MK802 Mini PC firmware update will add USB camera, LAN support”

  1. Is compatible with application like SKYPE ? Video-call with a webcam? Can you try if SKYPE works with video-call? Thanks!

  2. In my never-ending quest to avoid the “it’s useless to me, therefore it’s useless” trap, I wonder if there is any non-haxx0r market foreseen for these thumbdrive-ish, sub-$100 devices. I’d love to play with one, or with a Raspberry Pi, or any other pocket-change, pocket-sized widget like these, but I just don’t have the time to fsck around with stuff like this any more (ah, I pine for the days when I could spend an evening installing NetBSD on a Mac SE/30, just because…). Is this just a “niche within a niche” product, never mind that I at least used to be within that niche-squared, or are you aware of somebody looking to configure this for sale to and use by customers who don’t have the tech skills to (for example) upgrade the firmware?

    1. I’m pretty sure it’s mostly a hacker toy right now, but it could potentially be a cheap general purpose computer or media center.

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