Meegopad Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrSBfLbRIdw]

Meegopad is trying to use crowdfunding to help finance the development of their new “Intel Cherry Trail Compute Stick” on Indiegogo.

The USB PC-on-a-stick is based on the new Cherry Trail SOC platform with the Atom Z8300 CPU @1.84 GHz in its heart.

They offer two models with this campaign: The T07 with 4GB of LPDDR3-1600 RAM and 32GB eMMC 5.0 of Storage space. Both models include active cooling which means there are tiny fans running inside to keep the temperatures tame.

Expansion slot is available on both models allowing for Micro-SD storage expansion up to 128 GB. Video is outputted via HDMI 1.4 jack, Bluetooth 4..0 support is included, and the sticks arrive with windows 10 home (or bare-bone) pre-installed.

Wi-Fi is provided with 802b/g/n standard, and 2 USB 2.0 slots are included on the stick for connection of USB devices.

The T05 (cheaper) model is identical, aside from the lower amount of RAM (2 GB instead of 4 GB).

This is a little unusual to find – a Intel compute stick as a crowdfunding campaign. But I think it’s a good idea (although it may require some further improvements to attract investors) – it allows more freedom in the design and manufacturing of such devices, by spreading the risk and involving the public. However, a crowdfunding product must have an “edge”. Something to set it apart from other similar devices, otherwise why invest in it, when you can simply surf to one of the many online stores and buy one of those? The answer I was given is two fold:

1. The T07 is the first available Atom Z8300 based USB Stick available for sale on the market (the others may appear but are not available yet for purchase.
2. It contain two full size USB 2.0 slots.

So, if you believe in this product and want to encourage crowdfunding, you are welcome to support the project here.