Having gone up for pre-order in the shape of the BUG Hiro P edition back in January, Buglabs‘ modular cellphone development platform has finally started shipping to customers. David Findlay is one of the lucky developers to receive the package, and he’s documented the unboxing – with a whole lot of pink antistatic foam – on Flickr. Consisting of the BUGbase ‘brains’ unit and seperate screen, camera, GPS and motion detector blocks that snap on, it’s the first of Buglabs products to be commercially available.
Priced at $299, the BUGbaseseparate ‘Hiro P’ edition is described as a fully programmable computer with a CPU, RAM, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, USB, Ethernet, MMC, and serial interfaces, and a small LCD with button controls; it can be fitted with up to four BUG components, and is priced at $299. David has obviously gone for the BUGbundle, costing $549 and including the base and one each of the four accessory modules. He’s promising more photos later once he’s actually got the device working.
The company first made major headlines in November last year, when they confirmed that the BUG system would be compatible with Google’s Android mobile OS. That could offer home and small-business developers a relatively cost effective way to code for the platform. Buglabs are also planning touchscreens and 3G modems as future add-ons, while later versions of the BUGbase will also have WiFi.
[via Engadget]
