Cotton Candy

FXI Technologies has the world’s first any screen, connected computing USB device. Codenamed “Cotton Candy”, this sweet little device serves as a technology bridge between any display, the Cloud, and any input peripheral.

The vision for Cotton Candy is to allow users a single, secure point of access to all personal Cloud services and apps through their favorite operating system, while delivering a consistent experience on any screen. The device will serve as a companion to smartphones, tablets, notebook PC and Macs, as well add smart capabilities to existing displays, TVs, set top boxes and game consoles.

Web site: http://www.fxitech.com/products/

Price: Under $200

Available: March 2012

Editor’s Remarks:

Cotton Candy aims to give you a small, secure and portable device that you can use to access all of your information in the cloud, using the screens of other devices. In a device that is the size of a USB memory stick, it packs a Samsung processor based on the ARM Cortex-A9 core with Mali graphics, a USB connector, HDMI port, and microSD slot, along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

When plugged into a USB port on a PC, Cotton Candy launches a thin client that lets you run Android on the device either in a full screen or in a windowed mode, giving you a secure Internet connection that uses the keyboard, pointing device, audio, and screen features of the PC. It performs similarly on a tablet or smartphone, but uses an app on the smartphone or tablet that connections to the Cotton Candy via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

The company has also said it will work with TVs, monitors or other displays via HDMI; and the device is also being looked at for a variety of other uses as well, potentially with different operating systems.

It is positioned as a companion device, something you would use along with your PCs and smartphones. The result is an extremely portable device that you can use to carry a secure PC with you wherever you go.

Pros: extremely small, very portable, low cost

Cons: Still a prototype, the product is slated for prototype production in February with consumer production in Q3.

Michael Miller