The Solu Cloud: the world’s smallest portable computer
Words: Alex Woodhall
Today’s smartphones have more processing power than the computers used on the Apollo moon landings and we spend more time looking at screens than ever before, yet somehow the desktop PC has avoided any major reinvention since its inception – they’re still essentially a box, screen, keyboard and mouse. Laptops were a step forward and now ubiquitous, but that’s about as far as we’ve gone. You could perhaps argue that the tablet was the next step? Although that market is starting to shrink and even Apple are struggling to reinvigorate it.
Now one Finnish startup is threatening to disrupt the desktop for the better. Solu is a portable computer – the size and shape of a coaster (the world’s smallest, they claim) – which could redefine how we interact with and use a PC.
It’s almost entirely cloud-based, accelerating the digital future where nothing is stored locally. Worrying about your hard drive, backups, software and settings is set to truly become a thing of the past, with all of that information stored online. Connectivity isn’t a limiting factor though, Solu synchronises data to the device as soon as your online so you can work offline. It also goes mobile, working not to dissimilar to a tablet on the move, but plugging into any screen to work from when stationary, where the device itself becomes an input similar to a mouse.
It may look like something to put your coffee on, but inside the curved wood box, with an edge-to-edge touch screen, is a powerful 2.3GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB cache capacity, battery and Wi-Fi capability.
With cloud tech becoming so prevalent, Solu have been the first to bite the bullet and produce the first cloud-linked operating system. For those concerned with privacy, rightly so after a spate of high profile hackings, all data stored in SoluCloud is protected with convergent encryption on the device itself. Storage space is essentially unlimited at this point. Solu offers tiered subscription packages to users offering access to apps (without in-app purchases or adverts), terabytes of storage space and 24/7 tech support.
Solu is currently available to pre-order from Kickstarter, from €299, whilst more information can be found on the website.
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