Sure, we’ve all seen some pretty tricked-out hardware mods over the years, but this sweet MacBook Pro running Android on ARM hardware deserves some major, major props.
The mod – executed by the crack Cupp team – was made possible by swapping out the optical drive and replacing it with a TI OMAP-based daughter-board module.
“It’s an ARM platform with an x86 CPU that gives [users] the ability to run a desktop OS and a low-power OS such as Chrome OS, Android or Ubuntu. The idea is the ARM based CPU will offer around 20 hours of battery life,” explained Nicole Scott of Netbook News.
“Why I’m totally in love with this is I use my Macbook to edit high definition videos, but when I’m done doing that I only need to surf the web to blog.
“Imagine I’ve just edited a video and have 8 minutes left, with flip of a switch I’d be able to switch onto the ARM CPU tucked away where the optical drive used to be and I suddenly have 2 hours of battery life.”
Unfortunately, it remains unclear when, if ever, the ARM-MacBook mod will hit the market.
Nevertheless, Cupp reps told Netbook News the company would be shipping a number of unspecified products in Q2 and Q4 of 2011.
