Hardware
The Webplayer is basically a compact x86 Computer and was manufactured by Acer beneath contract by Boundless Technologies and is also known as the Boundless iBrow. Input came through an infrared keyboard with an integrated trackball, and the webplayer came with a modem for connecting to the World wide web.
The Webplayer is powered by a 200 MHz Geode GXLV-200 CPU, 64 MB of SO-DIMM RAM, and a 48 MB M-Systems Disk-On-Chip 2000 for storage. It included two USB ports and contained a Mini PCI Kind IIIB slot and 44-pin IDE header inside. CompactFlash, VGA, and PS/2 keyboard and mouse headers are present on the motherboard, but the physical connector is not included.
Hacking
Soon after the demise of official help, the Webplayer drew the attention of laptop or computer enthusiasts. A grassroots Co-Op effort was produced to obtain a lot of Webplayers from a liquidator, with over 50 members signing up. Ultimately, the units had been shipped out at every single and the hacking began.
The Virgin operating system was locked to dial into Virgin On-line, but a password-protected setup screen was obtainable. A user found the scheme and designed a utility to guess the rotating password often sufficient to allow an owner to reprogram the device to call into any ISP. Even so, the expertise of utilizing the Virgin OS was not what users wanted, so a lot more critical hacking attempts speedily began.
Given that the Webplayer is architecturally similar to a typical x86 Pc and included an IDE header, initial attention was focused on accessing the password-protected technique BIOS. An insider leaked the password (“schwasck”) and the device was swiftly converted into a complete-fledged Computer. Users could basically buy a 44-pin IDE cable and challenging disk drive and run any Pc-compatible operating technique.
The next efforts integrated creating a version of Microsoft Windows that would fit in the 48 MB Disk-On-Chip device. This was speedily achieved, with a version of 98lite widely distributed. Attempts to develop a specialized Linux distribution were much less profitable, since the Webplayer included specialized graphics hardware which was not well-supported at the time.
Users ultimately turned to the Mini-PCI slot, adding Ethernet and 802.11 adapters created for notebooks. These proved far more dependable than the initially-used USB Ethernet adapters, as the Webplayer’s USB hardware was not completely stable.
Other popular modifications included growing the technique RAM (it employed a normal 144-pin PC100 SO-DIMM) and overclocking the CPU. Some users modified the Webplayer case to accept a built-in CD-ROM drive, Ethernet ports, and Wi-Fi antennas.
Concerns
The Webplayer hardware proved to have a handful of stability troubles:
The USB ports are somewhat unreliable with Ethernet adapters, even though they seem to perform nicely with storage and input devices
The audio method will distort unless the Line-In is muted
The display adapter is not well-supported and its VGA modes are incomplete
The ACPI/APM BIOS does not function well, with suspend and resume problems widespread
See also
Web appliance
i-Opener
3Com Audrey
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Virgin Webplayer
“Virgin Webplayer Hack”. dougpile.com. http://dougpile.com/computer/webplayer/webplayer.html. Retrieved April 20, 2006.
“Hacking the Virgin Webplayer”. larwe.com. http://www.larwe.com/technical/webplayer_main.html. Retrieved April 20, 2006.
Categories: Acer items | Data appliances | Virgin Group
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