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Oakland company creates $9 computer

Published  July 17, 2015 8:55pm MST
Special Reports
FOX 10 Phoenix

An Oakland company has created a computer they're selling for $9.

They call themselves nine guys in a garage. If you investigate a little further it's really eight guys and a gal but you get the idea.

The nine people have created a $9 computer that's getting worldwide attention. The company is called Next Thing Co.

Richard Reininger, who works at the company, says all the attention has come as a bit of a surprise. "The media attention the articles the tweets have just exploded," he said.

It started when the two-year-old company went on Kickstarter and asked for money. They were hoping to get $50,000, and they did in just about six hours. They are now at more than $1.5 million.

The computer is called Chip. It's small and was originally meant for a camera that they had designed. They had been looking for a cheaper way to create the camera and that's how Chip was born.

Chip has a USB port for your keyboard and mouse and a micro USB for the charger. You can plug in headphones and connect it to your TV and the board also has Bluetooth and wireless.

(That) "means just this thing alone can provide a full computer experience just by connecting it to the things you have in your home," said Thomas Deckert, Next Thing Co. co-founder

They also created what's called Pocket Chip.

Deckert says, "Pocket Chip uses the same computer it fits inside but what we've added is a colored touch screen and keypad and battery."

But the company says they don't want to tell people what to do with Chip. They just hope that Chip allows other inventors to create more without the high cost of a more expensive computer.

"People want to build robots and quad copters and someone wants to do video graffiti and set it up on the monitor and someone wants to open a weather station module," says Reininger.

The Kickstarter campaign ends June 6.