Hasta La Gadget!

You can thank the WiFi alliance for a number of things, and soon you can add TDLS to that list. That’s Tunneled Direct Link Setup, if you were wondering, and it’s a standard for creating direct links between devices. If this sounds familiar, that’s understandable, but TDLS has its own tricks, like working in the background of a network to optimize performance, and it can even work over a WiFi Direct connection. For example two compliant devices can measure the signal strength on the network, and determine if a direct link would be better or not. TDLS also allows devices to communicate at the fastest standard available (802.11b / g / n etc.) even if this is superior to that available on the rest of your hardware. As this is a client-based protocol, you won’t need to upgrade your access point either. If this hasn’t got implications for better media streaming written all over it, we don’t know what has. Especially as the certification is available to TVs, tablets, phones, cameras and gaming devices. There’s only a handful of test products sporting the official approval at this time, but with names such as Broadcom, Marvell and Realtek in the mix, it shouldn’t be long before it starts finding its way into front rooms and pockets proper.

Continue reading WiFi alliance begins Tunneled Direct Link Setup certification, hopes to improve media streaming

Filed under: Wireless, Internet

WiFi alliance begins Tunneled Direct Link Setup certification, hopes to improve media streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink InfoWorld  |   | Email this | Comments

OUYA, the Android-based gaming console, has secured yet another high-profile app. The team behind the console has courted the XBMC development team, promising that early prototypes will be delivered that should enable XBMC to run on the platform smoothly and without any issues. According to the OUYA Kickstarter page, the team behind OUYA fully support XBMC, with “nearly a third” of the XBMC development team having backed the “open” console.

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise: the console is running Android after all, so anything that works on Android will work on OUYA without much issue, but it’s good to see that the experience will be customized for the OUYA interface as well as the specific hardware. OUYA has managed to promised backers that they’ll see a wealth of games, with this latest announcement covering the entertainment and media side of the equation.

In addition to the promise of XBMC support, OUYA has added radio support via a partnership with TuneIn. The service allows users to listen in on free radio stations across the world, plus on-demand content. The network is said to cover 70,000 stations and two million on-demand programs across 230 countries.

As of writing, there are 39 hours left until the Kickstarter project has finished. So far 52,173 members have backed the project, with OUYA accumulating over $6.9 million in funding. Backers will receive a small Android-based console with a customized interface and wireless hardware controller, all running on an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor for $99. The streaming game company OnLive will support OUYA at launch, and Square Enix has promised a Final Fantasy III port among other games.

[via The Verge]

OUYA promises XBMC support is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

…And the Nexus Q is official. Google’s first consumer electronics product is a small, sphere-shaped device that will work with the Nexus 7 tablet and other Android devices to stream media from the cloud. It’s designed to hold court in your living room, pulling content from YouTube and the Google Play music app, among other services, to let you stream music and video. Anyone with an Android device will be able to take control of the Q to play content from their library; basically, everyone can be the DJ. What’s more, the device can double as an amplifier, letting users plug in external speakers to receiver power from the Q’s 25-watt amp.

Under the hood, there’s an OMAP 4460 processor — the same as in the Galaxy Nexus — along with 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. There’s also dual-band WiFi and Ethernet, along with Bluetooth and NFC for tapping a device to the Q to exchange software and media. The media streamer will go on sale for $299 in mid-July. As we mentioned before, Google will also sell a set of $399 Triad bookshelf speakers to go with the Q. More coverage to follow — in the meantime, check out Google’s videos about the new product.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s opening keynote at our event hub!

Update: Excuse the dyslexic typo. The Nexus Q is powered by an OMAP 4460 CPU.

Continue reading Google Nexus Q lets Android owners stream media from the cloud, shipping for $299 in mid-July

Google Nexus Q lets Android owners stream media from the cloud, shipping for $299 in mid-July originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments