It takes an awful lot of of confidence for an up-and-coming company to introduce a media player in a market chock-full of ravenous brand name companies. This is especially the case when the brand names are lowering the price of their best gadgets to compete in the tough economy.
But Verismo Networks is eager to compete with its new VuNow pod.
The VuNow is a hand-sized set-top box with a familiar UI that picks out channels across the net and sends them straight to your TV. The channels include one solely for YouTube content, another for CinemaNow, a BitTorrent codec option (yeah!), and a "Global’ select channel that takes in choice clips from around the world.
VuNow’s Pod comes in a high-definition version priced at $150, and a standard definition at $100, which is quite a nice price for the service, though we see no reason why we would want the non-HD.
The user interface is apparently quite easy to navigate, but there’s an explanation for that. It is clearly modeled on that of the Apple TV, as menu browsing is performed quickly in a few steps. It also comes with a necessary video search engine, it’s wireless (though it does have an HDMI port), and requires no subscription fees, which would present quite a problem for the BitTorrent.
In order to use the pod as a streamer for your personal media on a PC, the pod needs to be used with a Windows OS (XP, SP2, or Vista), and is also compliant with NAS(ty) devices. The VuNow pod is available now and we’ll try to get out hands on it over the next month for a full review.
See also:
- Hulu Competitor Sling.com Launches Public Beta
- Vudu Reveals Open-Source RIA Platform, But is it Enough to Survive Heavy Competition?
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