Hasta La Gadget!

After teasing us with its cool hardware and even cooler name last spring, Swedish TV maker People of Lava has now launched what it claims is the world’s first Android-powered TV — that is if you don’t count Korea’s Smartroi TV running Android 1.5. Its top-of-the-line 55-inch models cost a wallet-singeing 40,000 Swedish Krona (or roughly $5,820) and ship with Android 1.5 along with widgets for Google Chrome, Facebook, YouTube and Google Maps. They also have access to an app store which currently only includes 20 titles, but could grow to more than 1,000 by the end of the year — since according to marketing director Martin Ljunggren, the store should import any app now in the Android Market that’s scalable to a TV screen. That’s a feat we’re curious to see given Android’s difficultly scaling apps even to tablet screens — but hey, what do we know? In terms of sales, People of Lava hopes to move $29 million dollars worth of Scandinavia units in 2011, in both Sweden and niche US and UK markets. Overall that’s great news for the tech savvy well-to-do, but considering Mountain Vew’s focus on Google TV, we’re not sure how long these Android TVs will be around.

People of Lava launches Scandinavia Android TV, melts home theater hearts and wallets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh iFixit. The site gets its kicks by tearing apart the coolest new gadgets before most of us even get a chance to look at them. The D-Link-designed set top box is just beginning to ship today, and the site has already splayed its guts out for all the world to see.

There’s nothing too revelatory here about the innards of the $199 streaming media device. iFixit gives the device a seven out of 10, in terms of reparability. The box also gets high marks in terms of build quality,

[W]e feel that the Box has build quality that rivals Apple’s, and is much more solid-looking than the Revue. The front panel is made of glass sturdy plastic and displays a Boxee logo once you power on the device.

As for the size of the device–iFixit doesn’t think you should be put off by that. “The Boxee Box looks huge when compared to the Apple TV, but it’s really not that cumbersome in real life — the Apple TV is just teeny tiny.”

You can see some more alien autopsy-style shots over at iFixit’s site.

If you’re one of the folks who pre-ordered the Boxee Box (check out our unboxing pics at PCMag.com) and wondered when you’d ever actually see your new set-top wonder, you can exhale now. Boxee and D-Link have announced that the Boxee Box will start shipping on November 10th for the people who already have pre-orders in at Amazon.com. If you didn’t get a pre-order in, there’s still time to place one, but the companies also said today that you’ll be able to pick up the Boxee Box through regular retail channels, including online and brick-and-mortar stores, beginning November 17th.

For those unfamiliar with the Boxee Box, the set-top unit fits in the palm of your hand and can delivery 1080p HD video to your TV both from networked media sources and streaming from the Internet (if the stream is HD, of course.) The partnership between Boxee and D-Link was announced in January at CES, with D-Link making the hardware and Boxee perfecting the software, which is already available as a free media center suite that can be installed over Windows, Mac OS, and Ubuntu Linux.
 

Western Digital’s got a few different media streamers to its name, but the only one with sizable internal storage was the pared-down Elements Play. No more, because the AVS Forums have stumbled upon a feature-packed alternative — the WD TV Live Hub. Purchased at a Best Buy before the blue shirts realized their mistake, the slim new set-top comes with 1TB of storage, 1080p playback over HDMI 1.4, component and composite video out, optical S/PDIF, and all the internet connectivity you’d expect (including Netflix, Blockbuster, Pandora, YouTube and Facebook) over speedy gigabit ethernet. We don’t know how robust the network-attached-storage functionality is, but the lucky owner of this box says it serves up iTunes and DLNA and can function as a network share, just like the My Book Live. Not too shabby for $229, eh? Find plenty more pics and a list of supported formats at our source link.

[Thanks, Arjun]

WD Live TV Hub media streamer / NAS leaks out of Best Buy with gigabit ethernet, 1TB hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve been waiting, and it’s finally here: the Apple TV review. Months before Steve Jobs announced the new set top box at Apple’s annual fall event, we had been reporting on news that the company would strike out again into the TV market, offering a small, low-cost box that had more in common with the iPhone than the iMac. When those rumors came to fruition, we were presented with the completely revamped Apple TV — a tiny black puck of a device priced at a staggering $99, and centered around a handful of completely new ideas (for the folks in Cupertino at least) about getting content onto your TV screen. The first is a new rental system which allows you to nab brand new TV shows at $0.99 a rental, and HD movies for $4.99 a go (or $3.99 for older titles). And that includes new releases the same day DVDs hit shelves (or Netflix distribution centers). Speaking of Netflix, the new Apple TV also features the rental service’s “Watch Instantly” as a wholly integrated component of its offerings, alongside a new function the company calls AirPlay which will allow you to “push” video and audio content from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch with the tap of a button. On top of that, the new ATV streamlines sharing from your home computers or laptops, making getting content you own onto your TV dead simple. So, has Apple finally solved the “second box” problem, or are they still struggling to turn this hobby into a real business? Follow along after the break for those answers (and more) in our full review of the Apple TV!

Continue reading Apple TV review (2010)

Apple TV review (2010) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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