Hasta La Gadget!

See, sometimes dreams do come true. Just days after we asked how you’d tweak the second generation Apple TV, in flies an update that a good many TV owners have been anxiously awaiting. The 4.1.1 update purportedly solves “an issue that causes some high-definition TVs to incorrectly display at 480p,” as well as an issue that “may cause a movie or TV show to be re-downloaded.” It’s pretty obvious that Apple’s aiming to correct a nagging color / banding problem that has been plaguing some owners since day one, but according to users over at Apple Insider‘s forums, it’s not a cure-all solution. A handful of members have stated that their sets — typically using an HDMI-to-DVI adapter — still display incorrect colors after the update. Flip on your own box and get the download started, and let us know if it’s the fix you’ve been after down in comments below.

Apple TV updated to 4.1.1, aims to fix resolution and download problems originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2010 may arguably be the year of the tablet, but darn if media streamers aren’t breathing down their neck. This year, we’ve seen an explosion in the quantity and quality of media streamer options, with even the mighty Google buying in via its Google TV solution. One of the earlier birds, Roku, decided to dole out an updated box just a few months ago, and now it’s competing against the Apple TV, a few WD TV Live units, D-Link’s Boxee Box and scores of integrated options within HDTVs. At $99, there’s an awful lot of choices on the market, but we’re curious to know how XDS early adopters would tweak and / or overhaul things if given the golden opportunity. Would you change the exterior at all? How about the user interface? Add any content partners? How’s the remote control situation treating you? Think of comments below like you would an AA meeting — speak your heart and wait for nods. We’re all one in this brainstorming bubble.

How would you change Roku’s XDS media streamer? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 23:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Theoretically, Boxee is like a cheaper Google TV that can play back every file type imaginable, as well as stream internet videos through its browser + Flash player setup. In reality, it only does one of those things well. More »

Your Apple TVs and your Google TVs hold a lot of potential, but their limited access to content freely available to any ‘ol PC and Mac is what you’d call a bit of a problem. The latest product from Orb fixes that by being a simple media streamer, relying on a computer elsewhere on the network to pull that content locally before turning around and pumping it back out to the company’s new Orb TV coaster, which in turn displays it on your actual TV. Since the content is hitting the computer first (the “Orb Caster”) Hulu is available on-tap, but somewhere along the way support for HD video quality goes out the window: this thing maxes out at VGA. Sure, you can already do this with your TVersity’s and the like, but the Orb TV is a lot smaller than your average media extender hardware, has a very handy remote control app for iPhones and Androids, and kindly will support multiple Orb devices on the same network. Best of all? It’s shipping right now, so make with the clicking and get your Gleek on.

Update: We’re being told the Android app is available now as well.

Orb TV is the $99 video streamer that will do Netflix and Hulu, but not HD originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hard to say if it’s too little, too late, but one thing’s for darn sure — Acer definitely has a lot of competition to shake off if it wants this Aspire RevoView to truly succeed. Announced originally way back in May, this here network media streamer is just now gaining an image, price and release date. It’s able to fetch content from USB hard drives, an internal 3.5-inch HDD, a memory card slot or the world wide web, but the latter seems contained to just YouTube, Picasa and Flickr for the time being. It’ll push things out via an HDMI socket on the rear, and the bundled remote will keep your keister firmly planted while it’s in operation. No word on whether or not this fellow will ever leave the confines of the UK, but it’ll go on sale there next week for £119.99 ($193).

Continue reading Acer Aspire RevoView network media streamer ships this month in the UK

Acer Aspire RevoView network media streamer ships this month in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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