Intel's Linux Based Home Media Gateway

An anonymous reader writes "This article at LinuxDevices.com takes a look at a new 'home media gateway' design that was unveiled today by Intel at the Intel Developer Forum in San Jose, CA. The device is expected to be manufactured by multiple consumer electronics manufacturers in Asia, and will enable the distribution of PC digital media to TVs and stereos throughout the home. The gadget is based on one of Intel's new XScale processors running a customized version of Linux, provides support for JPEG, MP3, and WMA digital content, utilizes 802.11b wireless networking, and supports NTSC/PAL/S-video TV connections and AC-97 stereo connection. The home media adapter is a key component of Intel's 'Extended Wireless PC Initiative', which is part of Intel's greater Digital Home initiative."

Comments

Re:whats the real feature?

[KelsoLundeen]

Yeah, but you know you've got the mojo crackerjack when you're a geek in a studio apartment -- and you have a a Murphy bed.

That said, I have to wonder if Bill Gates (for once) was right when he suggested several years ago that "media convergence" isn't really a thing that people want. People want to compute on computers, watch TV on a television, and watch movies in a movie theater. Converging the three into the single PC -- or the PC breakout box hooked up to a PC -- is nifty and very George Jetson-like (and who can forget his boy Elroy spiralling down from the old man's hoverbug in a mini-hoverbug of his very own?) -- but it seems that technology (in this case and others [palladium and MS's MediaPC's especially) is thinking too far ahead for its own good.

Watching TV on a computer is (for me, at least) much like reading e-books on a palm or an Ipaq or on the computer screen in a library -- it gets the job done, yes, but it's not very enjoyable. (I'm trying to figure out why the only ebooks I'm able read at any length are non-fiction. I can't, for example, bring myself to read fiction electronically. It seems, well, not right. And not comfortable. Yet I can sit on my little ragged sofa -- feet up, trusty Bawls soda beside me -- and can read deadtree fiction until the cows come home. But that's another story for another day ...)