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XBMC Ported To Android
New submitter TheUni writes with news that XBMC has been announced for Android. Quoting:
"Not a remote, not a thin client; the real deal. No root or jailbreak required. XBMC can be launched as an application on your set-top-box, tablet, phone, or wherever else Android may be found. The feature-set on Android is the same that you have come to expect from XBMC, no different from its cousin on the desktop. Running your favorite media-center software on small, cheap, embedded hardware is about to become a hassle-free reality. And as Android-based set-top-boxes are becoming more and more ubiquitous, it couldn't be a better time. ... We will begin releasing apks for interested beta testers in the coming weeks. But for those who are up to the task, as you would expect from XBMC, the source code is available. We have decided not to push to Google Play until we are satisfied that users with all kinds of devices get the same great XBMC experience."
XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media.
$300 for something that could be done for less than $75 with a Pi (which includes case/ps/cables)? Or an old Linux box lying around? Or a used Xbox for $50? For $300, I could put together a complete microATX system with tons of storage and CPU.
Sorry, I don't see the "Q" fitting into the picture for most people. At least those looking at the price tag. If it were $150, that would change the equation considerably.
You could always just donate to the project.
http://xbmc.org/contribute/donate/
The article also does not explain what Android is, or what jailbreaking is, or what source code is.... If you don't know these things already, it either doesn't matter for you, or you should go Google them.
And for the record, it says right in the summary that XBMC is "your favorite media-center software." Seems pretty obvious that it's software that allows you to organize and watch all of your digital media.
Most folks probably already know as it was one of the things recently announced at the Google I/O conference. However, you are right - if you didn't hear about it already you aren't going to be able to find it without more context than just "the Q" (you could find some pictures of John de Lancie with that search though). Anyway, what they meant was this:
http://www.google.com/nexus/#/q
I have to think that while something like Plex would be better for a lot of people, XBMC still gets used on name recognition alone. If you have more than one device that you watch media on (TVs, Roku, tablets, phones, whatever) why wouldn't you want a central server managing the library, downloading metadata, saving watched flags, holding resume times, and serving up video to the devices? I turned a friend on to Plex from XBMC and he's amazed at how often he stops watching in one room and resumes in another. I love it too. I can't count the times that I've started watching something on the iPad in the kitchen while cleaning up and then going into the bedroom to finish on the TV. That's a way bigger feature to me than getting "the real deal" running everywhere I need it.
The people above wanting this for Google TV...check out Plex, it may be exactly what you're looking for.
Sorry to not gush for XBMC, I know it's the best solution for many people and I truly appreciate the heritage and the fact that it's the foundation for Plex, but until they have a centralized server (if ever), I can't even consider it for myself. And no I'm not going to jump through hoops to get it.
Indeed, and for anyone who is wondering what Vahokif is talking about, I have tried using XBMC on a raspberry pi, and while it isn't awful, it also isn't a great experience.
Problems that can be solved:
* I'm using OpenELEC and it has a fixed root password! Seriously, in this day and age.
* I was amazed to find that there is something called CEC that lets you use your TV's remote to control XBMC. Unfortunately the CEC daemon runs as a separate process and controls XBMC through its web interface, which you cannot set a password on (if you want CEC to work)! Not exactly secure.
Problems that can't be fixed:
* Mainly, it's very slow. XBMC was obviously designed to run on hardware that is 2-3 times more powerful.
* Not enough USB power to run an external hard disk.
* No mounting holes on the PCB. I mean, I understand not providing a case, but it doesn't exactly make it easy to build our own.
its the Pivos AIOS DS. Pivos sponsored and supported the android port.