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Intel Planning Thumb-Sized PCs For Next Year

Posted by timothy on from the why-not-all-the-fingers dept.

angry tapir (1463043) writes Intel is shrinking PCs to thumb-sized "compute sticks" that will be out next year. The stick will plug into the back of a smart TV or monitor "and bring intelligence to that," said Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group at Intel, during the Intel investor conference in Santa Clara, California. They might be a bit late to the party, but since Skaugen mentioned both Chromecast and Amazon's Fire TV Stick, hopefully that means Intel has some more interesting and general-purpose plans.

6 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Probably not the same thing at all... by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Chromecast and the Roku thumb sized machines are very specialized hardware that likely won't have the capabilities or flexibility of an Intel variant. They likely not to be in the same class at all.

    If anything, they might be comparable to some generic Android stick and possibly not even that due to the limitations of Android.

    This might be more like a Chromebox.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    1. Re:Probably not the same thing at all... by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It won't matter as THEY ARE ALL DOOMED, at least in the USA...why? Because they ALL require plentiful bandwidth to the cloud and the ISPs are going with ever nastier data caps.

      This is why I'm not worried about these premades competing with my HTPC business, because very customer so far that has tried it has come crawling back to me after they see their Internet bill LOL. With a real HTPC you can rip your own DVDs and BDs onto your media tank and use zero bandwidth, while these sticks will blow through a data cap like shit through a goose.

      Sorry Intel but unless you plan on spending a couple hundred billion rolling out your own national ISP you can give it up, these things just won't have the bandwidth to make them any more than paperweights.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Been there, done that by Stormwatch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, just like any of the countless ARM-based Android mini-PCs that are already out there right now. Except this is quite more expensive.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
    1. Re:Been there, done that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      http://hexus.net/tech/news/systems/76025-intel-bay-trail-powered-hdmi-stick-pc-available-online/

      Just like countless arm-based android mini-PCs.

      Except not Arm based, running intel and you can run most of your normal business and entertainment software on it.

      So not like arm at all.

  3. First World Problems by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Funny

    And here I worry about losing memory sticks because they're so small.
    "Dammit! I left my computer in my pocket and it went through the wash..."

  4. Re:more power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Get a core i5 NUC..
    http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html

    I always liked 'full sized' PC's myself, but the NUC can't be beat for some things, and is more than enough for 90% of all 'normal' computer users.
    Plus..
    When someone is all cranky about having computer issues it is so nice to just walk over to them, pull out this little thing, swap it and just bring their pc back to shop to re-image/repair.