I have some of these Android sticks. They are not so dead simple to use as Chromecast. The controllers universally suck. I'm actually using a Chromecast on an old Samsung LED monitor right now and it works great! Instead of getting TV's I can just get monitors now. I'm going to check out my local surplus shack where monitors can be had for $50. Might have to get a DVI female to HDMI male adapter. If I can put that together we might be getting a lot of Chromecast devices. If they open the spec wide, this might be a low-rent video wall sort of thing for my Linux PC. Unlimited displays would be way cool.
Well, to be honest, you don't. You could just buy one of the many models available at retail. And then your Chromecast could stream your home movies directly from your local media library in FullHD, you could watch all your media on any device that supports the codec even if it can't browse the network and local files, like an iThing. But if you don't have one of those NASflingers, any PC (or any number of PCs of any capacity) can be set up to do the same thing at no additional cost to you.
And then this thing would have the feature you seem to desire - with no additional outlay of cash. Considering the net benefit that is quite remarkable.
Yes, you can play local video. At least some of it. A not-strictly-speaking legitimate copy of Black Mirror in MKV file format played magnificently on our television when we dropped it in a Chrome browser window.
Likewise, if you’re running it in a browser, Amazon Instant video, Hulu, Rdio, and HBO Go all just work. As did video from Wired, Gawker media, and Flickr slideshows. We ran photos from Facebook fullscreen. We watched a live Flash stream of a Braves game on an extremely shady bootleg site that spawned approximately a gazillion Chrome windows in the background.
6 years on and obviously not Winning, but you're going to keep banging that drum, aren't you? Couldn't stop Android from getting top dog with this story, but still trying to find some fool to influence with it.
Why don't we talk about Windows fragmentation, and all of the devices and apps left behind each version, how even Microsoft doesn't even support their own older OS with their apps and so fragments their own installed base? Or maybe Windows Phone, where 7.x apps don't even run on 8.x?
The Roku is not a tablet. It's a streaming set top box. To set up Chromecast and control it you can use an Android device, iOS device, a Mac, a Chromebook, or a PC. If you don't have one of those you are really not likely to be the sort of person who would be interested in this kind of thing. You would also be fairly rare - in the US anyway. I have a variety of these Android Stick PCs and the Roku and the controls are pretty bad on them. I have long wanted just to use my phone or tablets and now I can. Nice. That my kids can use their cheapo Chinese Android tabs as a controller is awesome - you can get those for $50, which is not much more than the cost of a universal remote control.
Maybe they can get streaming gaming going on the thing, using the surface of my Android devices for inputs and secondary display and the bigscreen for audio and main content. That would totally rock. Or stream the display for Google Docs to the TV but use my other device for inputs. I wonder if it can tether to my phone's wifi and share LTE... That would be cool for conference rooms and hotel rooms. But that is later on. You wouldn't expect them to launch that on the first day.
If you have the 4-stream plan that's 3x$11.99 = $35.97. It's yours for less than the cost of shipping.
Yes, bluray player and Smart TV interfaces and apps leave much to be desired. There just isn't a lot of money for processor hardware in a Bluray player and smartTVs could afford to put a decent processor in there but for some reason they don't.
If you're running AV then the fraction of expense committed to defense has to be at least 50% of your desktop IT spend because that's how much of a PC's capacity modern AV takes - even though it doesn't work.
Specifically: the human exec who has to stand up and say that hundreds of tablet "design wins" are going to totally kick the iPad's ass would probably rather you did that with an animatronic pseudorep so his future career prospects are not impaired.
You know what would be even cooler? A monthly AI bot that took all of the hot memes in tech and applied them to "prospective Intel tech" that may or not ever appear. That would probably save Intel a billion dollars a year in marketing expense over having it done manually. Seriously Intel, if you're going to do this year after year after year, you may as well automate it and save some money. You're all about automating repetitive stuff, right?
It could enumerate monthly the latest convincing reasons why your latest mobile tech is going to take over the Woooooorld, just like we've been hearing for the last decade. But without the expense of employing actual artists to draw pictures of "this is what an Intel-based mobile world might look like."
If you want a device that is small, portable and convenient there are iPads and Android tablets now. If you want to write a book, a clamshell notebook is better. Netbooks took off at $250-$350 because laptops were $800-$1200 back then. Now that the laptop price is closer or less there is no reason to buy a netbook unless you actually need the small form factor, which most don't. Laptop manufacturers had kittens and decided they needed to drive notebook prices to netbook levels. This did kill the netbook. And the OEMs too.
That's being resolved. Apparently by revenue 90% of games are on Steam, and Steam is cross-platform now because W8 App store doesn't allow Steam, and GabeN is not a moron.
Cafés have power outlets. I used to run a café. If you were a regular enough to be writing a book there you would have a dedicated table and free coffee. This actually happened several times and we considered the author part of the decor that made us special. Having an author pounding the keys in your café is better than Muzak. Maybe you're hanging out in the wrong sort of café. Starbucks? Try going to a place that isn't a global chain.
Further on they say global losses are "probably" in the "range" of $300 billion.
These are the losses - data loss, the costs of identity theft and notification. If you want to count the cost of the Windows malware ecosystem you have to include both the losses and the cost of defense. That's all the costs of data losses, the entire revenues of all antivirus, firewall, next-gen endpoint sofware companies including the (now Intel) McAffee. These things cost money, and without the Windows monoculture they could not persist.
I have long said that the cost of the Windows malware ecosystem far exceeds Microsoft's own revenues. This is proof. The cure is easy: Don't run Windows. You can choose to not have this problem. You can opt out. Google did. If someday your choice of other OS becomes also so infested because it has become too popular and its developers lose track of security you can choose another. The OS isn't really that important anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
We don't have enough carbon to do this.
Conditions are more favorable on the Piazzi plains.
Oh. Never mind then. Definitely for hackable ARM platforms there are plenty better to choose from.
I have some of these Android sticks. They are not so dead simple to use as Chromecast. The controllers universally suck. I'm actually using a Chromecast on an old Samsung LED monitor right now and it works great! Instead of getting TV's I can just get monitors now. I'm going to check out my local surplus shack where monitors can be had for $50. Might have to get a DVI female to HDMI male adapter. If I can put that together we might be getting a lot of Chromecast devices. If they open the spec wide, this might be a low-rent video wall sort of thing for my Linux PC. Unlimited displays would be way cool.
IBM contracted Microsoft to do the update to OS/2 and that was the end of that.
Well, to be honest, you don't. You could just buy one of the many models available at retail. And then your Chromecast could stream your home movies directly from your local media library in FullHD, you could watch all your media on any device that supports the codec even if it can't browse the network and local files, like an iThing. But if you don't have one of those NASflingers, any PC (or any number of PCs of any capacity) can be set up to do the same thing at no additional cost to you.
And then this thing would have the feature you seem to desire - with no additional outlay of cash. Considering the net benefit that is quite remarkable.
Do you not know how to set up a webserver to stream your library from your local share?
From Wired's Dongle Style review:
Yes, you can play local video. At least some of it. A not-strictly-speaking legitimate copy of Black Mirror in MKV file format played magnificently on our television when we dropped it in a Chrome browser window.
Likewise, if you’re running it in a browser, Amazon Instant video, Hulu, Rdio, and HBO Go all just work. As did video from Wired, Gawker media, and Flickr slideshows. We ran photos from Facebook fullscreen. We watched a live Flash stream of a Braves game on an extremely shady bootleg site that spawned approximately a gazillion Chrome windows in the background.
Good luck getting one though.
Read up on Sendo. There aren't that many steps.
It takes up most of the storage on the device.
6 years on and obviously not Winning, but you're going to keep banging that drum, aren't you? Couldn't stop Android from getting top dog with this story, but still trying to find some fool to influence with it. Why don't we talk about Windows fragmentation, and all of the devices and apps left behind each version, how even Microsoft doesn't even support their own older OS with their apps and so fragments their own installed base? Or maybe Windows Phone, where 7.x apps don't even run on 8.x?
Congratulations. You bought the pinnacle of modern technology and then deliberately crippled it.
Oh, shit. We screwed up sooo bad. Somebody, anybody - throw us a bone here!
I'm going to have to figure out how many of my LCD monitors with HDMI support audio over HDMI.
The Roku is not a tablet. It's a streaming set top box. To set up Chromecast and control it you can use an Android device, iOS device, a Mac, a Chromebook, or a PC. If you don't have one of those you are really not likely to be the sort of person who would be interested in this kind of thing. You would also be fairly rare - in the US anyway. I have a variety of these Android Stick PCs and the Roku and the controls are pretty bad on them. I have long wanted just to use my phone or tablets and now I can. Nice. That my kids can use their cheapo Chinese Android tabs as a controller is awesome - you can get those for $50, which is not much more than the cost of a universal remote control.
Maybe they can get streaming gaming going on the thing, using the surface of my Android devices for inputs and secondary display and the bigscreen for audio and main content. That would totally rock. Or stream the display for Google Docs to the TV but use my other device for inputs. I wonder if it can tether to my phone's wifi and share LTE... That would be cool for conference rooms and hotel rooms. But that is later on. You wouldn't expect them to launch that on the first day.
If you have the 4-stream plan that's 3x$11.99 = $35.97. It's yours for less than the cost of shipping.
Yes, bluray player and Smart TV interfaces and apps leave much to be desired. There just isn't a lot of money for processor hardware in a Bluray player and smartTVs could afford to put a decent processor in there but for some reason they don't.
Nexus devices don't have sd slots because Google doesn't want Microsoft making any more money off them. SD requires an exFAT licence.
My 5 year old controls the Roku with her Android tablet. I think you are seriously underestimating people here.
If you're running AV then the fraction of expense committed to defense has to be at least 50% of your desktop IT spend because that's how much of a PC's capacity modern AV takes - even though it doesn't work.
Specifically: the human exec who has to stand up and say that hundreds of tablet "design wins" are going to totally kick the iPad's ass would probably rather you did that with an animatronic pseudorep so his future career prospects are not impaired.
You know what would be even cooler? A monthly AI bot that took all of the hot memes in tech and applied them to "prospective Intel tech" that may or not ever appear. That would probably save Intel a billion dollars a year in marketing expense over having it done manually. Seriously Intel, if you're going to do this year after year after year, you may as well automate it and save some money. You're all about automating repetitive stuff, right?
It could enumerate monthly the latest convincing reasons why your latest mobile tech is going to take over the Woooooorld, just like we've been hearing for the last decade. But without the expense of employing actual artists to draw pictures of "this is what an Intel-based mobile world might look like."
If you want a device that is small, portable and convenient there are iPads and Android tablets now. If you want to write a book, a clamshell notebook is better. Netbooks took off at $250-$350 because laptops were $800-$1200 back then. Now that the laptop price is closer or less there is no reason to buy a netbook unless you actually need the small form factor, which most don't. Laptop manufacturers had kittens and decided they needed to drive notebook prices to netbook levels. This did kill the netbook. And the OEMs too.
That's being resolved. Apparently by revenue 90% of games are on Steam, and Steam is cross-platform now because W8 App store doesn't allow Steam, and GabeN is not a moron.
Cafés have power outlets. I used to run a café. If you were a regular enough to be writing a book there you would have a dedicated table and free coffee. This actually happened several times and we considered the author part of the decor that made us special. Having an author pounding the keys in your café is better than Muzak. Maybe you're hanging out in the wrong sort of café. Starbucks? Try going to a place that isn't a global chain.
Further on they say global losses are "probably" in the "range" of $300 billion.
These are the losses - data loss, the costs of identity theft and notification. If you want to count the cost of the Windows malware ecosystem you have to include both the losses and the cost of defense. That's all the costs of data losses, the entire revenues of all antivirus, firewall, next-gen endpoint sofware companies including the (now Intel) McAffee. These things cost money, and without the Windows monoculture they could not persist.
I have long said that the cost of the Windows malware ecosystem far exceeds Microsoft's own revenues. This is proof. The cure is easy: Don't run Windows. You can choose to not have this problem. You can opt out. Google did. If someday your choice of other OS becomes also so infested because it has become too popular and its developers lose track of security you can choose another. The OS isn't really that important anyway.