A loaner Neuros LINK ($300) arrived earlier today, and for once I forgive the UPS guy for not hiking up four flights of stairs to make a delivery… The unit is essentially a full-on computer, with the total kit weighing in at about 15lbs.
During the early phase of alpha testing, the Ubuntu Linux system is booting off a 4GB USB stick. The primary function of Neuros LINK is to organize and access web-based video, such as Hulu or Amazon OnDemand. And similar to ZvBox, the main launchpad is essentially a Firefox web browser. While Zv provides a customized build, the Neuros LINK interface is the standard browser running in full screen mode displaying Neuros’ customized site/experience. I haven’t found or tested the browsing functionality yet, but the automatic word complete suggestions via the web search feature is quite nice. I had no problems locating Hulu content and playing it back full screen – both audio and video passed fine from PC to HDTV over HDMI. When not streaming from the web, Linux media center software MythTV is also installed (!) for local and network media playback. I’ll be looking at this unit for a few weeks and providing feedback to the Neuros team, so it’s safe to assume I’ll have more to blog as well. Stay tuned.
11 pictures follow:
Back in the day when my home theater consisted of an overhead projector powered by an HTPC, I’d have really appreciated this wireless keyboard. (Though the Gyration set I ultimately decided on was quite good.) It’s a bit larger than I’d like, but the contoured sides for operating the integrated scroll wheel and “mouse” buttons feel and work great. (I believe Neuros is using all off-the-shelf components, so folks should be able to locate this keyboard to use with any sort of HTPC solution.) Though I wonder if they should also provide a traditional remote control…
