Intel’s doubled down on their Wireless Display technology, aka WiDi. And while last year they had a single partner in Netgear, v2 will be offered by a variety of hardware manufacturers including Toshiba and D-Link.
The WiDi premise is simple: stream anything/everything from your computer display to a television. Of course, this isn’t a new phenomenon and we’ve seen a number of similar devices over the years… that have been largely met with consumer indifference. But the landscape, she is a’changing, given the increase of quality online content and our own personal collections of media (thank you, Flip and cellphone cameras).
The new WiDi adapters (that is Netgear’s above) feature dual band wireless capabilities and can receive up to 1080p content. However, Intel has continued to lock the device down to their own Core processors (’10 and ’11 editions) running Windows. Additionally, the rep I spoke with saw absolutely no need for remote control functionality… which was a bit disheartening. Instead of mirroring my laptop display (that sits on my lap) to my television, I’d much rather have a bundled physical remote and/or touchpad and leave the laptop (or desktop!) elsewhere in the home.
The new WiDi devices are expected later this year a similar price point to the lone Netgear model of 2010 – which ran $80 – $120 when not bundled with a new laptop. However, for a more hardware and OS agnostic experience, I’d say take a look at the Veebeam. Pricing is similar, but this is their sole machine so it behooves them to get it right. Plus, the device has a bit more personality.
Yeah, continue to be uninterested in this until it opens up. If I happen to buy a new laptop with it included, great. But I bought a new laptop last year and it didn’t include it, and I’m likely not buying another for a while. A software implementation would obviously work, but we can’t expect that from Intel. And the alternatives like Apple’s AirPlay are so far locked down so can’t be used for projecting things like Hulu to your TV. Probably still sitting on my hands for the moment.