Video

The Snapstick Web Video Box

During my brief visit to the Engadget trailer at CES, Jacob Schulman suggested I track down the Snapstick box. Unfortunately I never managed to find the company, so we’re swiping his hard work instead. Snapstick is currently a prototype set-top device, although a deal’s been inked with D-Link, designed to channel web content onto one’s television. … Read more

What’s Up With The ZaggBox?

Zagg was present at the ShowStoppers CES event Thursday night… sans their yet-to-be-released ZaggBox. The one we took a look last year appeared to have an interesting industrial strength feature set along with possibly industrial prices. Zagg tells me they’ve brought a new person onboard to hit the CEDIA crowd hard to work distribution deals and expect … Read more

Intel Doubles Down on WiDi

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 … Read more

Catching Up With Boxee (iPad, Iomega)

I spent a few minutes catching up with Boxee CEO Avner Ronen this evening. First off, the upcoming Iomega Boxee Box looks much better in person than it does in their press shot – for a rectangular black plastic box, it’s pretty sharp. It’s also larger than I had envisioned. The QWERTY remote seems practical. I … Read more

Two New Vulkano Placeshifters On Tap

Unfortunately, Monsoon Multimedia’s Vulkano wasn’t greeted with the warmest reception upon launch last fall. I was fired up with the Vulkano’s promise when I was briefed pre-release at CES 2010, yet the reality didn’t live up to my possibly unreasonable expectations. I’d christened it a “Godbox” given it’s myriad capabilities – time shifting, placeshifting, local media playback, and Internet-sourced content. But, as we know, good ideas aren’t enough.

But Monsoon’s been listening to the feedback and continuing to broker deals. The firmware has seen improvement and the that work is ongoing. In fact, the Vulkano setup experience continues to be optimized (or is that humanized) and it sounds like streaming, versus copying, of DVR-ed content is under development. YouTube’s pretty lonely as the sole Internet app, yet I hear Monsoon is having discussions with several video providers (the usual suspects) and a selection of Yahoo TV widgets may make an appearance this spring.

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Boxee’s Next Box… is Iomega

I can’t say I’m the biggest Iomega fan. In fact, I’m still bitter years after the Zip disc click of death. Yet, we’ve gots to give them a little attention today as the next Boxee Box. The guts are quite similar to the original D-Link Boxee Box but, as you can clearly see, the design … Read more

Kodak Refreshes Playsport Vid Cam & Pulse Frame

While I imagine Kodak was hopeful of refreshing their semi-ruggedized Playsport Flip-style video camera prior to the holidays, I suppose it’s better late than never? Incidentally, I did exchange emails with Kodak this past fall wondering when/if there might be a new model… as I frequently recommend v1 (Zx3, ~$125) over the various Flip cams. … Read more

Microsoft Set To Take On AppleTV & Roku?

We’re still about 36 hours from Microsoft’s CES keynote. Yet the Seattle Times looks to have stolen a bit of CEO Steve Ballmer’s connected home thunder: Microsoft’s going to make a splash in this market with a stripped-down version of Windows tailored for set-top boxes and connected TVs. The software is a version of its … Read more