Tag Archives: set-top-box

A Slimmer, Smart Set-Top Box

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If your TV set-top box is going to sit there in plain sight, it might as well do more work for you! That’s the idea behind the Smart TV Box. Slimmer and sleeker, it takes up less space than the average box and is less intrusive on your aesthetic. The top serves as a charging station for the remote control. If you misplace the remote, simply press a single button on the unit to locate it! In addition, the front of the unit also displays useful information such as the time, weather conditions, and more!

Designer: Zhang Yinlei

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NVIDIA’s Shield Set-Top Box Sets Gaming Consoles on Fire

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The graphics card manufacturer has just unveiled at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco the next member of the Shield family: a set-top box that focuses on gaming.

SF’s GDN 2015 may not be the best scheduled event in the world, since it takes place at the same time as the Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any launches there worth reporting. The NVIDIA Shield set-top box carries a price tag of $200, which really may seem a lot for an Android TV-powered device. However, Jen-Hsun Huang emphasized at the press conference that included the launch of the product that the Shield set-top box brings together “revolutionary TV,” a “gaming console” and a “supercomputer.” Well, my other computer is a Cray, so I’m curious of what’s under the hood of this innovative thing.

Touted as the “world’s first 4K Android TV,” the NVIDIA Shield set-top box won’t run into any problems while streaming (via Gigabit Ethernet) or playing local content (via HDMI) at that resolution. After all, it includes the Tegra X1 super chip, which at the moment is the best SoC NVIDIA has to offer. In case the two connections aren’t available and users want to play content directly from the Shield, they can rely on the internal memory, and if those 16GB aren’t enough, then the microSD slot and the two USB 3.0 ports might come in handy.

The Shield supports voice commands either via the gamepad’s mic or via a remote control that’s not that different from the one of Amazon’s Fire TV. However, the new Shield isn’t as much about watching movies as it is about gaming. According to Huang, NVIDIA’s set-top box is 35 more powerful than the next such device, and twice as powerful as the Xbox One. That’s a really courageous statement, and the first reviews of the device should confirm or infirm that.

Android gaming is really catching up, and in the not-so-distant future, I can see mobile games competing head-to-head with their console counterparts. The Tegra X1 packs not only a lot of processing power, but also an extremely competitive GPU, so there will be no such things as glitches while gaming on the Shield set-top box. Some of the console games that got an Android port specifically for the launch of the new NVIDIA product include: Borderlands: The Presequel, Doom 3: BFG Edition, The Talos Principle, Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance. More titles will surely follow once the device is available.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Tegra K1-powered Shield tablet, or the Project Shield Tegra 4 portable Android gaming console.

CES 2015 will also feature ACCESS Twine for Virtual Multiscreen Content Libraries

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ACCESS CO. LTD is a global provider of advanced software technologies to the mobile beyond PC and digital TV markets. Today the company announced its plans to demonstrate and display its ACCESS Twine...

Original Apple TV iTunes Connectivity Issue Irritates Users Globally

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Owners of first-generation Apple TV set top boxes (sold from 2007 through 2010) have been reporting issues that are keeping them from connecting to iTunes. The issue is said to be affecting users of the original Apple TV around the world. Without being able to connect to iTunes, users can’t buy content and may not have access to all their content.

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Users are reporting that none of the normal troubleshooting procedures are fixing the connectivity issue. Neither rebooting nor restoring the set-top box seem to resolve the issue.

In addition, users of the iPhone on iOS6 or older recently found that they no longer had access to FaceTime. Some believe that the two issues are related and some sort of change at Apple has made the errors rear their heads. Some rumors suggest updates to protect Apple servers from Heartbleed led to these problems. Apple had a fast fix for the FaceTime issue with people needing to update their operating system. No such quick fix for the Apple TV has surfaced so far.

Apple hasn’t confirmed the issue officially, and as of this report, the problem appears to be unresolved.

[via MacRumors]

Google’s Acquisition of Green Throttle Games Hints at Nexus TV

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Google buys Green Throttle Games

The search giant might be working on a way of bringing mobile games to the big screen, as it confirmed signing a deal with Green Throttle Games, a company with experience in this area.

Rumors regarding Google’s Android console started last summer, and intensified yesterday, when PandoDaily.com revealed that Green Throttle Games is now part of Google.

The Green Throttle Atlas controller (pictured above) creates a virtual console on Android smartphones and tablets when connected via Bluetooth to the app developed by Green Throttle Games. Since this company had a great start in developing both the software and a bit of the hardware required for writing a new chapter in Android gaming, Google figured that it would be easier to buy it instead of working on the same things of their own.

In the case of most mergers and acquisitions, the employees of the smaller company join the greater one, but this doesn’t seem to be the norm here. Charles Huang, co-founder of Guitar Hero creator RedOctane, pointed out that he will retain the rights to the Green Throttle Games brand, and that he will not join Google when the deal goes through.

Nexus TV, the set-top box that Google is rumored to be working on, will focus on gaming, considering this acquisition. Furthermore, Nexus TV seems to be a replacement for Google TV, a product that the search giant launch in 2010. Unlike most devices launched by Google, that set-top box proved to be terribly unsuccessful, as it caused its manufacturer, Logitech, to lose millions of dollars.

Probably one of the best things about a Nexus TV is that the device would run Android and that developers would be able to change it according to their needs and taste. Besides that, the product would represent a direct competitor to Apple TV. If anything, Apple TV represents one of the few occasions in which the Cupertino-based company made something ahead of the search giant.

Google decided not to disclose any of the details surrounding this deal, so we don’t know for sure how much they paid for Green Throttle Gaming, nor what exactly they will be working on. While that is typical for Google, there is a great chance that the Nexus TV rumors are true.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Android video gaming console that Google is rumored to launch this year

Google Acquires Dilapidated Startup Green Throttle Games for its TV Set Top Box

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It’s been a couple of months since Green Throttle Games gave up this earthly existence. But now the for-all-purposes defunct startup has been bought up by Google. Google plans on fighting the TV wars...

Amazon Set Top Box to Come with Netflix and Hulu Plus Apps

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Amazon is about to release its answer to Roku. The organization’s video streaming service will feature on the device. And it will run applications that include Netflix and Hulu Plus among its wide...

Roku Players get Showtime Anytime On-demand Content in the U.S.

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If you have a current generation Roku player and live in the U.S., you can now get a new streaming channel to enjoy. Roku has announced that U.S. owners of its set top boxes can now get access to Showtime Anytime. That means you can watch all your favorite Showtime shows and catch up on past seasons you missed.

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Showtime Anytime gives you access to all the series that Showtime offers like Ray Donovan. You can also use Showtime Anytime to watch movies being shown in any given month.

As with Showtime Anytime on any device, you do have to subscribe to Showtime on a participating cable or satellite provider in order to use the service. Participating providers include DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, and several others.

Comcast TWC Merger would Bring More Content to Apple TV Set Top Box

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We have already told you about the merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable. But it was then a rumor. This merger is now confirmed by both firms. They happen to be the #1 and #2 cable companies...