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Showing posts with the label set top box

Roku brings casual gaming to its internet TV platform starting with Angry Birds this summer

Roku's line of boxes have come a long way from being used only to stream Netflix, and now the company has announced a plan to take its talents to casual gaming. Naturally, the first app out of the gate this summer will be the wildly popular and increasingly ubiquitous  Angry Birds . There's not a lot of details available yet and while we're told the gaming experience will be available on a new player launching this summer,  whether or not the existing Roku hardware will get any gaming action remains to be seen . Roku CEO Anthony Wood is very excited about the company's gaming prospects saying "Just as we were the first to enable Netflix to stream instantly to the TV, we intend to be the catalyst for transforming the way people play casual games-starting with Angry Birds-on the biggest screen in the home". While we wouldn't bet against the upstart media streamer maker, it may be a bit tougher to compete with Xbox 360, PS3 and whatever Nintendo has up its s...

Hulu Plus on TiVo Premiere hands-on

As rumored, Hulu Plus is now officially available on the TiVo Premiere, and according to TiVo, this "further extends its lead as the only one-box solution that integrates in one easy-to-use user interface." We supposed this is technically true, but it depends on your definition of "integrates" -- we'll discuss why after the jump. Hulu Plus of course comes at a monthly premium, but the other news is that new TiVo Premiere owners will get the privilege gratis for six months, while existing Premiere owners get what is described as a "free trial" which we assume is the standard one month risk trial -- as opposed to the variety that doesn't require a credit card. Hulu Plus on TiVo Premiere Love it or not, TiVo's interface has helped make it the best consumer DVR for over 10 years -- although much of the interface looks as old as the company itself -- so last September when we heard TiVo was integrating Hulu Plus, we obviously had high expectation...

Kogan's Agora Internet TV Portal promises Android Market access, our LCDs remain skeptical

Believe it or not, we're still rooting for Ruslan Kogan and the rest of his Aussie compatriots, but the company's announcement today of an Android 2.2 set-top TV box with full Market access is, as usual, equal parts intriguing and unbelievable. The Kogan Agora Internet TV Portal: Powered by Android is priced at A$149 with a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor from Samsung, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of flash storage, HDMI output and three USB ports for external storage, that it claims will bring the full internet -- including everyone's favorite  Angry Birds  -- to your TV screen. According to the sales page it's expected to ship May 27th to anywhere you like, as long as it's in Australia or the UK. We'll mark our calendars to see if it beats official Google TV boxes to Market access in the living room (we're still waiting for the TV shown off last year), but in the meantime check after the break for a press release with more details on this box, a familiar looking ...