Computex 2012 is well underway in Taipei and there has been no shortage of exciting news to come out of this very interesting conference that revolves around this year’s new electronics products. From TV’s to computers to tablets to a combination of both, it’s safe to say that there has been some pretty cool stuff being demoed off here. One of the newest devices we have just recently heard about has come from a company called Honeywld Technology, who is building a brand new set-top box for Google TV. This new set-top box is based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and will house a dual core ARM processor manufactured by Marvell.
As you could have guessed by the title of this article, Honeywld Technologies box will allow your Android device that is running 4.0, to stream movie content to the box which you would essentially have hooked up to your TV. That’s not all though as it will also support the capability to synchronize other multimedia content such as pictures and music. All this information comes to us from the sales manager of the company Honeywld Technologies Bryant Liu, who also has stated that users of the box would need to install a specific application to their android device that would allow the functionality to synchronize and stream the multimedia content to the TV box.
All of this should sound pretty familiar, as Apple has had their similar product, Apple tv, out for quite some time. Apple tv is essentially the same thing and allows users to stream multimedia content from an ipod, iphone, or ipad to their tv that is connected to the Apple tv box. If you are someone who has been running a Samsung android device as of late, you probably already know that they also offer a very similar service themselves that you can stream to a Samsung TV. Although, the Samsung service and TV’s are not based off of Google TV software in any way. It is a Samsung specific service and software that they have developed for use between their own products.
Liu has said that these boxes will only cost right around $90 – $120 bucks a pop. Which seems pretty good considering the capabilities of the device. The sad thing is that Honeywld Technologies is a fairly small company with between 30 and 40 employees, which is going to hinder their ability to ship these awesome sounding devices out at a global level. The hope for them is that they show this off at Computex and get people interested so that third-party manufacturers will pick it up and sell it in other countries. Well, its got my attention. Only thing is I am not a third-party company. Otherwise I can think of a handful of my friends and family that would already have these in hand and set up ready to go. I hope myself that we see these floating around towards the end of summer because I would love to get my hands on one.
As I stated before you will find a Marvell dual-core ARM cortex A9 processor inside powering a customized and tweaked version of the Google TV software which was developed by the company and is based on of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Its sounds like this device will be fairly easy to use, and the company describes it as having a simplified user interface. Access to websites via links such as picasa and youtube, and a web browser icon are said to be integrated into the UI. While there are already some Google TV set-top boxes already out, with some running the newer version of the software that is based on Android 4.0, these boxes are not set or expected to be launched globally until or around the third quarter of this year. This means that we might not see a larger selection of these types of devices until the fall and also means that if Honeywld can put theirs out before summer’s end that they will have a little bit of a head start.
All this sounds pretty amazing. I for one have wanted a Google TV for a very long time and just have never had the means to purchase one. The first round of this service and product was found inside the Logitec Revue and Sony’s own internet TV, although they didn’t see very much success. The Logitech Revue set-top box in particular has been discontinued. These new devices will set the stage for a revamp of the software that had previously failed to gain ground. This is also part of the reason new devices will be featuring ARM processors and not ones manufactured by intel.
The set-top box will come with 4GB of flash storage space, 1GB of DDR3 memory and a microSD slot for extra storage. Wifi will be an available option to connect the device up to your home network wirelessly for a cleaner setup. This is definitely the route I would take as I hate wires strung out across my apartment. However the need for wifi on these devices will not be a requirement as they will come with a built in Ethernet port as well as HDMI for high quality video. If we’re lucky we will see some more of this stuff at Google I/O. I can only hope!!!! What do you guys think out there? Anyone using a legacy version of the Google TV’s? Looking forward to this new product?