Streaming media content to the big screen using one’s mobile devices has become quite popular, and we can’t help but think that Google’s Chromecast had a big part to play here. They didn’t necessarily pioneer the capability to do such a thing, but Chromecast surely put the use of a small HDMI dongle to stream all the media content you could ever hope for on the map. The newest entrant into the ring of streaming dongles(hopes to be anyway)is the Matchstick streaming dongle from Matchstick and Mozilla. The little dongle will reportedly run Mozilla’s FireFox OS and be the first device to do so, and they’re serious about competing with the Chromecast, so much so that they have even put the device up on Kickstarter so they can bring it to market for a mere $25 and get the cost under Google’s device.
You can check the Kickstarter page for the full breakdown of details and information about the Matchstick, but the basic idea is easily understandable. It acts and functions pretty much just like Chromecast, you essentially use your device to stream content to the Matchstick which is plugged into your TV’s(or large monitor)HDMI port. The Matchstick reportedly supports streaming of Movies, Music, TV, and Games, so just about everything you can expect out of a Chromecast, minus the games part as there aren’t really a plethora of games that are either built specifically for Chromecast or have support for it. It’s also possible that supporting the ability to stream games with the Matchstick is a hope rather than a current capability, but the idea intrigues us nonetheless. Right now they’re hoping to get a hold of developers interested in building such compatible apps for the platform, so here’s hoping that when they plan to start shipping device in s early 2015 that there will be some games to check out.
If you opt into the Kickstarter for this little guy you can get it at two different prices which are both under the goal for the end retail price of $25. Early bird backers will end up getting their backer unit for just $12, and the regular price for backers in the Kickstarter will be $18. Not bad for something that offers this kind of functionality. The funding goal is set at $100,000, but has 29 days left in the campaign and already has $71,496 in funding so there’s a great chance that they’ll be able to blow way past their goal. One huge benefit of the Matchstick dongle is that both Matchstick and Mozilla have a vision to keep the device and ecosystem for which it supports as opensource as possible, free of any limitations. In the end, it sounds like the plan is to have the Matchstick support Android, iOS, and Firefox OS apps for use with the streaming capable dongle. If you’re more interested in the Chromecast you can still pick up the dongle for $35 on Amazon.