Yesterday, Popcorn Hour announced that its only product, the highly anticipated Popcorn Hour A-100 digital media streaming device is now available for pre-order directly from the company’s site.
For those unaware, the A-100 “allows for streaming digital media from users’ PCs via a wide range of connectivity options, digital cameras or USB mass storage devices or directly from the Internet via its integrated Media Service Portal. The A-100 supports high-bitrate video formats, including DivX and Matroska, as well as subtitle files, with firmware upgradeable to future codecs.”
More interestingly, the media hub can also act as a NAS device and BitTorrent P2P downloader in place of a computer. For those features however, you will need to add an internal HDD. Using the device’s Media Service Portalallows for IPTV compatibility with YouTube, Google Video and Metacafe.
Flickr and Photobucket, as well as a ton of video, audio, Internet radio and RSS feeds can stream content to A-100.
The A-100 “includes 256MB of DDR SDRAM along with 32MB of flash memory and is network-ready. A pair of USB 2.0 plugs as well as a Parallel ATA port act as the physical interface options. Connections include an HDMI v1.1 input, component video in, S-Video, composite plugs, as well as coaxial and analog audio.”
Available now for pre-order, the A-100 has a $180 USD price tag.
Result for: Flash
Microsoft has revealed that its popular Zune media player has hit 2 million units sold since its launch in November 2006. What the figure also reveals however is low or flat growth for the device, especially compared to sales of the Apple iPod.
The company originally promised it would hit one million sales before June 2007 and it did so but since then has kept quiet on sales for its player or any predictions on it.
Despite the flat growth the sales still helped Microsoft move up a percentage point in overall US marketshare, from 3 to 4 percent. Those figures are courtesy of the NPD Group.
It seems, for now at least, that there is fragmentation in sales after the launch of the second generation of Zune players. The original million sales were from the original 30GB model but since November 2007, Microsoft has been selling two cheaper flash-based Zunes as well as two HDD-based players.
The slowdown in sales could possibly have nothing to do with Microsoft at all. The current US economic recession has staggered spending all across the board and non-necessities such as MP3 players are sure to see a hit. MP3 players are also approaching saturation in the market and there are fewer first time purchases being made, regardless of brand.
Apple continues to flourish however with their iPod lineup and still control the market handily. In the last quarter 10.6 million iPods were sold, over 5 times the amount of Zunes sold in almost 2 years.
Result for: Flash
Nintendo has announced the launch of the highly anticipated WiiWare and with it, the availability of six WiiWare titles.
The cheapest title available is the popular Internet flash game “Defend Your Castle” from XGen Studios which sells for 500 Wii Points ($5 USD). The most expensive game is “Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King” from Square Enix which will sell for $15 USD. The other games available are Frontier Development’s “LostWinds”, Nnooo’s “Pop”, High Voltage Software’s “V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack,” and Gameloft’s “TV Show King” which range from $7 to $10.
In its press release the company said that the release process for the new games would be the same as Wii Virtual Console games, which are released every Monday.
Back in February, Nintendo said in an interview that over 100 WiiWare games were currently in development.
