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: video formats
We have reviewed three netbook models from some of the largest netbook - and laptop - manufacturers in the world. Among the three models we received are the Asus Eee PC 901, Acer Aspire One 110 and MSI Wind U100. You can read other two reviews via the links below and the wrap-up from here. The tests did not cover all the aspects of computing and only scratch the surface of the three devices. Still, if you are interested in buying a netbook at some point, maybe these reviews can point you in the right direction.
*Asus Eee PC 901
*Acer Aspire One 110
*MSI Wind U100
Hands-on
Acer tackles the same category as Eee PC 901 with their Aspire One A110 - an ultra-portable laptop or a netbook with 8,9″ display. Our test device was equipped with an 8GB SSD and Linpus distribution version of Linux. The package contained a small manual, the device itself with 3-cell Li-ion battery and a rather large AC adapter. Unlike in the Eee PC package, this one didn’t include any kind of sleeve case. From the beginning the Aspire One gave a good quality impression with a metallic blue casing and a durable feel. The model is also available in brown, pink and white.
Acer fits nicely on top of 15″ HP
Technical specifications
Acer Aspire One A110
-1,6GHz Intel Atom
-512MB DDR2
[More]>>
Result for: video formats
According to new data figures from PlusNet, P2P traffic has declined significantly over the past year and legal, streaming content has grown exponentially.
The figures show that P2P traffic is down 8.75 percent year-on-year while streaming content traffic is up 170 percent over the same period. More notably, streaming content traffic is rising almost 9 percent per month, at a very steady pace. PlusNet says with P2P traffic down for the year, P2P only accounts for 26 percent of total Internet traffic, down from an all time high of 36 percent last year.
The numbers can only mean good things for the industry which has long used P2P traffic as an excuse to block high bandwidth users or charge more for those who use excessive amounts of bandwidth. If these numbers prove accurate, then it seems customers are happy viewing their content legally and the media industry is doing a good job in getting content easily available to consumers who otherwise had no alternative.
