[HH] FAVI SmartStick

[Tom Metro]

Phil C. wrote:
> I'm trying to understand what this device might give me over my Roku
> or the apps that come with my Panasonic Blu Ray player, Tivo, etc.

I guess I can't simply quip that those are closed platforms, but on the
spectrum of closed-to-open, Android is more open. Basically what this
means is that your Panasonic Blu Ray player and Tivo will only be able
to do things that their respective vendors have chosen to let you do.
Roku apparently supports some form of third party apps, but the
selection is no doubt dwarfed by the selection on Android.

For example, people are working on creating a version of the open source
XBMC media player that will run as an Android app. There is also a rough
minimal MythTV client app. You won't find these for any of the other
platforms.

Plus, anything that runs Android has a decent chance of being repurposed
to run a more general Linux distribution, like Ubuntu, and can run the
full XBMC media player. (This has been demonstrated on a few other
set-top-boxes that come from the vendor with Android installed.)


> ...I don't know what google apps can do for me on a large TV screen.

I don't really know myself, specifically, as I don't own a Google TV.
Only a subset of the apps made for the Android platform in will be both
compatible and useful on this sort of "set-top-box" hardware.

I tend to think one will get a better UI experience from running a
purpose-built media player, like XBMC, than a general purpose OS like
Android. Presumably the Google TV version of Android has some tweaks to
make the UI more usable on a TV. The article mentions that FAVI made
custom tweaks to the generic version of Jelly Bean for this same reason.

But if all you needed was a media player, there wouldn't be that much
advantage to having Android underneath. There is an Ubuntu derivative
made to support XBMC, which boots into the XBMC UI, and for the most
part you never know or care what the underlying OS is, as everything you
do is in that one application.

Unfortunately the current state of Internet delivered video content
leaves us with no dominant generic video player standard, so each
content provider feels the need to create their own app. (Think YouTube,
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.) This slows, and often outright
prevents, supporting many of these content providers on platforms where
the provider hasn't taken the time to create a custom app. (Note the
loud complaints from Netflix subscribers that can't use the service on
Linux desktops.)

Although XBMC does support plug-ins for streaming content, each service
requires a different plug-in, they all work a bit differently, and many
services, due to lack of API, DRM, or terms of service, can not be
supported by plug-ins built by volunteers.

This is why a more complete set-top-box solution will likely need to
depend on running a mainstream (for set-top-boxes) OS that the content
providers are likely to make apps for. So far it looks like Android has
the best shot of being that platform, while still being open enough to
support projects like XBMC and MythTV.


> Also you talk about using a wireless keyboard, but what brand of
> keyboard?

The article mentioned a wireless remote with a QUERTY keypad made by the
same company that makes the stick. It was a $40 option. If you follow
the last link you can see it pictured at the bottom of the page.

I've heard positive things about the similar remote bundled with the
Boxee Box, which is also available for purchase separately.

(BTW, I noticed tonight that Micro Center was selling refurbished Boxee
Boxes for $100. An OK price, I guess, but a bit aged hardware.)

 -Tom