Android Based TViX Xroid A1 Gears Up for the US Market

Many Android based media streamers have been announced and demonstrated at various trade shows over the last year. We covered the Patriot Box Office Alpine which was on show at the 2011 Computex.
While the details of the SoC powering the PBO Alpine haven't been officially revealed, other Android running media players haven't been so coy. The TizzBird F30 is quite popular in the Asian markets. Based on a 1 GHz ARM processor with 3D acceleration, it runs Android 2.3. However, consumers in the US haven't had the opportunity to purchase an Android based media player yet. The Nixeus Fusion XS is not expected to be up for order until December 2011, and Xtreamer Prodigy will only get Android 2.2 in a future firmware upgrade (probably as a dual boot option).

Sigma Designs announced Android support in the 865x series back in October 2009, and the first videos of 8656 running Android began to surface in November 2010.

TViX started development of the Xroid A1 soon after. The efforts were made public at CES 2011.

After many months of development, the Xroid A1 started hitting the hands of the European consumers last month. Now, it is ready to hit the US market. Based on the SMP 8657, it runs on Android 2.2. The inbuilt browser doesn't have Flash. The processing power is similar to that of the 8654 / 8655 used in the WDTV Live / Live Hub / Live Plus. However, it includes a Imagination Technologies SGX 530 core (which is not present even on the SMP 8670 used in the WDTV Live Streaming Media Player).

A good starting point for the Xroid A1 would be the local media compatibility of the WD TV Live series. The version of Android running on the system is 2.2. The inbuilt browser, however, doesn't support Adobe Flash. Unlike other media streamers which implement a dual boot solution for Android support, Xroid A1's media player function is seamlessly integrated into the OS. A TViX app market also offers curated apps for the users. Obviously, it is also possible to sideload apps.

With Google TV, Google tried to bring the Android experience to the big screen. It is fair to say that Google's intent to bring people to spend more of their TV time online didn't meet with much success. However, I believe this doesn't mean that people don't want smart apps on the TV. In this context, it is efforts from the smaller players like TViX and Nixeus that may end up providing more satisfaction to consumers. Hit up the source link below for more information about the TViX Xroid A1.

What sort of Android apps would make sense on the TV? How much will consumers be ready to spend for Android on the big screen? Chime in with your thoughts below.

Western Digital Introduces New WD TV Live Streaming Media Player with Spotify in Tow

Western Digital jumped on to the local media streaming bandwagon quite early in the game. With better codec compatibility and a more stable platform compared to other vendors, the WDTV lineup caught the imagination of the consumers. Over the last few years (coinciding with the rise of Netflix), US consumers have tended to prefer over the top streaming solutions. Recognizing this trend, Western Digital has been strengthening their media streamers portfolio with the appropriate features.

Today, Western Digital is introducing the latest addition to their WDTV lineup, the new WD TV Live Streaming Media Player. Its roots (in terms of both hardware and firmware) seem to lie in the WDTV Live Hub which received praise from us last year. The industrial design has been updated, and the main hardware addition seems to be the integrated wireless network capability. The internal hard drive has been removed. Local media streaming compatibility seems to be retained.

Like the Roku 2 XS, the new WD TV Live has support for single band (2.4 GHz) 802.11n wireless only. However, the network port is Gigabit. Also, Western Digital PR claims that the new WD TV Live (as well as the WDTV Live Hub) supports 1080p video along with Dolby Digital Plus audio for selected Netflix titles. This is something we hope to evaluate and report back soon.

The new premium service making an appearance in the WD TV Live (as well as the Hub) is Spotify. As the PR reproduced below shows, the unit offers the full Spotify experience including account management and the social features (such as sending songs to your friend's inbox). In addition to YouTube, the new media player (as well as the WDTV Live Hub) gains access to DailyMotion, a service quite popular in Europe. The last few firmware releases for the WDTV Live Hub have also brought some simple games like Sudoku and Texas Hold'Em.

Priced at $99.99, this unit seems to cover all the media streaming aspects missed by the Roku 2 XS. It probably doesn't have the fan following of the Roku or the developer support that Roku provides. We also don't have much hope of it solving the DTS-HD MA bitstreaming issue. However, for the general consumer, Western Digital seems to have lined up a winner at a sweet price point (they could have chosen a better name, considering that the WD TV Live was the name given to the second generation player in the WDTV family). Stay tuned for our review of the new WD TV Live Streaming Media Player.