Great. But i am little skeptical about streaming video over wifi. HDMI's data rates are huge. I don't think wifi can cope up with HDMI.
What do you guys think? -Tariq On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 11:39 PM, Tom Metro <[email protected]> wrote: > We've seen many dozens of thumb-drive-sized stick computers that attach > to a TV to make your TV "smart" (stream content from the Internet). > Almost all have ran Android. Here's the first one running Firefox OS, > Mozilla's mobile operating system also based on Linux: > > > https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matchstick/matchstick-the-streaming-stick-built-on-firefox-os > > They say it'll retail for $25, but you can buy-in to it now for a mere > $12...oh, wait, that was the early bird price that has sold out. Current > tier is $18. They've also sold out of "developer" units (prototypes > delivered in November) at $24 each. (They've already exceeded their > $100K goal by over 100%.) > > They expect to ship in February. If this is the first TV project for > Firefox OS, that might be overly optimistic, as there will be a lot of > UI to build and TV-oriented apps. And that's assuming the hardware > development is borrowing heavily from an existing or reference design. > (Actually they say, "Hardware is done! It was actually previewed in June.") > > As for the software they say: > > There are already hundreds of apps in the Mozilla app store, and as > the developer program ramps up many of those apps and hundreds of new > apps will become available on the Matchstick app store. > > And: > > Matchstick currently is already binary compatible with a large number > of existing Chromecast apps. ...apps...available at launch and > include: Netflix, HBO Go, Pandora, ESPN, ABC, and many more. > > > They say the hardware and software will both be open: > > Our goal was to make a streaming stick that was low cost, high design, > and extremely adaptable without the walled garden for app developers > that tends to slow progress. We also approached the hardware as a > break even, open reference design, creating an app ecosystem where the > app developers drive the economy. It's what Chromecast WANTED to be... > =) > ... > No need to jailbreak your Matchstick, the door is wide open! ...we are > making the reference designs and hardware schematics available for > download. (http://www.matchstick.tv/developers/hardware.html) ... The > files we provide are manufacturer ready, including board design, > electrical layout, and the bill of materials. > > No mention of being powered via the HDMI port, as some sticks are. > Instead they have the usual (micro) USB port for power. (They address > this in an FAQ.) > > They describe the hardware as an upgrade compared to the Chromecast: > > We selected the dual-core Rockchip 3066 processor, increased the > onboard storage to 4GB, and dropped in 1GB of DDR3 memory. The bigger > processor and increased memory gives you a much better video playback > cache and increased performance for whatever games and custom overlays > you might dream up. > > > They say you can "fling" content to it from apps and desktop web > browsers, which is similar to how you send content to a Chromecast, but > it is less clear whether the device will feature its own stand-alone UI > or be fully dependent on some other device to act as the controlling > interface, as is the case with a Chromecast. > > They talk about how developers can easily port Chromecast apps to it, > but I wasn't aware that apps ran on the Chromecast. I thought apps ran > on the controlling device, and just sent URLs and playback commands to > the Chromecast. > > They describe the software architecture here: > http://www.matchstick.tv/developers/documents/developers-guide.html > > and apparently in addition to the "sender" applications that run on the > controlling device, you can also customize things on the Matchstick > receiving side, where it has an engine capable of running HTML5 > applications. > > -Tom > _______________________________________________ > Hardwarehacking mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking >
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