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Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

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Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#111
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet TVs still ship with crappy and slow interfaces for some reason.

I'm still hoping the smart TV thing will turn out to be a brief fad, and we can all get back to just buying a dumb screen that other things can be plugged into. The software on TVs I've experienced is universally awful, my parent's one is particularly bad - you can go and make a cup of coffee in the time it takes for the Netflix app to start. When I heard that I bought them a FireTV stick and haven't looked back.

You hope? Why do you expect this to be a fad in the very end.

Oh I also think TV's should all be about we glamouring for the resolution. Seems 4K is here to win.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#112

What I'm after is something that can run Kodi (xbmc) which links to a NAS for its media. Running Netflix is a nice to have. What devices are out there that I can use for this purpose? At the moment I have a fairly heavy htpc running Windows, but I have more tvs that I would like to use for similar purposes. Edit: Bonus if it can do 4k video, but 1080p minimum is a must.

I picked up a $50 Nexus Player (Android TV OS) last month for this purpose. It replaced a first generation Raspberry Pi B that was actually pretty decent as a Kodi box (I used the Xbian distro). So far I'm really happy with the Nexus Player. I like that it gets Android TV apps (like Kodi and Moonlight for game streaming from my desktop) and also supports Google Cast. It also has a usb port that supports things like k…

The Shield Android TV has just had a price reduction to 179. After trying Chromeboxes, Chromecasts, and vanilla PC's, it's the closest to streaming nirvana - when it works.

The Shield TV runs Kodi as well as any PC. Nvidia's gaming ecosystem runs very well either from the cloud gaming grid or local PC. They deserve credit for taking the platform well beyond what Google could do with it.

However, my worry is that Google will abandon the Android TV OS in favor of Chromecasters and sticks and leave Nvidia to pick up where the Nexus Player has failed. The Android TV OS interface is simple enough, but there are glaring issues that continue to frustrate. Simple things like customizing the launcher are impossible. Also, there are persistent bugs at the OS level like a flakey ethernet driver and unreliable voice commands.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#113
post #102
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To answer your EDIT2 - I suspect it's because your main / original post was somewhere between not-funny, and not-useful. That is, you described a device that already exists (a mobile phone) in a roundabout way, and seem to be demanding that this device should be yet another mobile phone -- rather than considering the features of this particular device as delivered. It's possible that neither ASUS or Google considered…

Thanks for the clarification on downvotes, I guess you are right. As far as BT mice and keyboards goes, well, I wouldn't want to give them to my grandmother. What happens when battery goes out? Yes, she could always put it in charger, but why is this any better than regular USB cable then? But I recognize that some people like (and use) BT peripherals, so there might be a market for it. I agree with your other commen…

All good. FWIW I have neither downvote rights on HN, nor insight into the way other HNers think - so it's all quite speculative.

WRT bluetooth peripherals -- I used to feel this way about mouse, keyboard, car, and in-one-ear headset. My position on all has changed 180° over the past year or two. Not so much the grandmother conundrum, but the performance/latency, bother to charge or replace batteries, and general swankiness.

For gaming apparently BT headsets (and presumably mouse/keyboard) are too laggy, but for workplace convenience it's hard to go past them. Buy your grandmother a spare set of batteries for the third drawer, and consider that my rinky little Logitech 2 x AAA mouse is running on original batteries some 14 months on. These things are amazingly power-conservative. And even just one less thing to plug in when setting up a laptop (I travel a fair bit) is hugely appreciated. I simply wouldn't countenance a return to a wired USB mouse now for business use. Similar experience with BT headsets, and in-car use -- difficult to consider not using that tech now.

MS may well be working towards this area -- it's not a novel idea, certainly, and I recall about fifteen years ago people touting the benefits of thin client workstations you could carry around with you. Unfortunately keyboards and screens had to be provided at the other end, and few workplaces considered this convenient (compared to, presumably, just issuing laptops to mobile users, outright declining a BYOD approach, and/or enforcing a SOE). It's all one big cycle.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#115

I'm trying to figure out what in the world people are going to use these for. Single-app kiosk? Sure, but that's gotta be a tiny market. TV streaming box? Maybe, but it's not clear to me that it really offers anything I care about that isn't already done by Chromecast/Roku. I dunno. It's kind of a cool idea, but it feels like a solution in search of a problem.

If you think traditional touch kiosk then the market is probably small. But think digital signage. I work at a small university and we have digital signs going up everywhere. We see them for directions, coffee shop menus/pricing, cafe menu/pricing, dining hall menus and the commons areas is littered with them. The digital signage marketplace is expected to be ~$23 billion by 2020.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#116
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet TVs still ship with crappy and slow interfaces for some reason.

I'm still hoping the smart TV thing will turn out to be a brief fad, and we can all get back to just buying a dumb screen that other things can be plugged into. The software on TVs I've experienced is universally awful, my parent's one is particularly bad - you can go and make a cup of coffee in the time it takes for the Netflix app to start. When I heard that I bought them a FireTV stick and haven't looked back.

I hope the same.

TV, as pretty much every device, should be as dumb as cables .. must be reliable and work with pretty much anything that it's plugged to, no matter what that is

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#117
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raspberry Pi is not really good as a media player. It struggles for high quality high bit rate 1080p videos and it is limited with USB 2 and does not have gigabit ethernet.

My Raspberry Pi 2 is working great as a media player. I threw OSMC on it (a Linux distribution specifically for Kodi with specific support for Pi's) and it is essentially flawless. It has no problem with high bit rate H264 videos. The lack of gigabit Ethernet isn't an issue. 100Mb Ethernet can easily stream raw Blu-Ray video (not that I've tried that with the Pi 2).

Second this.

We also use it as a upnp-server to stream (over usb wifi) music/movies to the kids room.

Plus the kids run emulation-station[0] on _top_ of OSMC to play games --we had a hell of fun playing 4 players games.

[0] http://emulationstation.org/

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#118

It's a pity that it needs a power adapter though, with the standard USB port not sufficing for the needed power. That ruins the feng shui.

My Samsung TV has a USB port specced for connecting an HDD (for recordings and such) This port provides my Raspberry Pi running OSMC with enough power to work flawlessly.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#119
post #10

I'm trying to figure out what in the world people are going to use these for. Single-app kiosk? Sure, but that's gotta be a tiny market. TV streaming box? Maybe, but it's not clear to me that it really offers anything I care about that isn't already done by Chromecast/Roku. I dunno. It's kind of a cool idea, but it feels like a solution in search of a problem.

I think there is a demographic of casual internet users who might be interested in this product. It's inexpensive and occupies little space, one need only provide peripherals and a monitor. It runs ChromeOS, which is reputed to be very secure (except from Google) and easy to use. Yes, the kiosk application seems of dubious value, if only because people tend to prefer touchscreen kiosks. But I don't believe you are co…

I am definitely buying one of these for my parents/grandparents when they need a new computer. All they do is use Facebook/YouTube/Skype and sometimes editing and printing some documents. More often than not these devices require next to 0 maintenance for both software and hardware, which is a major plus when all they buy is very cheap Windows computers which require constant maintenance on both sides.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#120

What I'm after is something that can run Kodi (xbmc) which links to a NAS for its media. Running Netflix is a nice to have. What devices are out there that I can use for this purpose? At the moment I have a fairly heavy htpc running Windows, but I have more tvs that I would like to use for similar purposes. Edit: Bonus if it can do 4k video, but 1080p minimum is a must.

I picked up a $50 Nexus Player (Android TV OS) last month for this purpose. It replaced a first generation Raspberry Pi B that was actually pretty decent as a Kodi box (I used the Xbian distro). So far I'm really happy with the Nexus Player. I like that it gets Android TV apps (like Kodi and Moonlight for game streaming from my desktop) and also supports Google Cast. It also has a usb port that supports things like k…

Why did you leave the Raspberry?

Also, I have similar requirements as you (mostly want to play media off my NAS through XBMC or any other player with sufficient format support), but I want to use a remote rather than mouse and keyboard - is this possible with the Nexus Player or is there another good solution for this?

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