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At the start of Google I/O on May 28, NVIDIA released the shield console. Available on Amazon.com and Nvidia.com for $199 and reviewed here:
http://anandtech.com/show/9289/the-nvidia-shield-android-tv-review
It supports 4K Netflix streaming out of the box, and is the only device to do so. Now subscribers to Netflix 4K can finally use it. It costs extra, the base Netflix subscription price ($7.99) doesn't include the 4K streaming package.
Is this the start of Google taking over the living room? Games, movies, music, infotainment, all streamed from the cloud.
Fastest Android SoC out there at the moment:
-Quadcore A57
-Maxwell 2 SMM GPU
-3 GB LP4 DRAM
-4K display (OK not included :-P )
It also includes a game controller. The games streaming service might be cheaper than buying a GTX, and could potentially be used as a home server for movie streaming or basic FTP /disk streaming tasks. Should be interesting to see what apps get released for it. It's faster than most embedded systems used such as routers, scanners, and HTPCs. With Kodi + portable HDD, I could keep my desktop PC turned off most of the time now.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Sunday May 31 2015, @09:10PM
So locked down subscription service to DRM'd browser on a locked down piece of hardware in your home that might do mischief at off hours?
Can you even boot and run a free OS on this thing?
(Score: 2) by cockroach on Sunday May 31 2015, @09:31PM
Sound like one hell of a crappy "digital revolution". Also, can we move beyond adding computers and internets to everything and calling it innovation?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 31 2015, @10:52PM
It's progress.. which is completely negated by the lock down and spy down behavior.
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Monday June 01 2015, @04:33AM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday June 01 2015, @11:34AM
This is why the digital revolution isn't a revolution for the people. I was at a friends house the other day, pretty tech oriented guy (IT). He is happy with fire stick TV, that Amazon Echo thing, Windows HTPC, Windows RDP server, iPad air, etc. And everything works pretty well and most importantly, works for him. Talk to him about Linux and he simply doesn't care about it as he sees zero benefits in using it. He doesn't give a rats ass about free/open source software.
As long as things are easy to use, people will use them.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday June 01 2015, @04:26PM
Of course he sees zero benefits if those benefits aren't pointed out. A good Linux distro has everything Windows does except the ability to run Microsoft programs, and does them better. Just having no Patch Tuesday, no nagging, no forced reboots, and no registry should be enough, provided you don't need a good spreadsheet.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday June 01 2015, @04:52PM
Sad thing is I have explained the benefits to him and even demonstrated them. He once came to me with disks from his old Linksys NAS which failed to power up. I plugged them into my Linux laptop with an an ATA adapter, ran mdadm with the discovery option and then mounted it. He was very surprised at how easy it was to recover his data.
I have also shown him my old HTPC and a few other Linux goodies but he just didn't care for it. He is a Windows admin, so there might be bias. But I know him and it is because he wants the cheapest, most simple, and easiest answer to a problem. Setting up a Linux HTPC vs spending 40 bucks on a fire tv stick and installing Kodi is a no brainer to him. So fire TV it is.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 01 2015, @10:39PM
You can run MS-Windows software under Linux/BSD using Wine or a hypervisor software solution. Perfect, no. But it may do the job.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 01 2015, @10:31PM
He'll be sorry when his is hacked to show porn clips whenever it detects his girlfriend in the room. His voice command box corporation leaks his intimate moanings and secrets to the internets. The Windows HTPC refuses to boot unless he install service pack X which can only be installed when running. The RDP remote login is used to photograph and publish private moments and setup a warez server. iPad will log his movements and snail mail him a brochure on a restaurant that his girlfriend never heard about. Unless all machines just refuse too do anything due some license issue and then hackers brick all machines.
Ignorance is a bliss until reality slaps you in the face. ;-)
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday June 01 2015, @04:21PM
Don't you feel sorry for non-nerds who have to put up with that crap? I've been using a 42 inch TV as a monitor for well over a decade.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 01 2015, @10:36PM
The problem is that non-nerds now drive the market. It gives us the benefit of low prices on electronics due plain volume and omnipresence of equipment. Even equipment thrown away these days are immensely powerful. The downside is that non-nerds also drive the market to dumb down and lock down. They don't watch for quality and thus the market adapt. The huge e-waste causes new regulation to put in place that may result in things like tin whiskers etc.
But yeah, I do pity non-nerds for having put up with all bullshit and not knowing there's a way out and how to get there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:45AM
https://developer.nvidia.com/shield-open-source [nvidia.com]
Maxwell has a signed vbios, similiar to Haswell+'s OEM bios images (Nouveau was making a stink about this in regards to supporting Maxwell a few months back.)
Still looks like an awesome compromise between the high end consoles and the low end tv boxes, and unlike any of those, it allows enough customization to full benefit from the hardware available to you. Notably, if you go with the base model: Booting a full linux distro via a USB 3 hard disk, which should be comparable in performance to a SATA drive (barring issues with disk enclosure firmware that might require manual replugging or power cycling.)