15 ms·
This looks awesome. Finally a piece of tech I actually want, and by Intel of all companies. The bigger consumer companies have been shuffling their feet, relea
by Jormundir 12y ago
This looks awesome. Finally a piece of tech I actually want, and by Intel of all companies.
The bigger consumer companies have been shuffling their feet, releasing arbitrary, very closed off pieces of tech that I don't really need. I really applaud Intel for making the tiny little PC I've been wanting for media and linux tomfoolery. The Chromecast was a no-go, and now with an apple tv, I'm feeling a little too enclosed; they don't have enough apps to satisfy all my media needs.
I've been watching the mini-pc market, chronically unsatisfied with what's been released up to this point. The Intel compute stick finally looks like the thing I've been looking for, mainly because they balance the size and low price, with just enough power for what I need. To top it off they're offering a Linux version, so I don't have to be worried about buying into a closed off platform.
- bkurtz13 12y agoHow do you know how much it's going to cost? I don't see that information anywhere.
- bobbles 12y agohttp://techreport.com/news/27619/intel-compute-stick-is-a-149-windows-pc-to-go http://techreport.com/news/27619/intel-compute-stick-is-a-14... $149
- _nedR 12y agoAh. Thanks for the link. The 149$ version comes with Windows 8.1 Preloaded. The linux version is 89$.
- r00fus 12y agoFor something less than an AppleTV, that is indeed appealing.
- ekianjo 12y agoIntel Linux support is usually pretty good so that Linux option is certainly appealing.
- tankenmate 12y agoThe Linux version has only 1GB RAM and only 8GB onboard flash.
- lmedinas 12y agoMore than enough to run XBMC (multimedia) or File server (own cloud, bittorrent sync, etc...).
- baldfat 12y agoOnce again Linux is the "cheap" option. Linux isn't used by people to save the license cost and well I know I have a much greater need for RAM compared to the average computer user. So I would buy a $149 version then have to install Linux on top of that.
- Roodgorf 12y agoSure, but Linux can also generally run much more efficiently than Windows. I think having Linux on the cheap version could conceivably be both a cut in licensing fees and also a way to make economy hardware specs viable.
- scholia 12y agoI wonder how big the gap is now. It would be interesting to see some benchmarks comparing Windows 8.1 with Bing (where the 32-bit version runs in 1GB) with an equivalent full-spec Linux.
- Roodgorf 12y agoThat's a good point, the recent push by Microsoft towards mobile devices has undoubtedly led to significant improvements. Without some hard data I am certainly being speculative, just speaking from experience.
- morganvachon 12y agoI mentioned it above, but there is no license fee for Windows 8.1 with Bing. It's completely free for OEMs to sell on their hardware, they just can't modify the search settings at install time. The user can do whatever they want with the search settings, and it's a full 8.1 install from a technical viewpoint. Basically, the difference in price between the two SKUs is purely hardware based. So, buy whichever hardware you need, and install GNU/Linux. On a side note, I have an HP Stream 7 tablet with an Atom CPU and 1GB RAM, and it runs 8.1 very well. I'd imagine even the lower spec SKU of the Intel stick would run it fine. Storage space would be the only real issue for that OS.
- mkingston 12y agoWhat a price difference. Wow. Dozens, nay, hundred of hours learning Linux finally pays off. Seriously now, I'm really pleased to see that you can choose Linux and pay so much less. Of course on a relatively more expensive machine that difference isn't much, but it's certainly a stark difference on such a cheap device. Edit: I see there's a hardware difference too. That's a bit of a shame. I wonder what corporate forces are in action here..
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y agoI don't think it's evil corporate forces. They wanted a "budget" one with lower specs and realised they could reduce the price further by removing the Windows license. I doubt it's actually that much of the price tag.
- morganvachon 12y agoConsidering Microsoft is giving away Windows 8.1 "with Bing" free for small devices[1], I doubt the OS has any bearing on the price difference. [1] http://www.howtogeek.com/195934/what-exactly-is-windows-8.1-with-bing-do-i-have-to-use-bing/ http://www.howtogeek.com/195934/what-exactly-is-windows-8.1-...
- mkingston 12y agoYou're probably right. I didn't mean evil corporate forces. I will certainly concede that I used the wrong term. I was earnestly curious what the justification was. I should've said "business justification" or some such, given the (reasonable) interpretation of what I actually said.
- StavrosK 12y ago> Wow. Dozens, nay, hundred of hours learning Linux finally pays off. Eh, the hundreds of hours I spent learning Windows were much less useful to me.
- _nedR 12y agoI don't know, but since its form-factor and size puts in direct contention with Android Sticks (which go for about 60$), it should be priced similarly. Also it has to be cheaper than the cheapest Celeron-based Intel NUC(140$). So i expect the price should be somewhere in between.
- _nedR 12y agoI find that Intel makes quite a few great products and initiatives. They just don't market it as loudly as others. The Intel NUC (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html) is quite a versatile machine - smaller, better performance and value for money than mac minis, and more hacker friendly. It even has a cute unboxing experience (The box plays the intel jingle when you open it) Then there are initiatives like the Intel Realsense cam (like Kinect), Edison, Moblin( which morphed into Meego and later Sailfish). Intel often doesn't get the credit it deserves - Contributing to open source and open standards, having intervened in the markets when someone (usually Apple or Microsoft) got too dominant or comfortable(That was what Meego, Ultrabooks, NUC was about). They certainly make the market more interesting. I guess this one is aimed at Android TV, and meant to level the field for Microsoft and Linux-based systems.
- Sven7 12y agoThat is because their target customer has never been the end user. How many people with a smart phone have heard of Qualcomm?
- _nedR 12y agoWell. Intel has always pitched themselves to the end-customer. The 'Intel Inside', Ultrabook, etc., campaigns have all been so that the customer insists on an Intel device.
- greenpresident 12y agoThis kind of branding is called ingredient branding. They try to remain visible as the supplier of a component. Intel is the textbook example. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingredient_branding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingredient_branding
- vidarh 12y agoBut that's not to sell to the end user, but to make the ability to put those Intel Inside etc. stickers on your product a valuable feature for OEMs when considering whether to buy from Intel or a competitor.
- digi_owl 12y agoI am of two minds about Intel. Lately they have been producing some fairly interesting products. But at the same time they have a virtual stranglehold on the x86 ISA.
- nailer 12y agoReally? PS4 and Xbone are AMD, and selling like truckloads.
- erok 12y agoVishera is a beast. Love it. And I fell in love with this intel gadget which I wasn't expecting.
- digi_owl 12y agoYes, it is an odd development. But then what is now AMD's GPU division, ATI, used to be THE supplier of console gaming GPUs. Sure, there are issues with the ARM world. But i kinda prefer the vibrant market there over the 2 1/2 horse race that is x86.
- khuey 12y agoMany ARM CPUs are licensed transistor layouts from ARM. There's only a handful of companies actually designing their cores. Most of the diversity comes from the other bits of silicon in the SoC, but there's plenty of diversity in the x86 motherboard space too.
- nailer 12y agoWho is the half? Via?
- digi_owl 12y agoYeah, and maybe i was a bit nice. Could just as well have put them down as 1/4 i guess.
- maximilianburke 12y ago
- baldfat 12y ago> The Chromecast was a no-go I find that the Chromecast is the perfect tech item. It does a few things and does them extremely well. Part of the reason why it out sold and is out used more then any other media player.
- k-mcgrady 12y agoI love my Chromecast but I think the major reason it has done well is the price. $30 is still fantastic.
- wuliwong 12y agoIt is an interesting comparison. You could buy 5 Chromecasts for the price of one of these Intel sticks, so it seems not a fair comparison. BUT, chances are you really are going to only use one or the other, so in that way it is necessary to decide.
- baldfat 12y agoThey are apples vs oranges. Chromecast = Media Player Stick = Computer I am still thinking I want a NUC though.
- georgeecollins 12y agoJust seconding that opinion. I love my chromecasts. Using it with videostream on an Android phone is a great combination.
- georgeecollins 12y agoJust seconding that opinion. I love my chromecasts. Using it with videostream on an Android phone is a great combination.
- yellowapple 12y agoI've personally found the Chromecast to be a little underpowered in a lot of circumstances, particularly when it comes to mirroring a tab with a video playing. I ended up ordering one of those Fire TV sticks because Gary Busey told me to, and because it has way better specs; still waiting for it to arrive, but a couple of family members have already tried it out with a lot of success, and I imagine it'll go well with the Fire HDX my grandma got for Christmas. Meanwhile, this Intel stick looks even better. Between this and the announcement of a new NUC with an i7, it looks like I'll be saving up for a couple more Intel-powered Linux devices this year. But yeah, the Chromecast is still handy sometimes, and it does do some things well (like YouTube and Pandora). It's just not always the best fit for everyone.
- rebootthesystem 12y agoWeb design/business fail: The page is lacking a "Register to get updates" form. I find this to be a common frustration point for industrial product companies. Their websites typically have different degrees of sucking. Hardware design fail: A male HDMI connector on something this big is a bad idea. You don't want to hang this kind of weight (imagine USB other cables connected to it) off an HDMI connector on a TV or monitor. The female connectors are not designed as load-bearing devices. It'd be far better to put a female HDMI connector on the stick and let people use a proper HDMI cable.
- mark-r 12y agoSurely you can get an extension HDMI cable if that bothers you.
- niutech 12y agoHaven't you heard of MK809 dongle? Quad core, much cheaper than Intel, with full Android unlike Chromecast, able to install Linux distribution: http://amzn.com/B00EE4KKDA http://amzn.com/B00EE4KKDA