Last month Google officially unveiled Google TV, a brand new platform they have been developing and hope to release thanks to partnerships with company’s like Samsung. Seeing as the platform just got announced, we won’t be seeing any Google TV set-top boxes within the near future as kinks are sure to still be ironed out.
However, this doesn’t mean that we won’t be seeing any set-top boxes running Google’s firmware because, as you already know, Google has a few other operating systems up their sleeve, most importantly the ever so popular Android mobile operating system.
While we’ve seen it running on everything from smartphones to netbooks, we haven’t seen many set-top box manufacturers giving Android any love, until now, that is. One company by the name of Bonux has recently come forth to show off their own Android powered set-top box.
This device, obviously running Android, will interface with your television to give you all of the features you would normally expect out of a traditional set-top box, and more. Sure, you’ll be able to do things like playback media in any file format you can come up with and play it on your HDTV thanks to a built-in HDMI port, but that’s only the beginning.
Seeing how the device is a networked one, (from Google, nonetheless) things like YouTube, a web browser, and network streaming will all come standard.
Bonux hopes to have their device out by the end of the year in 3 different variants with price tags ranging between $120 – $130. The company has told Engadget that these different variants can include anything from WiFi to a built-in TV tuner but we’re going to have to wait until more work is completed to find out for sure.
For those of you anxiously awaiting Google TV, Bonux’s Android powered set-top box may be just what you need to hold you over.
However, this doesn’t mean that we won’t be seeing any set-top boxes running Google’s firmware because, as you already know, Google has a few other operating systems up their sleeve, most importantly the ever so popular Android mobile operating system.
While we’ve seen it running on everything from smartphones to netbooks, we haven’t seen many set-top box manufacturers giving Android any love, until now, that is. One company by the name of Bonux has recently come forth to show off their own Android powered set-top box.
This device, obviously running Android, will interface with your television to give you all of the features you would normally expect out of a traditional set-top box, and more. Sure, you’ll be able to do things like playback media in any file format you can come up with and play it on your HDTV thanks to a built-in HDMI port, but that’s only the beginning.
Seeing how the device is a networked one, (from Google, nonetheless) things like YouTube, a web browser, and network streaming will all come standard.
Bonux hopes to have their device out by the end of the year in 3 different variants with price tags ranging between $120 – $130. The company has told Engadget that these different variants can include anything from WiFi to a built-in TV tuner but we’re going to have to wait until more work is completed to find out for sure.
For those of you anxiously awaiting Google TV, Bonux’s Android powered set-top box may be just what you need to hold you over.
