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Always Innovating HDMI Dongle Allows You To Android Your Old School Flatscreen TV, Streaming Netflix Movies, Play Video Games, And More

Jan 7, 12 10:25 PM

Check out this cool USB dongle which Always Innovating claims it will bring Android to your old school flatscreen TV.  Of course, your flatscreen TV needs to have HDMI port to be able to use this dongle, but I cannot imagine that there is a flatscreen TV without an HDMI port.  The dongle uses USB cable to power itself.  It’s unclear though will the USB connection would allow this dongle to transfer data to computer/laptop or not.  Usually, USB cable is capable of such thing, but I do not want to claim that I know since I don’t have this dongle in my vicinity to test it out.

Here is one drawback about this dongle is that some flatscreen TVs will not carry USP ports, but usually this means these flatscreen TVs are old school.  Still, the whole selling point of this dongle is to allow users to stream movies and video games through Android OS on many old school flatscreen TVs that are capable of projecting contents at 1080p.  Nonetheless, I think this drawback can be fixed quickly if you are willing to spend around $20 bucks or a little more or less, depending on how skillfully you are with shopping around for bargains on USB chargers and extenders.  Quick look on Amazon and I see that there is a Belkin Mini Surge Protector Dual USB Charger goes for $12.  Adding USB extender cable for some bucks, and then I guess you can really extend the USB cable of this dongle to plug to a wall outlet for powering the dongle this way.

The specifications for Alaways Innovating HDMI dongle are ARM Cortex-A9, 256 MB up to 1 GB of RAM, built-in Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, NFC module, and an accelerometer.  If you watch the videos right after the break, you will see that this USB dongle can stream movies from Netflix, Hulu, and so on.  Since Android is a complete operating system for mobile, expect that you can surf the Internet on your old school flatscreen TV with this USB dongle.

Engadget suggests this Always Innovating HDMI dongle goes for $79.  Expect this little gem to make an appearance at CES 2012.  CES 2012 will go live in couple days more.  In my opinion, this USB HDMI dongle from Always Innovating is one awesome product.  This gem might lead the way for the future where everyone just needs to carry their own personal dongle so they can bring their TV everywhere.  Oh, let not forget this little gem right now can already allow you to play video games anywhere.  Well sort of, as long that anywhere means that somewhere has a stationary flatscreen TVs or computer monitors that would accept HDMI connection.

I can see a future where people would not need XBOX 360 console (Live) or even PS3 console (Playstation Network) to enjoy video games and movies.  In fact, I think mightier dongles with more capabilities might even allow users to be able to install different operating systems onto them;  users might use such dongles as mini-computers, set top boxes, and video game consoles — all on the go.  Talking about mobility for electronic/digital forms of entertainment on another whole level right?  Of course, no such thing as a mightier dongle exists yet, but at least now we have the so called Always Innovating HDMI dongle.

Will you buy Always Innovating HDMI dongle when it comes out?  I think I might want one, but as Engadget suggests, they don’t really know when this dongle will be available for customers to buy.  Let hope Always Innovating releases their HDMI dongle to the market very soon.  For your entertainment, check out the videos of Always Innovating HDMI dongle right after the break.

Source:  http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/07/always-innovating-hdmi-dongle-android-tv-video/

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HP webOS Kicks The Hornet’s Nest, Releasing webOS As Open Source Software

Dec 9, 11 4:10 PM
English: HP TouchPad with webOS on a Touchston...

Image via Wikipedia

HP announced that they will release webOS to the open source software community.  Why HP is so generous?  As how one CNBC commentator put, HP has lost somewhere around 3 billion dollars in trying to unwind the webOS platform (I would love to give him the credit, but I don’t know his name).  Anyhow, even though we might not know of webOS as intimately as how we are with iOS and Android, we might have to agree that webOS is pretty formidable mobile operating system for smartphones and tablets.  Unfortunately, HP isn’t doing so well in marketing webOS to hardware manufacturers right after they had bought Palm (the creator of webOS), and so there aren’t many mobile devices are using webOS.  HP knows that it’s losing money by just holding on to webOS.  If HP ditches webOS entirely, it might arouse angers from few users who are already the reluctant owners of few webOS devices.  Furthermore, ditching webOS entirely equates to accepting complete loss.  I think HP wants to dish out one last effort in salvaging whatever could be saved of webOS by releasing it to open source community.

I think if there are enough developers who take advantages of open source webOS, webOS might stay relevant enough and entice HP to jump back into the wagon of making devices for webOS and reap real profits.  The fear is that webOS might not generate enough tractions to build enough velocity onward, and webOS might just be another open source software.  Keep in mind though, webOS is designed and built with big ambition in mind and backed by huge amount of resources which are now dwindling down to open source; webOS isn’t something cheesy and it has huge potential going forward as long there are enough ongoing contributions in improving webOS as from this point onward.  It’s hard not to be excited if you’re a mobile developer, because there probably aren’t that many open source projects in the mobile category have the same caliber as webOS.  I predict (as bold and crazy as usual) that webOS will garner plenty of contributions in free codes and adoptions.  Perhaps, webOS can be reborn as something that even Android, Apple, and Windows Phone OS have come to fear.  They fear of giving up whatever size of the pie to webOS?

Source:  http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/12/hps-decision-
means-webos-could-end-up-more-open-than-android.ars?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=
Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+
-+Featured+Content%29

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Republic Wireless Offers $19 Unlimited Wireless Plan Per Month

Nov 8, 11 5:35 PM
A wireless icon

Image via Wikipedia

I can’t help myself for feeling giddy.  Republic Wireless has the best wireless deal in town?  I’ve never heard of Republic Wireless till today, because I’ve never read or heard anybody talks about them before.  I would have care less about Republic Wireless if they haven’t announced that they’re offering unlimited wireless plan for $19 per month.  Wait, what are the catches?

It seems that Republic Wireless relies on the probability of not everyone will hog the wireless network, therefore it would be OK for them to allow a Hybrid Calling technology where smartphones will hog WiFi network whenever WiFi is available.  This is one of the catches of Republic Wireless’s $19/month unlimited wireless plan.  This catch goes on dictating how users cannot abuse the wireless network.  Repeated abusers will be booted out of the wireless network or the service altogether.

So, how much bandwidth can one use on Republic Wireless’s wireless network?  Republic Wireless at now allows 400 minutes of talk, 600 MB of data, and 200 texts for each month.  In my opinion, WiFi does make a big different!  To tell the truth, 400 minutes of talk, 600 MB of data, and 200 texts for each month on wireless network seems to be very stingy.  It’s more of like for emergency usage.  With that being said, I don’t mind to piggyback ride my WiFi network for calling someone or surfing the web or send text messages at all.

Republic Wireless hints that they might roll out an application that will allow different types of smartphones to use their Hybrid Calling technology.  For now, it’s only possible for certain specific modified Android smartphones to tap into their Hybrid Calling technology.  It’s unclear to me what Android smartphones would that be!

Source:  http://www.pcworld.com/article/243389/republic_wireless_rolls_out_19_
unlimited_voice_data_text_service.html#tk.rss_news

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