Hello from Team iConsole.tv
Last week, I had the honor of launching what a few people have been working for quite awhile on, iConsole.tv.
If you aren’t familiar with this, it’s been an effort of mine over the past few years to reinvent the gaming console, and give a new path forward for personal computing on the desktop. As you may know, both gaming consoles and desktop computers are not exactly the hottest things out there today. I believe, for the most part, it’s because they have ignored the advances that mobile computing has emerged.
You may recall from 2009 to 2011, I was working on something similar. During that time, we built an awesome gaming platform and introduced it to developers on MeeGo. Android at the time wasn’t mature enough to do what we wanted. Microsoft cut a billion dollar check to Nokia, and the rest is history. MeeGo died a mere ninety days after we introduced our set-top box platform to developers… and no, we got zero heads up from Intel that they were pulling the plug.
Moving forward, my small team took another good look at Android. With Android 4.0, we saw the start of something that could really take on console-quality gaming, but it wasn’t there yet. In some ways, it’s still in the home stretch. That’s where we started building iConsole.tv.
While we can’t share just yet what the final box will have in terms of specifications, or the final price, we are shipping dev kits this month to developers. It’s a huge accomplishment, and I want to take a moment to thank everyone that has helped along the way. If you haven’t seen iConsole.tv yet, go check it out! Engadget has already declared our dev kit the most powerful Android they’ve ever seen, and we’re continuing to triage a lot of attention. We’ll have a second round of announcements in just a week or two.
Why is this on PhoneNews.com? No, it’s not a shameless plug. I created PhoneNews.com because I wanted to help fight the walled gardens, and keep consumers informed on how the tech sector could be better with mobile technology. At this point in time, I think leading the team at iConsole.tv is how I can best do that.
PhoneNews.com
One of the most painful choices on building iConsole.tv was resource allocation – I couldn’t say why PhoneNews.com was in the proverbial crudster, but engineering iConsole.tv took every ounce of blood, sweat, tears, and yes, cash that was available.
There is an action plan for moving PhoneNews.com forward. Part of it requires us bringing onboard talented writers and editors. We’ve already identified a few people for that task, but we want more.
Honestly, I hope I’m not back to PhoneNews.com, because I’m determined to make iConsole.tv work – it’s the most exciting (albeit, draining) thing I’ve ever done. But it means restructuring PhoneNews.com to spin off into an operation on its own.
Here’s what I’d like you to do. If you know people who understand wireless, really have a passion for it, and have superb writing skills, pass them this link. We realize not everyone can write for PhoneNews.com, but we’re really hopeful that you know someone that can. It’ll help us move PhoneNews.com forward, and help me not have to worry about it.
And, thanks to everyone for tuning in over the years. I’m sure PhoneNews.com is going to keep running strong for years to come. June 30 will mark my tenth year in the blogosphere, but I’m happy to be hanging up my hat a few days before that.
iConsole.tv seems quite exciting, can’t wait to see one in action.
Seems interesting but honestly didn’t get me very excited. I honestly don’t understand why I would want Android gaming on my TV – I have an HTPC, a 360, and a Wii. Maybe I’m not the target market, but I’m most interested in the XBOX One being able to support HTPC duties. If the iConsole supports that, and I see solid reasons for purchasing it instead of the next XBOX, then you have my attention.
The part that interested me is the pricing – I think games are totally overpriced, so I pretty much only buy used.
According to the site over there, they say they’ll be supporting CableCARD and ATSC… but may need accessories. Xbox One looks like it uses HDMI passthrough. Xbox One seems to support more video (satellite), but iConsole.tv sounds like it will be able to do DVR and probably is more integrated.
Interesting choices, and both seem to be pushing streaming as the future.
I know one thing, I’ll definitely chose iConsole.tv if I can run XBMC from Android and store all my media on it, access it anywhere with DLNA, and use it as an HD DVR… on top of good gaming.
Sam – excellent points. If it can replace my HTPC and gives an XBMC interface, now we’re talking. I still use my classic xbox for XBMC, that’s how much I love it.
XBMC will be on iConsole.tv – we love XBMC and we’ve been knee deep inside their code for years. Every XBMC feature should be available both on iConsole.tv, and that includes XBMC’s DVR apparatus.
However, I do want to note that XBMC is going to be optional. We expect to have it on the iConsole Store at-launch.
As to sharing, DLNA is going to be available day one, and we’ll offer extensions that make that remote-friendly when on the go.
Our goal all along has been to store everything in your digital life on iConsole.tv, and we’ll have some pretty cool features for making that migration happen easily.