Ce4100MediaProcessor
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Freebox v6 Revolution set-top box brings calling, TV and gaming together
Pay-TV operators have been tossing out "quadruple play" bundles for the better part of three years now, but we dare say that none of 'em have come close to nailing it like this. France's own Free, a well-known ISP in the nation, has just introduced the Freebox v6 Revolution, a newfangled set-top box designed by Philippe Starck and engineered to handle just about all of your home entertainment needs. It's stuffed with 250GB of hard drive space, an internal 802.11n WiFi module, Blu-ray drive, inbuilt web browser and Intel's Atom CE4100 media processor. It also ships with a motion-sensing remote, and in short, it's designed to provide live / streaming television options, internet (fiber or DSL is supported), gaming (via a streaming service similar to OnLive) and at-home calling to boot. Free's also planning to dabble in mobile telephony starting in 2012, hence the plans for a quadruple play offering in the not-too-distant future. We're told that a joystick (presumably for getting your game on) is thrown in, as are a pair of powerline adapters in order to easily network it through your abode's power network. The Revolution is up for pre-order now, and depending on how long you've had your current Free STB, it could cost as little as €59.99 or as much as €119.99. The "basic" Freebox service will run €29.99, and once Free goes mobile in 2012, you can add a mobile line for another €29.99. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Acer shows off Windows Media Center Embedded at IDF (video)
Among the various demos at IDF today, Acer showed off its Revo 2 sporting a special treat -- Windows Media Center Embedded. A quick perusal of the menus (video is embedded after the break) showed off the same live TV / internet streaming video integration we've come to expect from Media Center, although obviously running on a simpler dedicated box. Acer's aiming for availability in the first half of 2011, we'll see if this setup can do any damage in the set-top box / media streamer wars.%Gallery-102060%
Ask Engadget HD: What do you think Google TV's 'Dragonpoint' will be?
No home theater how-to this time, instead we'll pose a different question. Thanks to mainstream media "leaks" there's little doubt Google will have something TV related to show off at its I/O 2010 conference tomorrow, but what are you expecting / hoping to see? Let us know what an Intel Atom powered set-top box or smart HDTV running Android might (or at least, should) offer above and beyond your current set-top box, HTPC or other solution. We've got low expectations -- we're pretty sure there will be yet another series of devices capable of streaming Pandora on their way to shelves by this holiday season and really, as long as we can tune into our all-Jan Hammer, all the time customized station that is just fine. Bonus question: Do you think Sony will actually be (the only one) jumping on the platform from the start?
Intel announces Atom CE4100 for insanely powerful cable boxes and Blu-ray players
Intel's CE3100 media chip has been behind some of the cooler demos they've done here at IDF, and it's just gotten a big brother, the Atom CE4100. As you'd expect, the big change is the replacement of the CE3100's Pentium M core with an Atom core, but this thing is actually kind of a monster -- it can decode two 1080p video streams with various high-end audio codecs, it adds MPEG-4 support and 3D graphics capability, and it can even capture uncompressed 1080p video. Of course, it's up to manufacturers and cable companies to actually put all this power to use, but Intel's promised us some hardware demos from partners -- stay tuned.
