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Plair 2 HDMI wireless streaming dongle runs Android, costs $49
Plair beat Google to the punch with its wireless streaming HDMI dongle that was announced at last year's CES, but had the wind sucked from it sails with the arrival of Chromecast. So, the company went back to the lab and today, it's ready to reveal Plair 2, a dongle that looks the same as the original, but comes running a customized version of Android. That means instead of simply being a conduit for streaming video from the cloud, it runs most any app found on Google Play on your TV. It works via an Android companion app (for devices running version 4.3 or iOS 5 and up) that lets you connect the dongle to your home WiFi network and acts as a remote control for the device after setup's complete. Oh, and with the added functionality comes a sizable drop in price -- while the original Plair cost $99, this new version costs just $49.
PLAiR streams web video to TV with your devices for 99 bucks
If you like TV, and you like the Internet, you've got some really good options for getting those two crazy kids to play nicely together. PLAiR, newly arrived on the market, adds a platform-independent and compact device to the menu of connected television solutions that stream web video to your living room. To be clear, there's not a shortage of players here. Even without a Smart TV in your house, you can use an HDMI cable to connect your Mac or iPad directly to your big-screen HDTV (although that's a bit of a mobility buzzkill). It's easier to put something in the middle to handle that conversation, at least until Tim Cook and Jony Ive make all our big-screen dreams come true. For most Apple-centric households, the natural middleman is the $99 Apple TV. Apple's "experiment" delivers 1080p content direct from iTunes, subscription goodies from Netflix or Hulu, sports from the NBA, MLB and NHL, free video from Vimeo and YouTube, and of course your photos, music and videos from household Macs. The relatively recent debut of AirPlay mirroring for Macs in OS X 10.8 means that your computer can screen-mirror to an Apple TV just as smoothly as your iPhone or iPad can. If you're inclined toward non-Apple boxes with more subscription and channel support, the Roku or Boxee hardware might be more up your alley. One thing the Apple TV can't do easily -- at least not without the intervention of a mirrored AirPlay device or a jailbreak -- is stream web videos from sources outside the approved/supported list. Even if you do use a mirrored device, it's tied up for the duration of the stream; how are you supposed to chat with your vintage movie club while you're watching? And what if you have friends with non-Apple gear who'd like to stream some videos your way? There ought to be another path to video Nirvana, and the folks behind the PLAiR HDMI dongle think they have it figured out. The new $99 wireless video-streaming gadget is arriving in some customers' hands today. I saw it demonstrated at the Engadget Expand conference, and while the company's description of it as "AirPlay for everybody" may be a bit off-target with no true mirroring support, it's still quite impressive. The PLAiR device -- one assumes that the lowercase "i" is not coincidental -- is a smart adapter that connects to three things: power, your TV's HDMI port, and your home WiFi network. Once it's set up, PLAiR links to a Chrome plugin on your Mac or PC to let you hand off streaming video to it with a couple of clicks. iOS and Android devices can play too; both platforms have streamer apps available. In the case of the desktop controls for PLAiR, you simply browse to the website for the video you want to see (scores of broadcast and Web video networks play nicely with the PLAiR, although big kahunas Hulu and Netflix sadly do not). A small overlay icon reminds you that you can stream to your TV; click it and the video hops over to the wider arena. Behind the scenes, the PLAiR unit is actually running its own streaming client via Flash or HTML5 and handling the video independently; your laptop is no longer needed, and in fact you can close the window and do something else -- even sleep it or shut it down. That's not the case if you choose to stream videos or photos stored on your computer or iOS device, of course. In that situation, you can create a playlist of clips that you want to see, and PLAiR will play them all in order, but your device needs to stay online and awake to push the video to PLAiR. iPhone and iPad users can jump into the fun via the free PLAiR iOS app. With the app, the same channels and sources should be accessible, and you can kick off a stream in similar fashion. Local content will play as well, although anything purchased from the iTunes Store will not play (the PLAiR doesn't know how to deal with Apple's FairPlay encryption for video). You also cannot mirror iOS apps to the PLAiR, but at least one common-use case for that is handled by a second companion app aimed at business users: the $0.99 OmniPresent will load and display PowerPoint or PDF decks via your PLAiR stick onto a projector or TV. If your video needs don't depend heavily on iTunes-purchased content or the premium offerings of Hulu or Netflix, you might get your money's worth out of the PLAiR. It's certainly a more graceful option for free-to-stream network content than rigging up an HDMI cable across the living room. Customers who pre-ordered the PLAiR hardware are getting theirs this week, but current orders are out of stock for the moment; if you order today you might see your unit by June. Here's a brief video intro to PLAiR. I'm afraid I will have to deduct points for continuity, as the Acer laptop pictured in the video appears to be running the OS X version of Chrome. ' And here's a video preview of PLAiR in action from Engadget Expand:
Plair hands-on redux: a clever wireless video streaming HDMI dongle (video)
We didn't really get to see the Plair in action when we last saw it at CES, but luckily, it's here with us at Expand 2013! This time round we have a better understanding of what makes this $99, micro-USB-powered HDMI dongle so special: not only can you beam native video clips from your mobile device (through an iOS or Android app) or your desktop Chrome browser's extension to it, but the Plair can also grab the video source from your current page in Chrome and then stream the clip independently -- as in once the video's started, you can shut your computer down and still keep the stream going on your TV! You can actually see this demonstrated in our video after the break, where we streamed an episode from NBC's Saturday Night Live website through a WiFi network (but the Plair can also create its own hotspot for direct WiFi connection, which is handy for avoiding slow hotel networks). In our opinion, the Plair is a neat little gadget for its price, but you'll have to wait until early April for the next batch coming off the production line. Interested buyers will be able to order a Plair on its website around then. Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here! %Gallery-183027%
Plair streams video to HDMI through WiFi, arrives this month for $99 (eyes-on)
A simple idea thoroughly executed is sometimes best, and that's what Plair is aiming for with its new, self-titled streaming video adapter. The golf wedge-shaped device grafts on to an HDMI port and receives video over WiFi from custom apps for Android, iOS, OS X and Windows. While we've certainly seen wireless device-to-TV solutions before, it's Plair's sheer diversity of sources that makes the difference: along with local content, it includes the near-obligatory internet portals like YouTube and CollegeHumor, as well as access to a deluge of video from traditional TV sources. We saw NBC intenret clips piped to a TV in remarkably good (though not broadcast) quality. The iOS app we were shown looked reasonably intuitive, to boot. Black, magenta and teal versions of the adapters should ship in late January for $99; given the diversity of material on tap, that just might be a fair price. Michael Gorman contributed to this report.
