With the newly announced TV connect from Archos, you can turn your existing HDTV into a smart TV. The TV connect runs Android 4.1 (“Jelly Bean”), and has access to all the apps in the Google Play store. When you turn your TV into a smart TV with the TV connect, you’ll be able to surf, send/receive emails, and stream online video. After you map the buttons on the included TV controller, you’ll be able to play any of the thousands of Android games available. The controller also serves as a multi-touch controller for your TV, allowing you to control your TV with touches, taps, and swipes – just as you would control an Android tablet. Using Android apps, you can make and receive HD video calls (using the built-in camera and microphone) or access books, music, magazines and movies. You can even stream your own media content over your home network either through WiFi or Ethernet.
The TV connect has a 1.5 GHz Smart Multi Core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage, which can be expanded via the microSD slot. It’s compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, 8, Vista, XP, or higher and with Windows Media Player 11. It will be available staring in February 2013 for $129.99.
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I see that this device is “compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, 8, Vista, XP, or higher and with Windows Media Player 11.”
I am predominantly a Mac computer user.
What will I be lacking with this emphasis on Windows-only OS?
@Sandee Cohen Looking at the specs on the manufacturer site for this, it looks like it is a standalone Android device that hooks up to your TV, so what kind of computer you have shouldn’t really matter at all, any more than it matters to an Android tablet or phone.
Perhaps what they are referring to with the Windows compatibility statement is their “Archos Media Center” app which streams your media from a PC… it probably has support for Windows Media Player sharing, or something like that. But the specs also say it does SMB and DLNA, which means that if you do want to share media from your Mac, you will be able to do it if you don’t mind a little bit of setup.
i think that smart tv is another marketing bubble. who wants to use such remote to type anything and then to see ugly rendered pages?
Does it support Flash? Can you stream video from Acorntv and Amazon Prime Instant Video? (For example, I cannot stream videos from those two services on my Google Nexus 7 tablet because the native browser doesn’t support Flash. I have found a work around but it is pain to have to struggle with every new device to figure out how to stream videos from these sites.)