iGugu: What Happens When Internet TV Technology Isn’t Ready for Prime Time

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas last week, several companies showed off their set-top box wares: Boxee, 例如, showcased its ability to play content on the iPad via the Boxee app.

iGugu, 一个米拉玛, 总部位于加州的公司, 展示了其互联网无线产品, which it claims costs less than any of the major competitors in the marketplace. Yet a simple set of fact checks on their website and marketing slick shows a number of inconsistencies.

The company's premise is one that may have merit: A hockey puck-sized wireless receiver dongle attaches to a computer via USB 2.0, allowing the laptop to be controlled by the company's wireless RF remote and accompanying Windows software.

The current implementation of the wireless remote, 然而, leaves much to be desired:The buttons aren't programmed to work consistently, so clicking on the "enter" button only works in some instances, and a user must look through tiny Chiclet-style keys to find the right ones for simple tasks (pressing "H" from within the tiny QWERTY keyboard, 例如, 返回主界面, or pressing "enter" sometimes but "esc" other times).

也缺乏一致的规范, with one of the company's web pages claiming that the frequency used is 5.8 Ghz, then saying later on the same page that it is 2.4 Ghz. This is just one example, but an important one, as 802.11b也用2.4 Ghz spectrum and the RF remote could generate potential interference.

最大的脱节, 然而, comes from the Internet TV Comparison Chart that the company provided at CES. The chart lists iGugu as the low price leader at $99, 唯一的竞争对手是苹果电视, 同样售价99美元.

Roku设备的售价为129美元, which is a price that was applicable in mid-2010 but only for the highest-priced device: Roku's lowest-end box sells for $59 and the highest-end one at $99.

除了价格脱节之外, 这可能会被忽视, iGugu也需要一台个人电脑或笔记本电脑来运行, meaning that a user must choose to tie up a computer to view content on their big-screen television, 而不是像苹果TV这样的机顶盒, Roku, 或Boxee.

I asked a representative in the booth about this discrepancy, and the response was that the majority of people would have an extra machine sitting around to use.

The company also lists storage capacity as a competitive advantage, claiming that up to 6TB of 信息 can be stored, versus the inability of any of the other products it lists as competition, 包括谷歌电视罗技评论.

While the lack of storage in set-top boxes is certainly an issue that we've pointed out in previous 文章, iGugu的营销方式是不诚实的, as I'm not familiar with a laptop that can store 6 TB.

事实上, 这只是最近的, high-end laptops that even have a 1 TB drive on board, 再次回避价格问题, 因为大多数机器的价格都超过600美元. 如果你要达到那个水平, buying a Mac Mini with an integrated Front Row software and a five-button remote seems much more appropriate for TV viewing than having to deal with a 50+ button remote.

Since that level of key density on the Sony Google TV remote has met with some resistance, it would seem like a good idea to provide the ability to use a full-size keyboard: not an ideal solution in itself, 就像我们在罗技剧团看到的那样, but still a better option than having to deal with a tiny keyboard.

考虑到iGugu使用的特殊射频频率, 然而, 无法使用独立的键盘, 因为该公司还没有提供.

最后, what iGugu InterneTV is doing is nothing more than a Media Center PC with a custom remote control. 这是一个有效的方法, 一个是微软, 苹果, 和惠普都在过去几年里发起了攻击, and there's room for market innovation in the human interface department.

iGugu, 以目前的形式, 然而, 不是一个能让大多数顾客满意的答案吗, unless they have an extra computer lying around that they don't mind tying up for television viewing, and if they're fully aware that the comparisons the company is making don't ring true to the current landscape of internet TV enabled set-top boxes.