TVs with apps are nice and all, but what if you bought your HDTV before so-called smart TVs hit the market? Chumby’s latest venture, called NeTV, looks to bring web functionality to any TV, game console, DVR, or media center PC.
The device can overlay a Twitter or Facebook stream, weather information, sports scores, SMS or email messages, or a Web browser over just about any HD stream. You can control it all from an Android phone–iOS support is in the works.
Andrew “bunnie” Huang, Vice President of Hardware Engineering and Founder of Chumby, showed off its capabilities by uploading a picture to Twitter and having it display on the screen seconds later. Huang also typed in Web address on his phone so that the page came up on the TV; scrolling on his phone scrolled the page on the TV as well.
The unit itself is running a Linux OS on an 800MHz Marvel processor. The device connects via Wi-Fi and supports 480p, 720p, and 1080p resolution video. Developers will be able to get their hands on NeTV later this month, but if you are salivating about writing your own apps for it, Chumby has the specs and software online for your reading enjoyment.
Source: pcadvisor