This year has been a big year for Web TV boxes. Also known as “Media Streamers”, or “IPTV Boxes”, or “Internet Set-top Boxes”, or… well, the market hasn’t stabilized enough to even come up with a good category name. If you go buy a DVD player, you pretty much know what you’re going to get. But if you’re looking for something that plugs into your TV so you can watch “The Internet”, then things are a little more confusing. So in an effort to make things even more confusing, we present a horribly overstretched metaphor. A Web TV Box is like a pizza. If you can understand ordering a pizza, then you can understand this too. Stick with us here.
Google TV is here. Everyone’s talking about it. But our first reaction is, “where’s the mouse?” Well, actually, “where’s the pointer?”
Google requires that all Google TV devices include a keyboard, arrow keys and a mouse controller. While the Logitech controller is big, the Sony one is small. The Logitech one looks like a PC keyboard and the Sony version looks like a game controller. Personal preferences vary between the two devices because some people like the smaller controller on their couch while others like the easier to understand full keyboard.
Our feeling is that no one should have to choose between them when an in-air mouse can do it all. It is possible to run products like Google TV using a stable and precise controller like the Loop pointer.
The best way to use Kylo is to relax on your couch with a Hillcrest Loop pointer in your hand. But there are still a few people who haven’t bought a Loop (now on sale for $69). Does this mean they can’t use Kylo at all? By no means.
We’ve released version 0.8 of the Kylo Browser. There’s a whole bundle of small improvements and a couple of major ones. Over the next few days, we’ll use this blog to highlight some of the changes, and describe some ways of using Kylo that you might not have stumbled across already.
Today we release the first edition of the Kylo Klicks, the ranking by Kylo users of the top sites on the web for TV viewing. This is significant because Kylo users are different than average web surfers – they have their computers connected to their TVs. This gives us insights into new patterns of popularity as the web and TVs merge.
Hillcrest Labs consumer products are bridging the gap between online and television entertainment. Thanks to innovations such as our Kylo Web browser for TV and Loop pointer, an in-air mouse for TV, consumers can now access, organize and enjoy online content through their HDTVs. Hillcrest Labs has received numerous awards and recognitions including the two CES Innovations Awards, PC World’s 100 Best Products and Greatest Tech Designs, Popular Mechanics' Editors Choice, and many others.
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