The device, currently without a name, was demonstrated behind closed curtains at a suite in the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. Cisco did not demo or talk about the device on the show floor at the Consumer Electronics Show during the week.Cisco's device will ship later this year and will have more tricks than just playing movies off a computer or a laptop wirelessly. It's possible that it will play DVDs too and maybe even have Blu-ray or HD DVD playback.
Cisco demonstrated that its device was able to serve and sync to content much in the same manner as Apple TV. Pictures, movies, music and other information were shown to be either streaming to the Cisco device or already stored on the device. Cisco representatives did mention that its set-top box will be able to pull content from Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones. No details were actually revealed about the device's technical specifications such as on board local storage capabilities. It was evident though that the device would be released as a Linksys branded product when it ships.
Cisco to compete with Apple TV
Posted on Friday, January 12 2007 @ 19:25 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck