Posts by xoxoxoioioio

Android TV Set Tops

Dell is a little late to the party. I have been using one of these devices for quite some time I have the Minix Neo G4 it is about half the size of an Android Phone it has an HDMI video out port a USB power in port and a USB data out port as well as a mini SD port.

I originally bought it to experiment with, thinking that an Android desktop would make exploring all of the Android apps much easier than trying to do so on a phone. I used the lone USB data out to go to an independently powered 7 port USB hub I have a Logitcech USB wireless keyboard and a Logitech USB (wired) mouse that I use with it.

Don't throw away your PCs, Linux Desktops or MACs just yet. These things are severely limited in what they can do with Internet content. Flash content is non existent (No Flash for Android) can't watch Netflix movies (one of the reasons I wanted to experiment with it in the first place was to stream Netflix movies on to an HDMI TV via the Android TV Set top unit. (Not happening)

I use an Office Suite called Kingsoft Office and I access a Samsung Wireless Printer SCX3405W (must be set up from a windows computer on the LAN) via my wireless router using the SAMSUNG Mobile Print App which works quite well. (I also use this to print from my Android phone)

To use this device as a desktop you have to go into your browser setting and set the Browser to act as a Desktop not as a phone.

All in all it is a simple (relatively) cost effective Desktop if all you need is basic office suite, email and limited browser experience. If you want rich multimedia Internet content these devices are not the way to go.

But all things considered they are much better than the desktop experience afforded by Windows 3.1 or even Windows 95. They fall well short of Windows 98. ME, XP, NT, 7,8,9, most current Linux offerings and MACs.

The best thing I can say about these devices is that if you know someone that just wants a simple email and browser system, with light office apps (word/excel) but doesn't need rich Internet content and doesn't want to be bothered with maintaining anti virus, Adware and Malware programs, these things may be just what you are looking for. One touch factory reset (pin hole) reconfigures the software to the factory configuration in less than a minute. This task often takes ah hour or more on PCs.

And a real plus is you don't really need to get ahold of one to get a feel for the experience, with the exception of an HDMI TV for a screen a USB or Blue Tooth Mouse/Keboard set up, the GUI is identical to what the same software version on a cell phone looks/acts like.

One thing I haven't checked out is using a web cam, I suppose I should give it a try so I can tell others how it works or not, but I just don't have any use for video chat, web cams etc... So sorry no info on Webcams for it.