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Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by hyperpallium on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @01:53AM (#10586375)
More specs at anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/9797/asus-launches-the-chromeb...

Its Mali T764 GPU seems more powerful than an xbox360: the T760 has 326 GFLOPS; xbox360 xenos GPU has about 240 GFLOPS. Not sure what difference the 4 in 764 makes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_(GPU) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenos_(graphics_chip)

These PC sticks have been around for years... I wonder if the killer app will be 4K streaming? 4K TV's look great, but no TV programming available; no media (4K blu-rays are not out yet); downloading 40GB takes too long; whereas streaming is popular.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by jra101 on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @02:20AM (#10586447)
326 GFLOPS is with 16 GPU cores. Most likely it has 4 GPU cores which would be ~82 GFLOPS @ 600 MHz.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by Rubu on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @04:46AM (#10586830)
Yeah, I think so too. There's a list [0] over here with common mobile GPU specs which states the same (actually denotes T764 as an alternate name for T760 MP4). Not sure what his/her source is though so take it with a grain of salt.

[0] http://kyokojap.myweb.hinet.net/gpu_gflops/

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by atmosx on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @02:46AM (#10586512)
There is Intel's Compute Stick too[1] but I haven't try it yet.

[1] http://www.intel.com/buy/us/en/product/desktop/intel-boxstck...

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by make3 on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @03:23AM (#10586612)
If it's x86/x86_64, it has a major advantage imho
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by creshal on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @05:08AM (#10586900)
Why wouldn't it be? It's certainly not Itanium-based…
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by trarman on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @08:51AM (#10587633)
It is, but it's also only got intel graphics. You won't be doing any 4k work on it. I have one and it's great for office work, but good luck getting a game to run even 1080p.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by aagha on Thursday November 19, 2015 @02:11AM (#10593223)
How do you use it? What's the advantage of having it?
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by mbreese on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @09:36AM (#10587869)
Quad core Atom
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by caractacus on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @04:30AM (#10586784)
They're already hugely popular in China where a lot of the use is streaming tv and movies, via both legal and illegal means (the boundaries blur a lot over there anyway). I bought an Android-based stick from Alibaba a few years ago that plugged into HDMI and worked fantastically. Computing power and abilities have come on tremendously since so I can imagine how well this would work for high quality video.

The portability of computing continues. Take anywhere, do anything.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by rplnt on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @04:38AM (#10586812)
Yet TVs still ship with crappy and slow interfaces for some reason.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by jon-wood on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @05:41AM (#10586984)
I'm still hoping the smart TV thing will turn out to be a brief fad, and we can all get back to just buying a dumb screen that other things can be plugged into.

The software on TVs I've experienced is universally awful, my parent's one is particularly bad - you can go and make a cup of coffee in the time it takes for the Netflix app to start. When I heard that I bought them a FireTV stick and haven't looked back.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by _lce0 on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @06:24AM (#10587089)
I hope the same.

TV, as pretty much every device, should be as dumb as cables .. must be reliable and work with pretty much anything that it's plugged to, no matter what that is

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by skrowl on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @09:10AM (#10587726)
Stupid licensing will prevent this, I'm afraid.

I have a nVidia Shield TV plugged in to my 4K Smart TV that I do almost everything on, but I still have to use the smart TV app for Amazon Instant since Amazon stubbornly refuses to release it for stock Android.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by digi_owl on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @11:06AM (#10588452)
In an upturn, everyone is collaborative. In a downturn, everyone builds silos...
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by srtjstjsj on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @12:53PM (#10589416)
You could by a little case to hold your Shield, Chromecast, Alexaplug, Applecore, etc, that connect to your TV.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by DanBC on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @05:53AM (#10587002)
I'm surprised there isn't a Rockbox for TVs yet.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by Nursie on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @06:01AM (#10587022)
There are some projects making baby-steps but I'm not sure how far they got.

For Samsung TVs the SamyGO project can do some stuff - http://www.samygo.tv/ - but it's more about hacking the existing firmware than making an open replacement.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by davito on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @06:03AM (#10587024)
You hope? Why do you expect this to be a fad in the very end.

Oh I also think TV's should all be about we glamouring for the resolution. Seems 4K is here to win.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by dzhiurgis on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @05:32AM (#10586955)
I'd rather see less features, but more polished and faster interfaces. You'll be plugging your devices anyway.

It's like car stereos - just let me plug AUX cable and we are square for next 10 years.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by joakleaf on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @06:59AM (#10587186)
The flatscreen producers would probably prefer you came back every 2 years to buy a new TV with updates to their OS, instead of just every 10 years.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by kedean on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @11:21AM (#10588616)
Sure, but unless they stop supporting external hardware, nobody is going to. It's kind of like embedded GPS in cars; it's cool at first, but nobody actually pays Garmin and Tomtom the ridiculous fee for map updates, they just use the slightly crappier old ones.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by freshyill on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @05:28AM (#10586949)
They're getting better, but still a mixed bag. The menu interface on my new Vizio is perfectly fine, but the Netflix app is actually nicer than Apple TV. The Amazon app, however, is a UX nightmare, that looks like some kind of very old Android UI and it doesn't even work with the TV's keyboard remote.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by scott_karana on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @02:18PM (#10590018)
> downloading 40GB takes too long; whereas streaming is popular

Um, what? If you can stream 4K media in real time, by definition you are able to download the file in at least the media's run time.

That is: you're only spending ≤30 minutes to download a 4K TV show episode if you can also stream it.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by yefim on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @11:52PM (#10592824)
Pretty sure that's what he or she meant by "too long." Not many people want to wait 30 minutes to watch something for 30 minutes.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by scott_karana on Friday November 20, 2015 @01:43PM (#10602968)
For anyone currently downloading non-4K media, with pipes fast enough to stream live 4K, it's likely a non-issue.

For people not currently downloading media, the discussion is irrelevant:

> downloading 40GB takes too long; whereas streaming is popular.

Streaming the media would take (at best) just as long as downloading it.

Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by zurn on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @02:34AM (#10586488)
The stick only has half the memory bandwidth of the Xbox 360 though.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by msh on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @02:04AM (#10586401)
Dont all 4K TV's have a 4K capable netflix app build in?
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by baddox on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @02:45AM (#10586508)
For the big brand TVs, yes. Most seem to have some set of Amazon and YouTube 4K support as well. My new TV is missing YouTube 4K support, because apparently they use a different codec than Netflix and Amazon.
Re:Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Des... by oflordal on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @02:04AM (#10586402)
>Not sure what difference the 4 in 764 It says it is a 4 core device.